Giants select Jarrett Parker, OF, out of Virginia, with their second pick. Below is his MLB.com scouting report:
Scouting Report: Jarrett Parker
Hitting ability: Parker has not shown great bat speed this season and has some holes in his swing.
Power: He does have some power, but it projects to be average, at best.
Running speed: His best tool, he's a plus runner.
Base running: He is a top-of-the-order base-stealing threat.
Arm strength: He has below-average arm strength.
Fielding: He has plus defensive skills.
Range: His speed gives him plus range.
Physical Description: Parker is lean and athletic, kind of like a young Mike Cameron type.
Medical Update: Healthy.
Strengths: Plus speed, which helps him on the basepaths and in center field, where he is a plus defender.
Weaknesses: There are questions about his overall hitting ability, with some holes in his swing and inconsistencies in terms of bat speed.
Summary: Parker had a rough go of it in the Cape Cod League last summer, but there was hope that he'd bounce back and fulfill expectaitons of being one of the more interesting college hitters in this year's class. It hasn't really worked out that way as he's struggled to find offensive consistency, though he was coming on a little bit late. What he does have is plenty of speed, which gives him the ability to steal bases and play a superb center field. Those are marketable skills, and the team that thinks he'll hit will still nab the Virginia outfielder fairly early on.
ogc: Not too bad, I was seeing his name on some of the later mock drafts for the first round. Looks like the Giants selected another player (like Brandon Crawford and Kieschnick previously) who was expected to do well in 2010 and be a first rounder, but didn't and thus fell.
Odd pick because he is just like Gary Brown, a speedy CF who plays great defense but don't have much power. It is almost like they got him in case they don't sign Gary Brown, who is a Boras client.
Still, if both can learn to hit, it would be some fast lineups they will be in. As I noted in the Gary Brown comments, he actually played more games in the infield than the OF in college, so he could possibly move to the infield at some point if necessary, so picking up both of them is not going to necessarily create a battle between the two of them for one spot. In fact, Brown was more of a utility guy his freshman year, and he was a middle infielder in high school. The Giants do have options if both happen to develop.
Seiler comments:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mlbbonusbaby.com/2010/5/11/1467662/mock-draft-6-supplemental-first
"39. Boston Red Sox - Jarrett Parker, OF, Virginia - The Red Sox don't typically go for a bunch of over slot bonus babies in the early stages of the draft, instead preferring to see who falls in the 5th-10th round range. However, they do a nice job of filling in with solid college players in the supplemental and second rounds, and Parker is turning it around at Virginia. This is a solid pick."
http://www.mlbbonusbaby.com/2010/03/23/2010-mock-draft-3-supplemental-first-round/
"39. Boston Red Sox – Jarrett Parker, OF, Virginia – Parker fits into the Boston mold for drafting, as he has both the athleticism to fit in their system, as well as the pop in his bat to believe that he could move quickly through the system. He also should be signable, which might be important in the early picks if their first round pick is worth more than slot. Previously: #38."
http://www.mlbbonusbaby.com/2010/02/02/2010-mock-draft-2-supplemental-round/
"38. Toronto Blue Jays – Jarrett Parker, OF, Virginia – Parker had a rough time on the Cape over the summer, and while the tools are all there, there’s still a good amount of doubt about his future as an MLB regular. Having projected the Blue Jays to go with two preps already, I figure the Blue Jays will want a little stability with a college hitter, though one with good tools and upside. Parker fits well into a system that needs a little more depth. Previously: NR."
A mock draft actually had the Giants selecting Parker - in the first round:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mlbfantasyprospects.com/2010/04/2010-mlb-mock-draft-fantasy-style-first-round-analysis-picks-1732.html
"Coming out of Virginia, and after playing the summer in the Cape Cod league, Parker looks to be one of the more major league-ready players in this year’s draft. With a smooth swing and a plus arm from the field, Parker will make his way up the Giants system in a hurry. His size, 6-4, 240-pounds shows that he’s ready; so don’t be surprised when he is in the Bay City by late 2011. He could hit 30 long balls by his mid-20’s."
The author has no credentials but the site is run by people who do, so take that for what you may.
But the MLB write up does not see 30 HR power, FYI, so don't go there.
BA rated Parker 41st in their Top 200 list and 49th in their Final 50:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.baseballamerica.com/today/draft/draft-preview/2010/2610039.html
"Very athletic, toolsy outfielder with plus raw power, speed and ideal frame."
http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/draft/?p=2249
Giants selected an unknown Carter Jurica, SS, of Kansas Stat University, in the third round.
ReplyDeleteGiants select Seth Rosin of Minnesota, RHP. Was Third-Team All-Big Ten as a sophomore.
BA draft discussion:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.baseballamerica.com/today/draft/chat/2010/2610115.html
"Duncan (Norfolk): Jarrett Parker has somewhat turned around his season, and still has an ideal frame with a speed and potential power combination. Has he moved up draft boards with his recent play are where do you see him playing, center or right?
John Manuel: Parker's a tough call as well. I like the tools, saw him play well in person this year, which often colors my opinion. But he has significant issues with strikeouts. There's 131 strikeouts there in 483 at-bats, with metal, against amateurs. I don't think he's moved up boards, unless he had previously moved down them. Supplemental or second-round guy for me at best, and I could see him sliding considering the K's and last year's Cape performance."
