MLB Draft 2017

[Daniel Labude]

JUCO RHP Nate Pearson FB 98-100 (T101 on stadium scoreboard), SL 88-90, CB 80-81, CH 91-92 in the Florida All Star event today.

https://twitter.com/FPiliereD1/status/869367399597977601

 

Is he a starting pitcher?

[Pendleton]

Is he a starting pitcher?

 

Starter right now, scouting reports say he has the tools to be developed as such, or become a quality reliever.

[Daniel Labude]

Starter right now, scouting reports say he has the tools to be developed as such, or become a quality reliever.

 

Might be a good option for our 2nd pick

[metafour]

Might be a good option for our 2nd pick

 

Read the Tweet, the Red Sox ("most on him") pick at 25 and our second pick is at 28. It seems unlikely at this point that he's still there at #28 the closer we get to the draft; in fact it wouldn't even surprise me if he's not even available at #22 on draft day given the 'meh' nature of this draft and the fact that he's a 20 year old hitting 100 mph.

[metafour]

Frankie Piliere today:

 

Comment From Oren

Has there been any rumours of the Blue Jays taking advantage of their two first round picks to go overslot for a higher-ranked player? Would love to hear some insights into what they could do with those two picks.

 

Frankie Piliere:

So far I have not heard them. They've been linked a lot more frequently to guys like Nate Pearson, Logan Warmoth, Evan White and some of those high school guys like Bubba Thompson, Jeter Downs, Heliot Ramos. But I've yet to hear them linked to those sort of over slot deals

[Jonn]

It's still amazing to me how it's common it is for kids in the US to go to high school for 5 or 6 years. So many of these "high school prospects" are already 19 or turning 19. You have to treat the ones who are actually 17 differently.

[Pendleton]

Jeter Downs has a baseball name

[Melvin]

It's still amazing to me how it's common it is for kids in the US to go to high school for 5 or 6 years. So many of these "high school prospects" are already 19 or turning 19. You have to treat the ones who are actually 17 differently.

 

It's not common at all, stop spewing nonsense.

[Jonn]

It's not common at all, stop spewing nonsense.

 

For athletes it is. It's not nonsense when it's actually happening in every major US sport.

[Melvin]

For athletes it is. It's not nonsense when it's actually happening in every major US sport.

 

There's just a correlation between older high school graduates that are at the top of their respective classes because 1 year+ of physical development can be an absolutely massive advantage when you're 18 and a half or 19 playing against 17 year olds.

[Brownie19]

For athletes it is. It's not nonsense when it's actually happening in every major US sport.

 

Fairly sure parents are holding their kids back on public school so they are older than their peers in high school football so they dominate, get notice and get scholarships.

 

It's pretty sickening...but for many it's the only way the kid would ever get a shot at going to college and breaking the trend.

[Daniel Labude]

Fairly sure parents are holding their kids back on public school so they are older than their peers in high school football so they dominate, get notice and get scholarships.

 

It's pretty sickening...but for many it's the only way the kid would ever get a shot at going to college and breaking the trend.

 

It happens more the way you said for basketball. Later on in high school if the player is good enough though they can reclassify and graduate early (when they were suppose to)

[Pendleton]

For athletes it is. It's not nonsense when it's actually happening in every major US sport.

 

It's becoming common lately for hockey players to accelerate their schooling to play NCAA in their NHL draft year when they would normally be in grade 12.

[Krylian]

It's still amazing to me how it's common it is for kids in the US to go to high school for 5 or 6 years. So many of these "high school prospects" are already 19 or turning 19. You have to treat the ones who are actually 17 differently.

 

Feeds the 'athletes are stupid' stereotype nicely.

[John_Havok]

Feeds the 'athletes are stupid' stereotype nicely.

 

There's a few that are quite intelligent, but I'd be willing to wager the majority are below average, not like drooling muppet dumb, but just below average. Many of these kids are in sports programs so early they get cakewalked through high school and college.

[Brownie19]

Issue Is pro teams realise age matters. College programs don't give f***.

[Daniel Labude]

JJ Schwarz seems to be getting his swing back and is heating up. I'd like to see us take him in the draft

[burlingtonbandit]

There's a few that are quite intelligent, but I'd be willing to wager the majority are below average, not like drooling muppet dumb, but just below average. Many of these kids are in sports programs so early they get cakewalked through high school and college.

 

Lol this reminds of a friend who went to school with Boone Jenner and apparently he didn't know how to use a Stapler.. And this was in Grade 11.

[Daniel Labude]

http://floridagators.com/news/2017/6/4/scott-carter-gators-one-win-away.aspx

 

In the article there is video highlights from last night's game. I don't think he will fall to our pick but Alex Faedo looked healthy and was dealing.

 

Just posting if anyone wanted to see some of the highlights

[metafour]

Baseball America and MLB.com updated their draft rankings.

 

BA 500: http://www.baseballamerica.com/draft-preview/

MLB 200: http://m.mlb.com/prospects/2017?list=draft

[jays4life19]

Evan White and Seth Romero please and thank you.

