As the Winter Meetings approach, it will be interesting to see how guarded the Cubs are with their prized prospects.
Many teams often fall in love with their prospects. So much so that the darling saplings wither on the vine over time. Former Cubs GM Jim Hendry was one of those talent managers who keep his prospects too long.
Prospects are nothing but prospects until they prove their worth at the major league market.
Prospects have value to another team if that team believes the prospect will have major league value.
If a prospect makes his team's ML roster and fails, the GM looks bad. If he does great, the GM is validated. If the prospect is just average, then it is a wash.
If a prospect does not make it to the majors quickly, it devalues the player as well. A high school prospect should be able to ramble through a system in four years. A college senior two or three years. Some teams isolated their prospects in the minors, coddle them and "wait" until they are ready. For some, they are never ready.
How well a team can balance the love of their prospects and the need to extract the most "value" from them is how well a team performs in the long run.
There will be plenty of stories naming interest in Bryant, Castro, Russell, Baez, Alcantara, CJ Edwards, Hendricks. Other teams can see the "potential" in their game. Castro actually have a five year track record, so he is no longer a mere prospect.
If the Cubs hold tight and not part with any prized prospect for a major league ready position player or starter, then that may not be a good sign. Positional log jams do not help the club's depth when you have to cool someone's jets in AAA.