Don't know how good this site is, but it gives a nice rundown of his background in HS and college. In the pre-season, he was ranked 28th; for comparison, Gary Brown was 58th:
ReplyDeletehttp://thecollegebaseballblog.com/2009/12/23/top-100-countdown-number-28-jarrett-parker-virginia/
"We continue the list today with number 28 junior outfielder Jarrett Parker from Virginia. He is from Stafford Virginia and attended Colonial Forge High School. His senior season saw him hit .470 with 12 homers, 27 RBI, 32 runs and 12 stolen bases. He picked up several honors including First-team All-Commonwealth District, All-Northwest Region, All-Area, and Second Team All-State. He participated in the Cal Ripken Senior League after his senior season where he finished with a .311 batting average which was fifth in the league. He was also named to the All-League Team and was a starting outfielder in the All-Star game.
Parker appeared in 50 games while starting 45 as a freshman for the Virginia Cavaliers. He finished the season with a .264 with no homers and 16 RBI. He did finish the season with 14 stolen bases in 16 attempts. He did play excellent defense making only one error for a fielding percentage of .989.
Jarrett had a breakthrough season as a sophomore where he hit .355 with a team high 16 homers and 65 RBI in 65 games. He also had 20 doubles and seven triples as he had a slugging percentage of .664. He continued with his strong base running as he stole 20 bases in 25 attempts. He worked on his patience at the plate as he got 39 walks and was hit by a pitch on 11 occasions. One downside was the fact that Parker’s strikeout numbers nearly doubled up to 80 on the year. He was named a First-Team All-American by Rivals.com and Second-Team All-American by ABCA, Baseball America and NCBWA while being named a Third-Team All-America outfielder by Collegiate Baseball/Louisville Slugger.
He spent the summer of 2009 with the Brewster Whitecaps of the Cape Cod Baseball League. He struggled in the summer as he appeared in 29 games with a batting average of .188 with a homer and 13 RBI."
Perfect Game notes on Parker:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.perfectgame.org/Articles/View.aspx?article=4850
JARRETT PARKER, of, Virginia
SCOUTING PROFILE (3/1): For a player who made a quantum leap forward as a prospect from his freshman year at Virginia to his sophomore year, improving from a .264 average with no homers to .355 with a team-leading 16 long balls, Parker was one of the biggest disappointments in the Cape Cod League last summer. He hit just .188-1-13, and looked overmatched at times by striking out 37 times in just 96 at-bats. His swing looked long and slow, and pitchers busted fastballs past him with relative ease.
It seemed apparent, though, that he was worn down after a long season at Virginia, and the decline in his performance actually started during the school’s first-ever appearance in the College World Series before he reported to Brewster. He also had his wisdom teeth removed at the start of the summer, and lost weight (and strength) in the process.
But Parker also didn’t play in the summer following his freshman year at Virginia, so his summer on the Cape was his first extended exposure to wood and he broke a lot of bats early in the season as he was challenged to put the sweet part of the bat on balls consistently.
His slump extended to his junior year at Virginia. Through the first half of the 2010 season, he was hitting a soft .306-2-26, though had curbed his strikeouts to just 24 in 111 at-bats. Parker has a habit of opening his front side too soon at the plate and getting out front on pitches, a sign of being overanxious. That points to a flaw in his technique, and Parker struck out a whopping 80 times at Virginia as a sophomore, nearly double his freshman total. So while he set school records for runs (76), hits (94) and total bases (176) last spring, and led the Atlantic Coast Conference in triples (7) and extra-base hits (42), there was a red flag in his approach to hitting.
When Parker squared up a ball, though, it jumped off his bat and sounded different than most other hitters. He drove balls a long way to all fields. But he still needs to do a better job of looking for his pitch as he’s a bit too much of a free swinger and wants to pull too many balls.
The rest of Parker’s package is first-round quality. He is very athletic in his projectable 6-foot-3, 190-pound frame, though needs to add strength to improve his stamina. He runs very well, is a proficient base stealer and excels at tracking balls in center field. His arm is also a weapon, though he has a tendency of dropping his arm slot, causing his throws to tail more than desired. More than anything, Parker just needs to improve his contact and mature as a ball player.
Even with a relatively slow start to his 2010 season, he should warrant a long look in the first round in June.—ALLAN SIMPSON
UPDATE (5/15): Parker’s Jekyll and Hyde 2010 season caused a lot of angst among scouts initially, but it seemed to take an upward turn with one swing of the bat in mid-April against Virginia Tech’s Jesse Hahn, when Parker took the fireballing righthander and potential 2010 first-rounder deep, with a prodigious blast to the opposite field. Parker suddenly starting hitting the long ball at a rate more in line with his breakout 2009 season, and was hitting .337-8-48 through mid-May, and shared the club lead in homers. Though he still led the Cavaliers in strikeouts (43, in 52 games), his strike-zone awareness improved noticeably, and he began taking better, more competitive at-bats.
Prior to his blast again Hahn, Parker seemed to be a classic victim of draft-itis as he would fidget with his approach to hitting almost at-bat to at-bat, moving from a stride to no-stride approach, to a crouch vs. no crouch set-up, to a different hand placement on the bat. At times, Parker looked more like a simple role player than a potential first-rounder, but when his offense got untracked, he looked very much like the long, lean player with a solid speed/power combination and legit center-field skills.—AS