Ran across this mock draft at this site called "The Baseball Draft Report".
He has the Giants selecting CF Donovan Tate, who some consider the best prep position player. The other two position players to keep an eye out for are SS Grant Green and CF/1B Dustin Ackley, both college players. He says that Steven Strasburg is clearly the #1 prospect, then there is the next tier of six players: Grant Green, Dustin Ackley, Alex White, Tyler Matzek, Donovan Tate, and Matthew Purke.
Also, MCC has a post on Keith Law's top six draft prospects as well:
1. Stephen Strasburg, rhp, San Diego State
2. Alex White, rhp, North Carolina
3. Grant Green, ss, Southern California
4. Aaron Crow, rhp, Fort Worth Cats
5. Dustin Ackley, cf/1b, North Carolina
6. Kyle Gibson, rhp, Missouri
Giants Thoughts
Obviously, a position player is what we fans want, but the draft is heavy with pitchers. I don't see how Strasburg can fall to us, so don't even think that, unless he has a horrible season or he's seriously injured in some way, he's the consensus #1 everywhere right now.
Assuming the premise that the next group of prospects are interchangeable, I don't see Seattle picking Green with the 2nd pick. They have Carlos Triunfel as their top prospect and he's a SS, in fact a top 2 SS overall, according to McKamey. They got Bedard because they need pitching, and he'll probably be gone (or ineffective) soon, so I would think they would go for a pitcher, so let's say they draft Alex White.
The Padres are up next, and they have a number of outfielders high in their system, but no SS. With only Luis Rodriguez as the SS on their depth chart, I would think they select Green right now.
The Pirates are now strong in position prospects, with McCutchen, Alvarez, Tabata, and Walker, plus have young players like McLouth, Doumit, and the LaRoches, I think they would go for a pitcher, a pitcher like Crow, because they will need the pitching sooner than later, as their young position players should be ready in a couple of years.
With one more to go before the Giants, the Orioles have a lot of young position talent, Markakis, Jones, Pie, Wieters, Reimold, Rowell, plus Roberts, but the majors are barren of major league starters, just a lot of question marks for the most part. Luckily they have a number of top pitching prospects, but as BP says, TINSTAAPP, so I would think they would go for another pitcher and select Gibson, a college arm that should be ready to join the young position talent sooner than high school arms, plus be insurance in that quantity will balance the risk of pitchers and deliver some good arms to the young position players within a year or two.
That leaves the Giants with the chance to draft Dustin Ackley or Donovan Tate, and I think they have to go with Ackley because he's closer to the show and shows some position flexibility being able to play CF and 1B (both positions we could potentially need in a few years, depending on how things work out), plus he sounds like he's got some power, which we need.
Of course, things can and will change wildly between now and the draft, players rise, players fall, who knows. But these are the names to keep an eye out for at the moment.
I like Kentrail Davis, Mike Minor and Auckley the most out of the college guys pre-season. We'll see how the year goes though. Hopefully the Giants won't be getting a top 10 pick again this year though. Davis is a guy who realistically could be around when they pick, not sure about Aucley and Minor though.
ReplyDeleteExcellent draft insight...and I'm not just saying that because you sent a link my way. I think your team-by-team draft possibilities are all extremely realistic outcomes for what could actually happen come June. I'm not sure Triunfel alone would stop the M's from taking Green, but that's mostly because a) I think a position switch could be in Triunfel's future, and b) I'm not sold on the Mariners being sold on Green's defense at short. Crow to Pittsburgh is a really, really good fit, and I'm starting to warm to the idea that Baltimore could look at a quick moving college pitcher at 5. Matusz, Tillman, Arrieta, Random College Arm could be a great 1-4 that would have the added bonus of being ready quickly enough to capitalize on some of the early peak years of the the young bats (Markakis, Jones, Wieters, maybe Pie, plus Roberts).
ReplyDeleteAs an aside, and this is something I mentioned at McC recently, I'm not a Giants fan, yet I find myself at Giants sites almost as much as I do other team. Sites with quality writing should transcend team fandom and, for me anyway, OGC is on of those sites. Keep up the awesome work.
TC, awesome to see another Mike Minor fan - I've got an unnatural bias towards plus fastball/changeup lefties. Just a reminder though, the draft order for 2009 (when the players discussed will be eligible) is already set and the Giants are picking 6th. Their record in 2009 will impact their pick in the 2010 draft only.