MLB Draft 2012: Chicago Cubs to Focus on Adding Pitching Depth

Chicago Cubs general manager Jed Hoyer told Bruce Miles of the Daily Herald that his team is going to focus on adding pitching depth in the upcoming MLB draft.

While it does provide us some insight into what the Cubs are going to do, that is still a very broad statement.

What exactly does Hoyer mean by pitching depth?

The past few years have been incredibly frustrating for the Chicago Cubs. Even though they have had limited World Series success in the past, their fans are at least accustomed to doing decent during the regular season and then faltering.

Since it hasn't been happening, the Cubs should use this draft to try to grab a high-impact college arm. Even though some of the high school arms might have higher ceilings, the simple fact of the matter is that the Cubs need to grab a pitcher who will be major league ready in the short-term and help the team turn their fortunes around.

This approach is also consistent with Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer's previous approach with the Boston Red Sox. Over the past few seasons, when they drafted pitchers in the first round, they were mostly college pitchers. That is also consistent with the Moneyball theory which we all know Epstein has been a proponent of.

The Chicago Cubs have the sixth pick in the upcoming draft, and it is hard to tell who will still be on the board. We can assume that Stanford right-handed pitcher Mark Appel will probably be off the board, but Chicago could be looking at LSU hurler Kevin Gausman, Kyle Zimmer out of the University of San Francisco, or maybe even Michael Wacha from Texas A&M.

Of these three, Zimmer might actually have the most potential and it is very possible that he will be available at the sixth pick.

However, even if the Cubs go with Gausman or Wacha, you can count on an arm coming to Chicago in the first round that is most likely from the collegiate ranks.

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