Baseball America Pre-Season Top 50

Pornstache · **Joined:** Wed Sep 20, 2006 2:18 pm **Posts:** 12733

I will only post the top 10 due to it being for subscribers only .. but man this preview gets me really pumped for this draft.

1. Anthony Rendon, 3b, Rice
Could be first college position player taken with top pick since Pat Burrell (1998).
2. Gerrit Cole, rhp, UCLA
Had best pure stuff in 2008 draft and has best pure stuff this time around.
3. Matt Purke, lhp, Texas Christian
Rangers offered him $6 million out of high school in 2009 before MLB killed deal.
4. George Springer, of, Connecticut
Potential 30-30 player is best all-around athlete in this draft class.
5. Sonny Gray, rhp, Vanderbilt
If he weren't 5-foot-11, he'd be in the mix for the No. 1 overall pick.
6. Taylor Jungmann, rhp, Texas
Big-game pitcher has gone 6-0 in two years of NCAA tournament play.
7. Jackie Bradley, of, South Carolina
Won Most Outstanding Player honors as Gamecocks took 2010 College World Series title.
8. Matt Barnes, rhp, Connecticut
He and Springer will surpass Charles Nagy (No. 17, 1988) as highest-drafted Huskies ever.
9. Archie Bradley, rhp, Broken Arrow (Okla.) HS
Has size, stuff and a football scholarship to play quarterback at Oklahoma.
10. Bubba Starling, of, Gardner-Edgerton HS, Gardner, Kan.
Another QB recruit (Nebraska), he's a two-way star who can hit 94 mph on the mound.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/online/d ... 11233.html

tejdog1 · **Posted:** Fri Feb 04, 2011 8:42 pm

Bradley is going to fall due to that QB committment.

2nd rd pick, please. Or Comp 1st.

Pornstache · **Joined:** Wed Sep 20, 2006 2:18 pm **Posts:** 12733

tejdog1 wrote:

Bradley is going to fall due to that QB committment.

2nd rd pick, please. Or Comp 1st.

Zach Lee had a QB scholarship to LSU and turned it down for a lot of money from LAD in rd 1 .. there's going to be a team in rd 1 that wil pay him because he's so talented .. even if it's late. Lee got a $5.25M bonus .. which was tied with Manny Machado for 3rd highest bonus.

nmigliore · **Posted:** Sun Mar 06, 2011 10:07 am

Law has a similar list at ESPN, but he has Starling as high as #4. He sees him as a potential 5-tool centerfielder who can also hit low-90's as pitcher. I think it was on BA though that I read he is a freak athlete; great basketball player, football player, AND baseball player. Freak athlete indeed. I'd love to see him fall to us at #13, which is possible due to his sign-ability concerns I'd imagine, but with our financial issues, I don't think we'd take him.

Edit: here's the BA thing on him (its from their draft blog, which is free):

Quote:

Question: As the top-rated high school position player heading toward this year's draft, how does Bubba Starling rank and compare amongst these other toolsy prep outfielders from the past few drafts: Mike Trout, Donavan Tate and Aaron Hicks?

Joe LeCates
Easton, Md.

Great question, Joe. It's interesting that, of those three, Tate was the biggest deal in high school and he's had the toughest time as a pro so far. All of the players listed are obviously gifted athletes. Trout played three sports in high school, Tate was committed to North Carolina for baseball and football and Hicks was a promising golfer before he started playing baseball.

But none are quite on Starling's level. He's just a freak athlete. He's the best position player in this year's high school class and, while he's more raw as a pitcher, he can still throw 94 mph and would be highly-ranked even if he didn't have five-tool potential as a position player. He's the seventh-best high school quarterback in the nation, according to ESPNU's Top 150 of 2011, and he could play Division-I basketball too if he wanted. He's just the kind of kid that can do almost anything he wants athletically. Check out some of his YouTube football highlights, they're pretty incredible.

Starling may just stand out more to me because I've seen the most of him. He's the only player of that group that I've seen as an amateur and I've seen him the most of all four of those guys. So, to get a better perspective for you, I asked a scouting director to weigh in on the subject. The scout I spoke with said he didn't see a lot of Tate, but saw a lot of the other three. . .

