After yesterday's post on the 2023 Pro Debut cards, I thought it would be interesting to review the set from five years ago. It seems that five years should be enough to see if the players in the 2018 set have or will make it to the big leagues.
The Cubs had pretty slim pickings in the 2018 set. After prospect cupboards was pretty thin after a couple of years of mortgaging the future in hopes of winning now.
These are the only Cubs from the set. Adbert Alzolay became the Cubs closer in 2023 and did a pretty decent job. He made his MLB debut in 2019, just a year after this set came out. He was a starter early on, but became a reliever full-time in 2022.
Oscar De La Cruz is no longer in professional baseball. His last season was in 2022, pitching in the independent Atlantic League and the Dominican Winter League. His Cubs career ended after the 2019 season, peaking at the AA level. In 2021 he pitched in the Mets system and then to independent ball in 2022.
I absolutely love posts like this.
ReplyDeletePlayers are in a team's system because somebody in the scouting department saw enough in the player that the organization took a gamble on them over someone else.
Topps is more or less doubling down in sets like Pro Debut. Topps has their picks of all of minor league baseball on who they think will make the biggest splashes in MLB.
How did the Cubs do? How did Topps do?
Adbert is definitely a success, and he was the #2 ranked Cubs prospect going into 2018.
Oscar De La Cruz looked the part back in from 2014-2017. He was the Cubs 6th best prospect heading into 2018, then was given an 80-game suspension for a steroid masking agent found in his system. He quickly lost his footing in baseball after that.
If Topps can choose anyone? Why did they take De La Cruz, who was the 6th best prospect? Did they see something there they liked and thought he was a better bet to be major leaguer than Aramis Ademan (#1), Jose Albertos (#3), Victor Caratini (#4) and Alex Lange (#5)?