Baseball Prospectus' Top 10 Cubs prospects

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On the heels of a 100-loss season, the Cubs' front office is in California trying to better the team at the GM Meetings.

Some of their work has already been done, however. It'll just take a few years to see if it has paid off.

Baseball Prospectus ranked the Cubs' Top 10 prospects and six players on the list are new additions under Theo Epstein's rebuilt front office:

1. Albert Almora, OF
2. Javier Baez, SS
3. Jorge Soler, OF
4. Arodys Vizcaino, RHP
5. Dan Vogelbach, 1B
6. Brett Jackson, OF
7. Pierce Johnson, RHP
8. Duane Underwood, RHP
9. Christian Villanueva, 3B
10. Dillon Maples, RHP

Three of those guys (Almora, Johnson, Underwood) are from the 2012 MLB Draft, and two players (Vizcaino, Villanueva) were acquired at the trade deadline. Soler, who defected from Cuba, was signed in late June. Three others (Baez, Vogelbach, Maples) were drafted in 2011, leaving Jackson as the only player who was with the organization to start 2011.

This list is significantly different than Kevin Goldstein's 2011 version, which featured only Jackson, Baez and Maples among the Top 10. Vogelbach was ranked No. 12.

That's quite a turnaround for the front office. It's interesting to see Almora come in above Baez -- who has wowed scouts with his skill-set over the last year-plus -- and Soler -- the hottest international commodity this offseason behind Yoenis Cespedes and Yu Darvish -- but that speaks to how high Almora's ceiling is.

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