Indications are the Phillies are looking for a hitter, although many mock drafts have Florida left-hander A.J. Puk going No. 1. La Costa Canyon High School (Calif.) outfielder Mickey Moniak, Louisville outfielder Corey Ray, Chaminade College Prep (Calif.) outfielder Blake Rutherford and Tennessee third baseman Nick Senzel are also in the mix.
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Zach and I have been profiling numerous top draft prospects – you’ll get one more tomorrow. So if they save money with one pick, they can use it to sign another pick. “Growing up, everyone wants to be first pick”.
Major League Baseball teams are in the final stages of preparing their respective draft boards in preparation for the draft, which takes place Thursday through Saturday, while high school, junior college and college players around the country hope for the phone call that will change their lives. The Pittsburgh Pirates have only had one, but it was ace Gerrit Cole, the first overall pick in 2011. Analysts suggest he might be willing to take than the full allotment because he would still make more than if he were selected later in the Top 10. Pint’s got fantastic tools, but it’s going to be 3-4 years of working on his mechanics and refining his pitches to get there.
Unlike the drafts in most other major sports, MLB’s draft is held during the season. He’s flashed three plus tools in his hit, speed and glove, and he should be able to stay in centerfield. That’s really good. But because they only got a Comp B round pick, they ended up with just the 8th largest draft pool. (Photo: Heather Joy Flannigan Moniak). He is also exactly the type of guy Miami went after two years ago with the selection of Kolek in 2014. For a high school guy, he’s very polished and provides positional value and hitting ability.
CBS: By “frustrating” do you mean hard to get a read on/project in general? He was a top 20 pick before a gruesome injury his senior year of High School, so it’s nice to see him regain at least a portion of that stock. Good luck-history says they’re going to need it.
“His first step as a defender is awesome”, Machado said.
“We have a small group of players, both position players and pitchers, that we’re considering and we’re hammering it out every single day”, scouting director Johnny Almaraz said. While the Red Sox lead the majors in runs scored and are contending for an AL East title, the Yankees are languishing in fourth place, in large part because they don’t have enough players like Bradley. He can do everything pretty well. But the amateur draft is certainly the bigger deal and receives much more attention. Baseball doesn’t get that, so we have to take much more of an educated guess based on the player’s production and skill set.
Either way, it’s a huge improvement from Dunning’s draft selection coming out of high school: in the 34th round and the 1,015th overall pick by Toronto, the final player selected in 2013. The top three for me (Groome, Ray, and Delvin Perez) are so far and away better than everyone else that I think you have to call that a significant drop-off.
“I’m happy for him”.
“It’s very humbling just knowing that we have a guy who’s potential first overall but is more of a team guy than anything”. There tends to be some fatigue when someone has been that closely scouted for so long.
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There is one factor here that needs to be talked about, and may be the main reason the Phils could look to select one of the top high school bats available.
