It is impossible to narrow down the potential draft choices past Round 2, so I am not going to try. Instead, I'll wrap things up with some random draft thoughts. I will try to post both a final DrB's 2019 Draft Board and a 10-15 pick mock draft next weekend. The Draft itself starts on Monday, 6/3.
While Adley Rutschman C, College(Oregon St) is the consensus #1 draft prospect, he is not so far ahead of the pack to make him his own tier. I am seeing a top tier of 11-15 players who you could make a case for at least top 5 consideration if not #1 overall. Within that tier are 4 college hitters, Rutschman, Andrew Vaughn 1B(Cal), JJ Bleday OF(Vanderbilt) and Bryson Stott SS(UNLV). Those 4 are complemented by 3 HS hitters, SS Bobby Witt Jr, SS CJ Abrams and OF Riley Greene. The conventional wisdom is this is a terrible year for pitchers, but I am warming up to the pitching crop and find at least 4 who are worthy of top 10 consideration, LHP Nick Lodolo(college/TCU), RHP Alek Manoah(college/West Virginia), RHP Jackson Rutledge(JC) and RHP Matthew Allan(HS). Rutledge in particular is someone I could see going top due to his incredible size and projectability.
That is 11 names so two are guaranteed to be on the board when the Giants select at #10. In addition to those 11, C Shea Langeliers(College/Baylor) seems to be moving back up draft boards and into top 10 consideration as an elite defensive catcher whose bat seems good enough. As Kevin Cunningham noted in a recent MCC post, Farhan Zaidi has a long history of stockpiling catchers to the point of it being a fetish for him. I've also seen Langeliers mocked as high as #2, so there's not guarantee Zaidi gets to scratch that itch. LHP Zack Thompson(college/Kentucky) seems to be catching some late helium and some analysts have RHP Quinn Priester as the top HS pitcher on their boards ahead of Allan. So there's 3 more players on the fringes of the top tier, possibly included.
Take home message? Unless Farhan tries to get cute with an underslot deal, which he absolutely should not do, the Giants are going to get a highly regarded prospect with their 10'th overall pick in round 1.
*********************************************************************************
Everybody knows about Bobby Witt Jr's dad being a MLB pitcher. There are at least 2 more 2019 draft prospects related to former MLB'ers, including another "junior". Glenallen Hill, Jr is an athletic, switch-hitting HS OF ranked #169 by MLB Pipeline. Glenallen Sr played for the Giants from 1995-97, grew up in the Bay Area and still has a strong connection to the team.
Grae Kessinger SS(college/Mississippi) is the grandson of Don Kessinger who was an all-star SS for the Cubs back when I was a kid listening to games on the radio. Grae is ranked #128 by MLB Pipeline.
*********************************************************************************
So you think Giants catching prospect Rodolfo Bone has an 80 grade name? If that is true, we'll just have to expand the scale to 90 for Hudson Head, a 5-tool HS OF who is shooting up draft boards after a breakout senior season. He is ranked #122 by MLBP. More in the 60 grade name range is OF Matthew Barefoot a college OF from Campbell. He's ranked #148. Scouts like him better as a pitcher, but he insists he's a hitter choosing Campbell because it was the only college that would let him hit and he's actually done it very well. We know he has a great OF arm.
*********************************************************************************
My impression of the overall draft class after combing through the MLB Pipeline scouting reports is this class actually has some depth through at least round 5. It is extremely deep in both college and HS shortstops and both the college and HS pitching are underrated.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Are there any players/prospects you have your heart set on at the trade deadline? or is that more of a waste of time than trying to predict the 51st pick?
ReplyDelete