"They're all toolsy, high-ceiling guys, but physically you were hoping that Hicks would gain a little more size and strength. Starling has a little more strength and Trout is kind of a combination of all of it. He has the size and the strength and the speed. I think Trout was probably the strongest and the closer product to what the finished product was going to be. Hicks was probably the furthest away as far as looking at some projection down the line and Starling's probably somewhere in the middle of that group—a little further ahead of Hicks, but man, I had a special place for Trout."

http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/draft/?p=3113

nmigliore · **Posted:** Mon Mar 07, 2011 8:08 pm

BA has a nice post up on their free draft blog about Kentucky right-hander Alex Meyer: http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/draft/?p=3148

From a stuff standpoint, he sounds legit. The article mentions an NL scouting director saying his fastball and breaking ball are potential 70 grade pitches, and hes a big dude at 6'8". Control issues and an inconsistent 3rd pitch could make him destined for a reliever though...

Law has him as #23 on his top 50 prospect list, fwiw.

It'sOuttaHere · **Joined:** Sun Jul 12, 2009 11:25 pm **Posts:** 3075

Meyer sounds interesting. My guess is the team that bites is the one that sees his issues and thinks with some work with a professional pitching coach they will all go away. Sounds like the breaking ball can be very good with the help of a coach and mechanics can be refined. Like to see a report on him at draft time and see how things have improved.

Pornstache · **Joined:** Wed Sep 20, 2006 2:18 pm **Posts:** 12733

Alex Meyer sounds like a Red Sox pick to me

nmigliore · **Posted:** Mon Mar 14, 2011 10:51 pm

Quote:

keithlaw keithlaw

Today? Very good chance. Betting on tools, not performance. RT @nmigliore: @keithlaw Any chance Springer falls out of top 10?

That would be interesting... BA says he has 30-30 potential, Law ranked him as high as the #2 overall prospect in the draft before the season started (though obviously that would change as of right now).

Pornstache · **Joined:** Wed Sep 20, 2006 2:18 pm **Posts:** 12733

nmigliore wrote:

Quote:

keithlaw keithlaw

Today? Very good chance. Betting on tools, not performance. RT @nmigliore: @keithlaw Any chance Springer falls out of top 10?

That would be interesting... BA says he has 30-30 potential, Law ranked him as high as the #2 overall prospect in the draft before the season started (though obviously that would change as of right now).

It would be interesting if he were to slide .. I really want the Mets to go college pitching or Bubba Starling .. but if Springer is there at 13 it'll certainly merit consideration.

underdog · **Joined:** Mon Sep 18, 2006 5:24 pm **Posts:** 870

I'd like for Jose Fernandez to be there at 13, but I don't think he will.

Pornstache · **Joined:** Wed Sep 20, 2006 2:18 pm **Posts:** 12733

underdog wrote:

I'd like for Jose Fernandez to be there at 13, but I don't think he will.

He certainly will. But I'd be straight up stunned if the Mets went any high schooler .. in this class Fernandez is going to dip. In a different class may be higher. Much better HS pitchers very well may be on the board when the Mets pick .. like Bundy or Bradley or Norris

nmigliore · **Posted:** Tue Mar 15, 2011 11:32 am

I like a lot of the high school arms; I'd say I favor Archie Bradley the most, not counting Starling; plus fastball and plus breaking ball with a really projectable starter's frame. Unfortunately, sign-ability could be an issue (commitment to Oklahoma football), so we might be looking elsewhere if he falls. Dillon Howard and Dylan Bundy are both intriguing. Taylor Guerrieri is another high school arm that's really growing on me though. Law recently said this about him:

Quote:

Guerrieri created quite the buzz early on with a fastball touching 97 mph and the chance for four pitches to go with his athleticism and sound mechanics.

Law had Fernandez ranked [oddly] low (#39) in his preseason rankings, but did mention he was up to 98 mph this spring. I haven't read anything recently on him, though.

One thing is for sure: this draft class puts last year's to shame.

Baseball America Pre-Season Top 50

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