Scouting the 2017 Draft: Nick Pratto; Heliot Ramos

Nick Pratto, LHP/1B/OF, HS.  B-L, T-L.  6'2", 200 lbs.

Pratto is HS two way player from Huntington Beach, CA.  As a hitter, he has a sweet swing and as a pitcher he has a 89-92 MPH FB.  He's played some OF, but all the scouting reports project him at 1B where his terrific arm would be wasted.  Read between those lines and you get the idea he has no wheels.  BA has Pratto ranked as their #8 draft prospect.  That is, by far, the highest ranking I've seen for him.  To me, he's a tweener who is a very good all around player but as a pitcher, he doesn't have elite velocity and as a position player, he's stuck at 1B which really devalues him.  IMO, he should go to college and find out which direction he develops fastest.  Most likely he's a pitcher.

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Heliot Ramos, OF, HS(PR).  B-R, T-R.  6'2", 185 lbs.

Ramos has tools.  The PG metrics have him as a 6.55 runner, 88 MPH on OF throws, 89 MPH exit velocity.  The only thing giving me pause is a very long Time to Impact, .132 sec.  I have to confess that I don't really know what Time to Impact means.  It seems like it should be roughly an objective way to measure length of swing, but I am not sure we know that yet.  Ramos absolutely tore up some major showcases including one where he fell a double short of hitting for the cycle in one game.  I think  I will start a research project where I record Time to Impact for all these HS hitters who were recorded by PG and track them for several years and see how predictive it is in terms of hit tool.

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DrB's Updated 2017 Draft Board:  Some major changes to the current board as it is time to acknowledge that Jeren Kendall is having a darn good junior season and probably deserves to be the top prospect, although his K rate remains worrisome.  Also time to drop some severely underperforming college players.

1.  Jeren Kendall, OF, College(Vanderbilt).
2.  JB Bakauskas, RHP, College(North Carolina).
3.  Brendan McKay, LHP/1B, College(Louisville).
4.  Brady McConnell, SS, HS.
5.  Hunter Greene, RHP/SS, HS.
6.  Alex Faedo, RHP, College(Florida).
7.  Alex Lange, RHP, College(LSU).
8.  Seth Romero, LHP, College(Houston).
9.  Ricardo De La Torre, SS, HS(PR).
10.  Jordan Adell, OF, HS.
11.  Mark Vientos, SS, HS.
12.  Royce Lewis, SS/OF, HS.
13.  Heliot Ramos, OF, HS(PR).
14.  Trevor Rogers, LHP, HS.
15.  Austin Beck, OF, HS.
16.  Will Crowe, RHP, College(South Carolina).
17.  Brendon Little, LHP, JC(State College of Florida).
18.  Kyle Wright, RHP, College(Vanderbilt).
19.  Brewer Hicklen, OF, College(UAB).
20.  Alex Scherff, RHP, HS.
21.  Hans Crouse, RHP, HS.
22.  DL Hall, LHP, HS.
23.  Jacob Heatherly, LHP, HS.
24.  Calvin Mitchell, OF, HS.
25.  Conor Uselton, OF, HS.
26.  Garrett Mitchell, OF, HS.
27.  Keston Hiura, 2B, College(UC Irvine).
28.  Clarke Schmidt, RHP, College(South Carolina).
29.  Pavin Smith, 1B, College(Virginia).
30.  Jake Burger, 3B, College(Missouri St.).
31.  Cole Brannen, OF, HS.
32.  Colton Hock, RHP, College(Stanford).
33.  Mackenzie Gore, LHP, HS.
34.  Nick Allen, SS, HS.
35.  Blayne Enlow, RHP, HS.
36.  Hagen Danner, RHP, HS.
37.  Alejandro Toral, 1B, HS.
38.  Nick Pratto, LHP/1B, HS.
39.  Corbin Martin, RHP, College(Texas A&M).
40.  Griffin Canning, RHP, College(UCLA).
41.  Tanner Houck, RHP, College(Missouri).
42.  Michael Gigliotti, OF, College(Lipscomb).
43.  Evan Skoug, C, College(TCU).
44.  Tristan Beck, RHP, College(Stanford).
45.  JJ Schwarz, C, College(Florida).