The manner in which the Cubs' front office went about overhauling the franchise is no secret. There was a distinct focus on position players in the upper tiers of the Draft, leaving trades and free agency as the primary avenues for finding impact pitching.
The consequence of that approach has been a lack of homegrown arms -- a subject that is hardly lost on the leaders of the club's player development department. There has been a change in development structure behind the scenes, however, and the Cubs believe that they finally do have an intriguing group of arms beginning to develop and emerge as future Major League talent.