With spring training and games underway, it’s hard not to look at the Cubs’ prospects and what the future may hold for these talented minor leaguers.

The three players I’m going to focus on are Matt Szczur, Robert Whitenack and Tony Zych. These three players are rated highly among the organization’s top 40 prospects. They all have a bright future ahead and really show a lot of professionalism during the season.

Szczur is an outfielder who played mostly with the Cubs’ double A affiliate the Tennessee Smokies. Szczur seems destined for Tennessee once again, but from my personal experience he seems very mature for his age and is destined for big things in the future. If we look past the rough edges and lack of baseball experience, Szczur looks like an average-to-plus defensive center fielder with all the offensive tools necessary to be a factor in the leadoff slot.

In 2011, split between two stops in double A ball, he compiled an on-base percentage of .335 and stole 24 bases. He then improved even more in the 2012 campaign by posting an OBP of .360 and stole 42 bases. Now concerns center on his lack of power. It remains to be seen if he can again adjust his game to strengthen that weakness. If Szczur keeps this up he will be in consideration for a major league call-up come September.

Whitenack was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in the eigth round of the 2009 MLB June Amateur Draft from State University of New York at Old Westbury (Old Westbury, N.Y.) and is now a pitcher within the Cubs’ minor leagues. Whitenack was soaring up the farm system in 2011 when his flight was ended early by elbow surgery. The injury was a setback to an otherwise great start to his major league career, and now that he is fully recovered Cubs fans are eager to see Whitenack pitch once again. He will begin the season at Tennessee, and barring no major setbacks has every opportunity to move up to Iowa by the end of the season.

Zych was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in the 46th round of the 2008 MLB June Amateur Draft from St. Rita High School (Chicago, Ill.), but chose to go to college instead. The Cubs then drafted him again in the fourth round of the 2011 MLB June Amateur Draft from University of Louisville (Louisville, Ky.).

Zych has the pitches and mentality to come out of the pen. The Cubs drafted him as a reliever out of college, and last season he shut down double-A hitters to the tune of 10.2 strikeouts per nine innings. Instead, look for his hard stuff and deceptive delivery to continue to rack up the strikeouts at the back of the Iowa pen. If the Cubs need a right-hander in Chicago sometime in the second half of this season, Zych should be in consideration to take that call. Most scouts have him pegged as a set-up man and we might even see him at Wrigley in September once the roster expands.

The Chicago Cubs are finally building a foundation for the future while drafting players that can contribute at the major league level. In years past they would give out four- to eight-year contracts for players and we have seen this past off-season that they are only willing to give between one and four as they assess their team for the future.

Hopefully the Cubs’ focus stays with the draft and developing young players to put us on a plan for success in the coming years.