Chicago Cubs: MLB Draft open thread

The 2022 MLB Draft starts tonight from Los Angeles as part of the All-Star Week festivities. The draft starts at 6 p.m. Central time and will continue through the first two rounds (including compensation picks) this evening. After that, rounds 3 through 10 will be on Monday, starting at 1 p.m. CT and rounds 11 through 20 will conclude the draft on Tuesday, also starting at 1 p.m. CT.

Tonight’s festivities will be broadcast on both the MLB Network and ESPN. ESPN will broadcast just the first round while MLB Network will have both rounds. Tonight’s picks. as well as the rest of the draft Monday and Tuesday, will also be live-streamed on MLB.com.

The Cubs have the seventh pick in the draft this year and over the past two weeks, I’ve been writing a series of pieces on whom they might take. I feel fairly confident that the Cubs will end up with one of the eight players that I profiled. Or at least as much as anyone can be over this very unpredictable draft.

I honestly have no idea who among those players the Cubs might select tonight and I’m not sure the Cubs do either. The biggest reason for that is that the Orioles, who pick at number one, have been very tight-lipped about their plans and what they do affects everything else that comes after that.

The teams with the first seven picks in the draft are:

1. Baltimore Orioles
2. Arizona Diamondbacks
3. Texas Rangers
4. Pittsburgh Pirates
5. Washington Nationals
6. Miami Marlins
7. CHICAGO CUBS

The good news here is that there is a group of seven players, whom MLB Pipeline’s Jonathan Mayo calls “The Magnificent Seven,” who seem to be at least step ahead of all the other prospects in the draft. With the Cubs having the seventh pick, they are guaranteed to have the chance to draft one of these players. Those seven players are:

• Outfielder Druw Jones, Wesleyan HS (GA)
• Shortstop Jackson Holliday, Stillwater HS (OK)
• Outfieder Elijah Green, IMG Academy (FL)
• Second baseman Termarr Johnson, Mays HS (GA)
• Shortstop Brooks Lee, Cal Poly
• Catcher Kevin Parada, Georgia Tech
• Third baseman Cam Collier, Chipola College

Baseball America adds an eighth player to that group, LSU third baseman Jacob Berry.

These seven (or eight) players are expected to be the first players taken, although what order they go in is anyone’s guess.

Here are some things to look out for until the Cubs’ time to pick comes:

• If the Orioles take anyone other than Jones or Holliday, look out. This draft could get very chaotic very quickly and we may not know who is likely to be available for the Cubs until after the Marlins pick at number 6.
• Keep an eye on the Pirates, who have the fourth pick. The Cubs and the Pirates have be rumored to be “in” on many of the same players, in particular Johnson and Collier. If both Collier and Johnson are still on the board after the Pirates pick, that’s probably good news for the Cubs. If one is gone, that’s to be expected and the other one could still fall. If they’re both gone, the Cubs will have to move on to Plan B.
• If any team drafting before the Cubs takes a player not on the above list, that’s excellent news for the Cubs. If they take Berry, that’s probably also good news for the Cubs.
• The three four-year college players on that list are considered the safer picks who should move quickly through the system. The four high school players and junior college player Collier are considered risky, but with potentially a higher upside. No one has more risk and more upside than Green, however.
• It’s extremely unlikely that anyone will take a pitcher in the first seven picks.

This an open thread for Draft discussion.