Draft Links 3/14/2013; Mock, Rankings, & More
by Matt Grabusky | Posted on Thursday, March 14th, 2013
Here are some of the top 2013 MLB Draft related links from the last few days.
- The mock draft at My MLB Draft has been updated. Indiana State lefthander Sean Manaea is projected to go first overall to Houston. -LINK
- The top 5 high school players at each position are ranked at The Baseball Draft Report. -LINK
- The top draft-eligible catchers are ranked at MLB Draft Countdown, with Reese McGuire topping the list. -LINK
- Prospect Insider is posting weekly notes on players in the northwest. Reese McGuire was one of the players featured this week. -LINK
- Kevin Ziomek is featured in a post at College Baseball Daily. -LINK
- The Crawfish Boxes asks the question- who has better tools, Clint Frazier or Austin Meadows. -LINK
Mocks and rankings are looking a lot different now that the season has started. Gray and Ziomek are big climbers while guys like Andrew Thurman, Connor Jones, and Matt Krook are just now popping up on the radar.
Don’t Forget about Karsten Whitson and Austin Wilson dropping considerably following their respective injuries.
Yeah, Whitson’s out but I’m not sure about Wilson. I still see him as a mid first rounder. I think he’ll have enough time to showcase his tools at the end of the season (just my opinion).
Yea I think the issue with that logic is mainly he’s showncase his tools plenty.Everyone knows how toolsy he is it’s a matter of putting together a sustained body of work.Which he won’t have much time to do especially since even once he’s on the diamond he’s not 100% immediately most likely.
While I don’t think your crazy or even wrong for that matter I just personally don’t see enough time for him to do what he needs to do.
Baseball America reported he should be back by the end of this month, giving him 2 months to play before postseason.
http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/college/2013/02/stanfords-austin-wilson-to-miss-another-2-4-weeks/
Keith Law put Austin 5th yesterday in his rankings.
Putting Wilson at 5 before you know how he comes back? That is a big risk to his credit ability, I also have serious questions about his swing and ability to hit for power. I know a lot of professional scouts that agree with me.
I was surprised to see him that high but I respect Keith’s opinion. Putting Keith’s opinion aside for a moment, I do feel the injury will be a non-issue from everything I read, so it shouldn’t radically change people’s opinions of Wilson. The consensus coming into the season was the he was a Top 10 pick so I don’t see that changing unless he performs poorly after he returns.
The consensus was also that a huge breakout was expected.Emphasis on huge and breakout. Him coming back from the injury with 2 months in the regular season maybe being 100% after a week or so of actually being back cutting the time to actually breakout down further. It’s 1 thing to produce at the pace he has been it’s another to BREAKOUT which maybe me and you have a diffrent view on what a breakout for him would actually be but to me there’s very little shot he actually BREAKS OUT and more likely has a ok to solid season.
Also I just simply can’t see him coming back and ripping things apart since I was never all that high on him to begin with. So if your asking me even if he comes back and has an alright season that isn’t enough to get him past maybe the end of the 1st round no higher.
Well, I’ve never seen anyone say he was a top 10 pick IF he had a breakout season, as if to say he’s not deserved that designation in prior seasons. And yes I’d be curious to know what your definition of breakout is. .900 OPS? 1.000? Does he have to hit 20 HR? Just curious…
Yes,
I think that’s a fair thing to say.In the early going people were expecting him to have some massive season to SOLIDIFY his draft position.Is that such a new concept? That before the season starts a top prospect based on his physical stuff must perform in order for him to stay so high on peoples boards.I don’t think he’s the first person to have needed to do that.
My Idea of him breaking out is keeping up the averages he’s put up because I don’t think anyone doubts he’s solid pure hitter hitting 311 and 285 at stanford I’m pretty sure.I think more or even most importantly it’s the power output last year he hit 10HR and before that only 5-6 I believe. For me seeing how I see him as the next coming of Michael Taylor (A solid pure hitter who people assume will have a ton of power but isn’t wired to hit that way) I needed to see him get comfortably into the double digits a solid 12-16HR season. In short he needed to have a great all around season otherwise he’s no more a lock to go that high then Karsten Whitson or any other big name college guy in the early going.
So now that he’s had the oblique injury that cut his summer on the cape short and this new elbow thing that’s cut his season at Stanford short, Yea for me he’s barely sniffing the 1st round if that…For me he’s more of a mid-2nd round pick at his best.That’s if he comes back and still has a solid season or keeps pace with his previous 2 years but doesn’t exactly take a step forward which would be understandable given the circumstances.
I have talk to a number of scouts that disagree.
Disagree with?
So MLB Draft Countdown is asserting that this HS catching class is weak?! Um, what?
I don’t know how that’s even possible.
You and me both, but I quote:
“The 2013 catching crop pales in comparison to year’s past. There is no defensive wizard in this class, and no surefire superstar slugger. While the high school class is slightly below-average, the college crop is well below…”
I don’t even know what to say to that, but it is safe to say that I disagree.
I honestly am appalled by that statement. I wholeheartedly agree with the College statement seeing how I like about a handful of HS C before the first college name probably more if I really thought about it.
As far as the High School remarks that’s certainly offensive in my opinion. This is what I have referred to in past comments I feel as a contributor myself it’s my responsibility to pass along the absolutely best information possible. To spread just absolute nonsense like that is truely appalling.
Wilson has (much?) more raw power than Taylor. It’s too difficult to gauge that ability while he’s under Stanford’s thumb as they teach a flat line-drive swing. You get rewarded for opposite-field flares, not home runs. If I had a position player son who wanted to go there, I’d lock him in the basement and bring in a deprogrammer. Look up the list of position players graduated from Stanford in the last decade and find me a star. IIRC, Jed Lowrie is the only above avg regular on the list. They’re about winning Stanford baseball games, not cultivating professional players. Taylor could never fix is swing. The hope for some, and it is just a hope, is that Wilson will be able to. A big part of his value is also tied up in impact RF tools. That’s at least somewhat comforting to FOs as they roll the dice.
What amazes me about position players going to Stanford is that their hitting philosophy and it’s effect on hitters is not universally known. I have talked with quite a few parents who think it is one of the best places that they can send their son.
It really does seem to be on the hush hush in a way. I read a post awhile back that asked if that philosphy was truely the cause behind guys like Ragira and Wilson and others.
As far as Parents, Let’s not try to pretend like they don’t want that education Stanford offers. I think the constant success of the program has certainly made it easier for kids and their families to think that’s the best option with the education included. Quite Frankly if I was a parent I’d send my kid to Vandy. I think we all can agree that while Vandy might not be exactly Stanfords caliber academically it’s certainly a very prestigious school in it’s own right on that front. The baseball side of things has really been great as of late.