OK, I needed to get away from watching the Giants swing and miss at belt high Tony Cingrani fastballs so I thought I'd use the time to round off my pre-draft analysis.
Once you get past the first round, you are looking at mainly college talent unless there is a particular HS player who the scouts have figured out really wants to turn pro and won't insist on having their college commitment bought out. Here are some names for rounds 4-7 who I would not be unhappy to see the Giants draft in those rounds. Interestingly, the hitting seems to be a bit more plentiful down in this range than in rounds 1-3:
Round 4:
Nick Torres, OF, Cal Poly. 6'1", 210 lb. B-R, T-R. .318/.378/.450, 5 HR, 4 SB.
JD Davis, OF/1B/RHP, Cal State Fullerton. 6'3", 215 lbs. B-R, T-R. .338/.419/.523, 6 HR, 7 SB.
Jordan Montgomery, LHP, South Carolina. 6'5", 225 lbs. 8-5, 3.42, 100 IP, 29 BB, 95 K.
Sam Howard, LHP, Georgia Southern. 6'3", 185 lbs. 7-6, 2.35, 95.2 IP, 22 BB, 94 K's.
Austin Byler, 1B/3B, Nevada. 6'3", 225 lbs. B-L, T-R. .326, .420/.624, 14 HR, 7 SB.
I think Howard is a sleeper, not to be confused with another Howard who is ranked higher. Byler's numbers were put up in a hitter friendly environment.
Round 5:
Greg Allen, OF, SDSU. B-R, T-R. .307/.390/.386, 25 SB.
Brandon Downes, C/OF, Virginia. 6'3", 200 lbs. B-R, T-R. .218/.326/.365, 7 HR, 9 SB.
Downes 2013 stat line was .316/.393/.569.
Round 6:
Austin Cousino, OF, Kentucky. 5'10", 185 lbs. B-L, T-L. .308/.365/.441, 4 HR, 19 SB.
Reed Reilly, RHP, Cal Poly. 6'4", 220 lbs. 3-1, 1.74, 46.2 IP, 17 BB, 52 K
Caleb Adams, OF, Louisiana-Lafayette. 6'0", 185 lbs. B-R, T-R. .383/.504/.694, 11 HR, 6 SB.
Reilly was the kid who displaced Chase Johnson as the closer at Cal Poly last year. Adams' line looks impressive, but I noticed that pretty much every hitter in the La-Laf lineup had awesome numbers.
Round 7:
Joey Pankake, 3B/OF, South Carolina. 6'1", 200 lbs. B-R, T-R. .303/.394/.421, 5 HR, 4 SB.
Tanner English, OF, South Carolina. 5'9", 170 lbs. B-R, T-R. .284/.349/.349, 1 HR, 21 SB.
Neither of these guys excite me too much. Round 7 might be a good spot to reach for a high-ceiling sleeper or a go for a signable HS kid.
Here are a few names I like for later in the draft. I kind of found these at random looking through college baseball box scores:
Gunnar Heidt, 2B, College of Charleston. B-L, T-R. .335/.417/.482, 4 HR, 15 SB.
Bradley Story, 2B, Western Carolina. B-L, T-R. .339/.401/.548, 6 HR, 20 SB.
Jeremy Null, RHP, Western Carolina, 6'8", 230 lbs. 6-4, 2.94, 101 IP, 29 BB, 93 K.
Austin Robichaux, RHP, Louisiana-Lafayette. 7-3, 2.83, 82.2 IP, 21 BB, 76 K.
Lastly, there's a HS RHP who I have to point out: Bryce Montes De Oca out of Kansas. He's a 6'7", 265 lb fireballer who underwent TJ surgery early in his junior season. He came back this year to throw in the 92-97 MPH range. He's ranked #72 on BA's Top 500. Round 2 might be a bit rich for him, but if he fell to round 3, I think you might have to consider him. His stock is reportedly rising rapidly. Do you risk a second round pick on the guy with so many other good looking HS pitchers available?
Wouldn't you know it? Just like that the Giants take the lead while I'm writing this up. Science!
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Morse and Perez didn't miss them! Another comeback win, another strong start from Vogey. What a story he's been so far.
ReplyDeleteYou and I have our sites set on many of the same players DrB. Funny that you mentioned Montes de Oca. I've seen him, looked him over a few times, and really just didn't put him in the same class as a few of the other 2nd round prep targets. I didn't realize he threw that hard though. Definitely a name to keep an eye on.
I like Nick Torres and Greg Allen both, and think JD Davis would be a nice pickup that late if you could snag him. He was an All-American candidate coming into the year at Fullerton. I've also had my eye on Robichaux all season. That ULL team is tricky. Lots of crazy stat lines, as you say, but hey... there were a top 5 team in the nation. So, were the numbers legit, or are all those hitters #'s just inflated? I'm really not sure.
I threw Reed Reilly on my list too. If you're going to draft Chase Johnson, you might as well take Reilly... unless there's some bad blood from the closer scandal of 2013!
As for those later rounds, I would love to see the Giants get dangerous and go big for a few more preps. There's just so much high school talent this year, and they started to show that trend last year with Dylan Brooks, John Riley, etc... so maybe they'll throw down some money on a few guys who slide through the cracks. I think we proved last year how well respected of an organization we are, signing Arroyo and Jones away from tough commits. Offer the right price, and you might just be able to get a few more high upside guys to enter the organization early. Looking forward to the next 3 days!
Thanks for posting your draftboards! What shocked me was seeing Austin Byler crush a homer over the RF fence against Hawaii's talented LHP Scott Squier who will be drafted also. That tells me Byler might be pretty good.
ReplyDeleteLG
We'll see how it all turns out. Mock Drafts and draft boards are more to give a general idea of what types of players might be available in a given round. If I hit on even one of these, I'll be pretty happy. Last year it was Tyler Horan. Wonder who it will be this year, if anybody.
DeleteLots of fluidity at the top of this year's draft. Kiley McDaniel says Tyler Kolek's stock is dropping like a rock due to fear of injury risk, which is something I said in my earlier mock draft.