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On this page, and on my previous interweb home, I have spent plenty of time complaining about the Cubs minor leagues. I’ve bitched and moaned about their drafts and their development of players. Happily this will not be another one of those posts. It appears that Tim Wilken who was hired back in the 2005-06 offseason has steadied the Cubs minor league ship and turned this thing around. At least if you believe what ESPN’s Keith Law has to say. Now I don’t have a subscription to the ESPN Insider stuff, so I went to ACB, where Maddog gives a rundown of what is going on:

Keith Law has published his list of the top 100 prospects for 2010. His team rankings came out yesterday, and he ranked the Cubs 7th, which is a big jump from the last few years.

Yep, you heard it right. Law has ranked the Cubs minor league system 7th in all of baseball. That is a real nice upswing for the Cubs. Wilken has really brought this farm system back from being one of the worst in baseball when he inherited the system from John Stockstill. The Cubs now stand in the upper quarter of minor league systems according to Law. This is not only a credit to Tim Wilken but also their Minor League Director Oneri Fleita.

Maddog gives us more on the Cubs minor league players that cracked Law’s Top 100:

12. Starlin Castro- Law raves about Castro, calling him one of the most exciting position player prospects in the minors. His hitting is based on quick wrists, hand-eye coordination, and a keen ability to recognize breaking balls for such a young player. Lw expects more power to develop as Castro ages. K-Law also likes his range at SS, but says his best defensive attribute is his arm strength, rating 65 or 70 on the 20-80 scale.

I can’t wait to see Castro at SS for CHC.

30. Josh Vitters- Law still really believes in Vitters bat, although he doesn point out the huge walk problem. He says Vitters has great contact and plate coverage and projects him as a .300 hitter with 30 homer power but a .320 OBP. Pretty funny. Also, Law says his defense is playable at 3rd and his arm strength is good.

This ranking is higher than I expected; I wonder if Vitters is even a top 50. (just wait until you see the next prospect). The walks are a huge issue, but it’s nice to see someone express this much confidence in his power.

50. Jay Jackson- Keith Law loves Jackson. He sees JJ as a starter long term who could probably use a year in AAA, although he could appear in CHC out of the pen this year. Law says he misses plenty of bats and is very athletic. He does struggle some getting lefties out- continued development of his change-up will the the key here. He features 4 quality pitches, with Law seeing the slider as the best.

This is the most surprising ranking to me. This is very encouraging. The Cubs have some nice arms coming along with Jackson, Cashner, Carpenter, Rhee and others. Perhaps the obsession with a one year veteran pen arm is to assure a full season of development in the minors for Jackson and Cashner. Just a guess.

79. Andrew Cashner- Law calls Cashner a groundball pitcher with a big arm, but not of the extreme GB variety. He doesn’t miss as many bats as one would expect with such an arm and FB velo. Law doesn’t believe Cashner’s HR rate last year was a refelction of a skill Cashner has, and suggests he’ll have to miss more bats to stick as a starter.

This is about where Cashner ranks on other lists. The Cubs seem to want to let him try as a starter for as long as possible, which seems like the right decision. It seems that his change-up, GB rate and swings and misses will determine if he can start at the ML level, and even if he can’t the CUbs have a great pen arm on their hands.

That should give us something to look forward to Cubs fans. Castro and Jackson are not far away and Vitters and Cashner may be contributing soon too. All of this has to play very well with new owner Tom Ricketts who spoke about the importance of player development last fall when his family purchased the Cubs:

As someone who knows the sport well, you know there’s no magic. There’s no number you can spend. There’s no one player who can make all the difference in the world. The key is you have to consistently make the playoffs. Once you’re in the playoffs, anything can and will happen. If you get the hot hand in the playoffs, before you know it, you’ve got champagne all over you.

The way to get to the playoffs, and the way to keep on that World Series track, is to be consistent, and the way you’re consistent is player development. To bring in the right players and have the scouts and the coaches on the same page when they try to turn those players into contributors at the Major League level is key.

In the (Arizona) Fall League, I think there’s a good argument that we’re on the right track for player development and on the right track for creating that kind of consistency. In the end, when someone says, ‘How are you going to win the World Series?’ there aren’t two different answers. The answer is you get to the playoffs, and you get to the playoffs by having as much flexibility as you can with personnel. That comes from player development.

One more comment from the Cubs owner from that q&a last fall:

Absolutely. In all of our models that we look at from a financial perspective, we always look at increasing the player development budget every year going forward. I think it’s absolutely the key to being a consistent winner in our division, and the way to get to that World Series. Player development is critical. It starts with bringing in the right players and making sure they get the coaching they need to reach their potential. It’s nice that a team can have flexibility to add players through free agency, but it’s always your second choice.

This means Tim Wilken may not have to deal with the monetary issues he has the past few years on draft day. For more on the budget Wilken was under take a look at this piece by Matt Swain at WrigleyBound.

Enjoy your weekend.