Monday, January 1, 2018

Scouting the 2018 Draft: Joey Bart

Joey Bart is a college catcher for Georgia Tech.  He's a big one at 6'3", 230 lbs and he B-R, T-R.   He got some attention coming out of HS for his strong throwing arm and power potential and has made nice progress in his first 2 college seasons.  He hit .299 as a freshman but with just 1 HR.  He found his power stroke in his 2'nd college season with 13 dingers to go with his .296 BA.  His record in wood bat leagues is mixed as he slashed .309/.389/.433 in the Cape Cod League in 2016, but struggled to a .176 BA in just 30 AB's in 2017 before joining USA Baseball.  The slash lines consistently come with a relatively low walk rate and a 25% K rate.

Bart has always had a strong throwing arm with good pop times and gunned down 40% of base stealers last year.  There were questions about the rest of his catching game, but he has worked hard to upgrade those and is now generally considered to be a future MLB catcher by most scouts.

Bart offers an intriguing combination of catching tools and skills with power in the bat, and that is probably enough to give him a long MLB career, but it might be a fringy one with a high risk that he's a career backup catcher.  Best case scenario would be something like Mike Zunino.  Personally, I would not spend a first round draft pick on him and probably not a second rounder either.
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DrB's Updated 2018 Draft Board:

1.  Seth Beer, OF/1B, College(Clemson)
2.  Jarred Kelenic, OF, HS
3.  Nander De Sedas, SS, HS
4.  Kumar Rocker, RHP, HS
5.  Ethan Hankins, RHP, HS
6.  Brady Singer, RHP, College(Florida)
7.  Logan Gilbert, RHP, College(Stetson).
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8.  Matthew Liberatore, LHP, HS
9.  Travis Swaggerty, OF, College(University of South Alabama)
10. Tristan Pompey, OF, College(Kentucky)
11.  Nolan Gorman, 3B, HS
12.  Greyson Jenista, OF/1B, College(Wichita St)
13.  Casey Mize, RHP, College(Auburn)
14.  Nick Madrigal, 2B, College(Oregon St)
15.  Shane McClanahan, LHP, College(University of South Florida)
16.  Jackson Kowar, RHP, College(Florida)
17.  Ryan Rolison, LHP, College(Mississippi)
18.  Griffin Conine, OF, College(Duke)
19.  Brice Turang, SS, HS
20.  Jeremy Eierman, SS, College(Missouri St)
21.  Joey Bart, C, College(Georgia Tech)

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