Yesterday, we looked at five Cubs’ minor leaguers vying for spots on the 40-man roster. This is just one of the many reasons players are sent to winter ball, the other primary reason being simply for more work. Today, we’ll look at five more Cubs players still playing, and look at their status as a prospect, and their future in Cubdom.

Moises Alou, following one of the best seasons of his career, is a virtual lock to head to free agency. One might think with so many holes in the 2005 roster, the Cubs would take Jason Dubois to fill Alou’s hole. In 2004, Dubois hit .316/.389/.630 in the Pacific Coast League, right in line with his FSL line of .321/.422/.562. The problem is that Dubois has never played more than 130 games in a season, and walked less than ever in 2004.

Dubois is currently playing in the Mexican League, probably to get more at-bats. Rumors of the Cubs’ interest in Carlos Beltran have heated up in recent weeks, increasing the likelihood that Dubois will not receive starting time with the organization. He’s either destined for the bench, as a lefty-masher, or the trade market. There should be a value for him, and the combination of Dubois and Sergio Mitre could make for an attractive package.

No Cub pitching prospect broke out this season more than Renyel Pinto. Despite respective ERAs of 3.31 and 3.22 in the Midwest League and FSL, Pinto didn’t draw a lot of hype despite less than stellar K/9 and K/BB ratios. Things change. As a 22-year-old in the Southern League, Pinto changed all that, striking out 179 in 141.2 IP, while allowing 107 hits and ten home runs. His BB/9 has gone up in each of the last three seasons, a trend that must stop if Pinto is to have a future with this organization.

Any North Side pitching prospect having a future is highly doubtful, but there is a glimmer of hope. Matt Clement is a free agent at season’s end, and Greg Maddux will likely be gone after 2006. As Alex Ciepley commented yesterday, Jim Hendry will unfortunately lean on Ryan Dempster to fill the fifth starter’s spot. I believe that Mitre is ready, and Bobby Brownlie, Ricky Nolasco and Pinto are turning the corner. Pinto had the best ERA, H/9, K/9 and HR/9 of the bunch, and right now is the frontrunner. Let’s just hope the extra innings in the Venezuelan League don’t hurt that left arm.

Before the season, the Cubs two best southpaw arms belonged to Justin Jones and Andy Sisco, a few high-talent, low-performance prospects. Jones was dealt to the Twins, and Sisco’s poor season in the FSL puts his future in doubt. Now, the Cubs top two lefties have shifted, to Pinto and Sean Marshall. As a 21-year-old in the Midwest League, Marshall dominated, with a 1.11 ERA in seven starts. Marshall allowed just 29 hits in 48.2 innings, with an awesome strikeout-walk ratio of 51-4.

According to Baseball America, a publication while amazing that I try to not use too often, Marshall shows great sink on his fastball, and has promise with three other pitches. For some reason, the Cubs aggressively moved Marshall to AA, where he struggled in six starts before hurting his left hand. Sent to the AFL to get more work, Marshall has done well in two starts, posting a 3.18 ERA in 5.2 innings. Hopefully the Cubs won’t take risks like promoting Marshall to the Southern League to start 2005, because he might just be my favorite arm in the system.

Good stuff, bad head. Leon Lee didn’t expect this when he signed Jae-Kuk Ryu out of a Korean high school, where Ryu had been one of the best starters in the nation, amateur or not. I won’t get into the bird incident of 2003, but questions of Ryu’s character have begun. It was an injury, not character issues, that limited Ryu’s innings total to 26 this season. Furthermore, all twenty of Ryu’s appearances this year came in relief, a destination where Ryu is apparently headed.

Like Marshall, JK has been sent to the AFL for more work. While Ryu’s ERA might sit at 3.68 after four games, he’s allowed ten hits in 7.1 innings. Jon Leicester, Todd Wellemeyer and Mike Wuertz all currently could encompass roles in the 2005 bullpen. After that, Jermaine Van Buren went from an Independent League signing to possibly the next Joe Borowski. Where does Ryu fit in? Well, the Korean has stuff that none of the aforementioned four can match, and now it just comes down to his head.

The last prospect we’ll touch on today will be, in all likelihood, the top ranked Cubs prospect this winter. After nearly breaking the Midwest League home run record, Brian Dopirak won both the MVP and Prospect of the Year Award in that level. His power is a lot more developed than the average 20-year-old, and his patience made huge strides this year. For Dopirak, the only skill left to perfect is more contact, as the first basemen has struck out 226 times in 229 career minor league games.

Sending low-A players to the AFL is risky, but the Cubs need to decide where Dopirak fits on the prospect scale. He’s off to a predictable slow start, hitting just .214/.241/.464 after seven games. The former second rounder will surely be sent to Daytona next year, where he’ll try to top Brandon Sing’s club record of 32 home runs. He’ll do it. Somewhere I read on the Internet the plan is to move Dopirak to right field and have him replace Sosa. Completely incorrect. Dopirak’s lack of athleticism will constrict him to first base, with a possible opening after Derrek Lee’s current contract runs out (2006).

Finally, I want to finish on concluding on yesterday’s article. I posted this in the comments, but find my work to be enough to re-post here. I went through Geovany Soto’s day-by-day box scores, and researched his 2004 month-by-month splits. They go as follows:

April: .280 (14/50)
May: .224 (15/67)
June: .242 (15/62)
July: .357 (25/70)
Aug.: .250 (18/72)
Sept.: .273 (3/11)

If anything, this only furthers the doubt in my mind that Soto will stall in prospect-land. One month, and particularly an eight-game stretch, changed Soto’s season from his career numbers. He’s just 21, and could really be the hitter he is showing, but I’m not sold yet. I am sold on his defense, as the catcher threw out 39 of 100 would-be basestealers, for a solid 39% CS percentage. John Hill mentioned in the comments yesterday that Soto appears to be a back-up catcher, and in my opinion, that would be the optimistic thought right now.

As the rules have been explained to me, the 2004 Rule 5 draft will include all college players drafted in 2002, and high school players drafted in 2001. Well, those, and all the players preceding them, not currently on the 40-man roster. By that token, here is the list I compiled of currently draft-eligible Cubs, to be commented on at another time:

Nic Jackson, Josh Arteaga, Eric Eckenstahler, Jason Szuminski, Carmen Pignatiello, Andy Sisco, Ricky Nolasco, Geovany Soto, Jon Connolly, Russ Rohlicek, Chadd Blasko, Rich Hill, Luke Hagerty, Matt Clanton, Matt Craig, Chris Walker, Adam Greenberg, Keith Butler, Jason Welie, Rocky Cherry, Jerem Spearman, Donnie Hood, Thomas Atlee, Paul O'Toole, Randy Wells.

Please drop any thoughts or corrections in the comments.