 

White is not your typical college first baseman. Usually college first baseman are players who can't handle another position. White, who wears number 19 because it's Joey Votto's number, is athletic enough and fast enough (he's an above-average runner) to play in the outfield and his plus arm would fit in right field. But White is such a gifted defender at first base that Kentucky has kept him in the dirt. He's a 70 defender at first on the 20-to-80 scouting scale with range, the hands to scoop balls out of the dirt and excellent flexibility. He's shown himself to be an adequate corner outfielder when he got some time in the grass while playing for USA Baseball's College National Team last summer. And he has a long track record of hitting--he hit .318 as a freshman, hit .376 as a sophomore and was posting similar stats as a junior, having shaken off hip and hamstring injuries that sidelined him early in 2017. White projects as an above-average or even plus hitter. But scouts do understandably wonder about White's power. He generally earns fringe-average power grades from scouts and he's never reached double digits in home runs at Kentucky. As a righthanded hitting, lefthanded throwing first baseman/corner outfielder White is going to have to hit for at least average power in pro ball. He does have some athleticism and the frame to add some more weight.

 

_____

 

On pure talent, Romero is a top 10 prospect and among the top college pitchers in this year's draft. He's a lefthander with a chance to have three quality pitches: a 93-96 mph fastball, a slider and a changeup. Romero's plus fastball is his primary weapon. Throwing from a low three-quarters slot, he does a good job of getting in on the hands of righthanded hitters and is capable of locating his fastball to either side of the plate. His low slot makes his fastball even tougher for lefties. His slider has excellent bite and is also a plus pitch. He uses his changeup less often, but it has deception and the potential to be at least average. Romero has shown a consistent ability to pound the strike zone while generating swings and misses. He was leading Division I with 15.7 strikeouts per nine innings in 2017. For his college career, he struck out 11.5 batters per nine while walking only 2.8 per nine. But as teams line up their draft boards, they're surely spending as much time talking about questions about Romero's makeup as they are discussing his swing-and-miss stuff. Romero was suspended during the 2016 season for what Houston termed a violation of team rules. He was suspended again this April, reinstated and then kicked off the team just a week after his reinstatement. Romero also had surgery during high school where a screw was inserted in his elbow. Scouts will have to feel comfortable that Romero's problems stem more from immaturity than anything else, but at some point, likely in the first round, a team will view his talent as worth the risk, because he's a three-pitch lefty who could move quickly. After throwing less than 50 innings for Houston, his limited workload makes it easier for a team to let him throw significant innings in his first pro season. And he has the stuff to potentially help out a big league club in the bullpen this fall.

[Jonn]

This NCAA tourney seems like loads of fun. I wish TSN would pick this up or something. I try to watch streams. But mostly I can see it through highlights and twitter.

[TheHurl]

This NCAA tourney seems like loads of fun. I wish TSN would pick this up or something. I try to watch streams. But mostly I can see it through highlights and twitter.

 

It really is fun. Omaha is one of my dream trips (which seems wrong to say) I've been to games in Houston (Rice), LSU and Ole Miss and they were all great experiences. The couple of games I've been to in the north were less exciting. I was pushing the games on to everyone and I haven't watched anything but highlights either. I was prepared for Vandy and Clemson today and they were rained out.

[jays4life19]

https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/fangraphs-2017-mock-draft/

 

FG has us taking Warmoth.

 

Warmoth played his travel ball with the Orlando Scorpions as a teammate of Brendan Rogers (No. 3 overall pick in 2015) and Virginia outfielder Adam Haseley, also a likely first-round pick in 2017. A starter since early in his freshman season at North Carolina, Warmoth started to emerge offensively as a sophomore, hit well in the Cape Cod League (.270 with four home runs) and was having an All-America-caliber season as a junior. Warmoth's older brother pitched for Stetson and Florida State and has reached Triple-A with the Angels, and the younger Warmoth has an accurate, plus arm that rates as his best tool. His arm strength, good hands and solid range give scouts confidence Warmoth can stay in the middle of the diamond, and many believe he'll stay at shortstop. Other see him as an offensive second baseman, and his offensive performance was pushing Warmoth into first-round consideration. His power is mostly to his pull side, but Warmoth has the ability to use the whole field and has a solid offensive approach, looking for pitches he can drive and showing the ability to make adjustments. Scouts see him as a high-floor, safe bet big leaguer who could exceed his offensive projections.

[metafour]

Alex: I watched a lot of the Wake Forest regional this past weekend. What’s the story on Stuart Fairchild? I haven’t seen him in many mock drafts, is it the hit tool holding him back?

 

Eric A Longenhagen: Think he could go back of round 1, have heard him with Toronto. Speedy little ball of muscle, has some pop, very upright in the box and might swing and miss. Have him ahead of Brian Miller at this point.

 

This is the second time I've seen us linked to Fairchild as Keith Law also mentioned in one of his mocks that he's heard us in on both Wake Forest guys (Fairchild and 1B Gavin Sheets).

[Daniel Labude]

This is the second time I've seen us linked to Fairchild as Keith Law also mentioned in one of his mocks that he's heard us in on both Wake Forest guys (Fairchild and 1B Gavin Sheets).

 

I'll be watching the Wake Forest guys when they play Florida this weekend in the Super Regionals. Wake can hit a ton of HRs

[TwistedLogic]

Reading the body of this tweet, I thought it was a quote by Atkins, just based on the style and manner of speaking. Steve Sanders is like an exact clone of Atkins and Shapiro. These guys are all robots.

 

I love it.

 

[metafour]

Full interview:

http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/opportunities-abound-blue-jays-second-draft-shapiro/

 

Last month in Anaheim, Atkins was seen meeting with San Diego high school shortstop Nick Allen, a player the Chicago Cubs are said to be keen on with the 27th pick.

[Jonn]

Full interview:

http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/opportunities-abound-blue-jays-second-draft-shapiro/

 

He's 5'8 155 pounds apparently.

[Spanky99]

He's 5'8 155 pounds apparently.