CHICAGO -- The theme of this year's Draft for the Cubs was power arms.

It started with taking Fresno State pitcher Ryan Jensen in the first round and then continued throughout the three-day drafting process. Chicago grabbed seven arms in the first 10 rounds and finished with 22 pitchers total (15 from the college ranks) when the team's 2019 class was completed.

• Cubs Draft Tracker

In looking at the arms taken by the Cubs, there was an emphasis on raw stuff, but the club did not shy away from pitchers with more athletic builds. There has been a shift in philosophy in recent years in terms of how Chicago goes about targeting amateur pitching, and that was on full display during the course of this particular Draft.

"It's really been a loosening of our standards in terms of arm action, delivery and risk aversion," Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein said on Wednesday. "I think it's probably maybe manifested most this year just because of the number of arms that happened to be selected in the first 10 rounds. That wasn't an intentional philosophy. That's just the way the Draft board fell this year. We were getting ready to take a number of position players, and they got picked right in front of us, and we ended up taking pitchers those rounds.

"But, yeah, with the way the game's evolving, a little bit more emphasis on pure stuff and bat-missing abilities, just to have that arsenal. At the big league level, I think we'll always recognize the importance of game-planning and pitch execution. There are a lot of ways to get those 1,400 quality innings. It's not all about power."

At the Major League level this season, for example, both the rotation and bullpen for the Cubs feature the types of arms that rely on inducing weak contact. Chicago's average fastball velocity and swing-and-miss rate is near the bottom of MLB. Injecting some power arms into the farm system with the hope of growing the pitchers into high-velocity arms never hurts.

"It's hard to compete with the Jones' if you don't have enough power stuff on your big league club and certainly through your system," Epstein sad. "That's one area that we can improve in the system. So, it's nice to get an infusion of not just raw stuff, but we think stuff that comes in nice athletic frames, deliveries that we can work with and guys that have aptitude to maybe refine a breaking ball, pick up a third pitch, and guys will still have a chance to start. And if that doesn't work out, they can certainly help us out in the bullpen down the road."

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Here is a breakdown of the Cubs' 2019 Draft:

POSITIONS

Pitchers: 22

Catchers: 3

Infielders: 8

Outfielders: 7

COLLEGE VS. PREP

College total: 28

High school total: 12

College pitchers: 15

Prep pitchers: 7

Collge catchers: 2

Prep catchers: 1

College infielders: 7

Prep infielders: 1

College outfielders: 4

Prep outfielders: 3

MLB PIPELINE RANKED

The Cubs grabbed four players who were ranked in the Top 200 Draft prospects by MLB Pipeline:

Ranked 41st (picked 64th): INF Chase Strumpf

Ranked 67th (picked 192nd): C Ethan Hearn

Ranked 99th (picked 27th): RHP Ryan Jensen

Ranked 174th (picked 103rd): RHP Michael McAvene

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STEAL OF THE DRAFT

The 18-year-old Hearn was viewed by some teams as the top prep catcher in this year's Draft class, per MLB Pipeline. He has raw power from the left side and has displayed a strong arm and advanced defensive skills for his age. The Cubs nabbed Hearn in the sixth round, but there is a strong chance that the team offers a higher-round bonus to convince him not to head to Mississippi State University.

HOMETOWN KIDS

Ninth round: RHP Tyler Schlaffer, Homewood-Flossmoor (Ill.) High School

25th round: OF Zac Taylor, University of Illinois

33rd round: SS Ryan Ritter, Lincoln-Way East (Ill.) High School

MLB LEGACY

In the 24th round, the Cubs selected infielder Grayson Byrd out of Clemson. Byrd is the son of former pitcher Paul Byrd, who spent 14 years in the Majors between stints with seven teams. Grayson originally attended LSU like his father, but later transferred to Clemson. This season, Byrd hit .316/.394/.588 with 16 homers, 16 doubles and 59 RBIs in 61 games for the Tigers.

LATE-ROUND SLEEPER

Taylor is one of the more athletic position players taken deeper in the Draft by the Cubs. The outfielder has a chance to stay in center field, but might project better as a corner outfielder down the road. He has some raw power (10 homers to go along with a .612 slugging percentage in '19) and has a little bit of speed (23 steals in 26 attempts). The right-handed batter hit at a .312 clip with a .405 on-base percentage, but has room to grow in strike-zone command (42 strikeouts vs. 21 walks).