Scouting the Draft: Helium Prospect and DrB's Mock Draft Out Of Left Field

Condolences to Giants Director of Amateur Scouting, Michael Holmes and his family, for the recent loss if his wife, Heather, to breast cancer at the way too young age of 45.  Heather Kahl Holmes was an accomplished volleyball player and coach who had been the women's volleyball coach at Wake Forest University.  The Giants have excused Michael from the his draft day duties to be with his family during their time of grieving.  The Draft room will be run by former Giants scouting director John Barr and by National Crosschecker, Brian Bridges, who had been the Braves scouting director for several years.   Michael Holmes has said he still wants to be involved on draft day so I imagine he will be present through a Skype link or equivalent.  I am also quite sure that GM Farhan Zaidi and his assistant JP Ricciardi will be heavily involved on Day 1 and Brian Sabean has reportedly done some scouting this cycle himself.

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I wasn't planning to update my Draft Board after yesterday, but we have our helium prospect to take into account.  Remember the 2009 draft when a kid named Mike Trout caught helium and there were rumors the Giants might be interested?  Well, they took Zach Wheeler and Trout ended up falling back to the Angels at #25.  We all know how that worked out.  Similar Story in 2017 with a kid named Austin Beck.  He shot all the way up to the A's at #8.  He may pan out, but so far he's not looking at all like Mike Trout.  (Thanks to MCC's Bryan Murphy to alerting us to this year's helium prospect):

Keoni Cavaco 3B, HS.  B-R, T-R.  6'1", 185 lbs.  Cavaco is from Chula Vista CA, hometown of Adrian Gonzalez.  He has eschewed showcases(the latest info PG National has on him is from 2015), so flew under the radar.  Lately I've seen him mocked at #15 to the Angels(of course) but have to admit I ignored him due to the 3B positional designation.  Turns out he doesn't have a typical 3B tool chest and he doesn't only play 3B. He's also mentioned as a RHP, C and OF.  His top 2 tools are Run(60) and Throw(60) and is rated 55 for power.  The only concern is whether he will hit enough to tap into the power with a 45 hit tool rating. On video he is athletic, looks like there is still projection in the body and he has a fairly short, simple swing that looks like should work.  On top of all that, Cavaco just turned 18 yo so is one of the younger members of this year's draft class.  Latest mocks have him going to the Twins at #13 which is within striking distance of the Giants.  After completing my own research on him, I would slip Cavaco into #9 ahead of Alek Manoah and Riley Greene(Greene has better hit tools but Cavaco's are respectable and he blows Greene away with run and throw.  I see a lot of similarities to Heliot Ramos in Cavaco.  Like Ramos, if I thought he might fall to the Dodgers, I would say the Giants absolutely cannot let that happen!

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DrB's Mock Draft(for what it's worth). Note that I do not have any inside information like Fangraphs, MLB Pipeline and Baseball America have when making this draft other that what I read.

1.  Orioles:  Adley Rutschman C, College(Oregon St).  If there is one team who would try to get cute with the first overall pick, soil themselves in the process, turn their fans into a pitchfork mob and throw the rest of the draft into chaos, it's the Orioles.  There is a feeling in the draft community that he O's might not be all in on Rutschman and bonus demands could play a huge role here, but nobody has a clue what else they might do.  They should draft Rutschman who is as close to a sure thing as you are going to get in the baseball draft.

2.  Royals:  Bobby Witt Jr. SS, HS.  Royals are widely rumored to be in love with Witt Jr. and would probably stick with him even if Rutschman goes #1, unless of course the O's take him at #1.

3.  White Sox:  Andrew Vaughn 1B, College(Cal).  The White Sox are said to be debating between Vaughn and CJ Abrams.  They haven not taken a HS player in the first round since Courtney Hawkins in 2012(remember him?  He recently hooked up with the Giants and is playing in San Jose).  I think the Sox will stick with what's been working for them and take Vaughn, the best power bat in the draft despite the positional limitations.

4.  Marlins:  JJ Bleday OF, Marlins.  Marlins are linked to Bleday and he's the best player available here.

5.  Tigers:  Riley Greene OF, HS.  Tigers have taken pitchers in the first round 4 years in a row and college pitchers the last two years.  They also took Christin Stewart, a HS OF who is very similar to Greene at #34 in 2015.  They are rumored to want Andrew Vaughn but would settle for Greene and hope for a Christin Stewart outcome.  Given their recent tendency to draft pitchers I could see them falling in love with Jackson Rutledge's ceiling here.

6.  Padres:  CJ Abrams SS, HS.  Padres farm system is so loaded they can afford to take the risk on the tools and be patient in the development process.  Abrams is the kid they want and I think he will fall to them.

7.  Reds:  Bryson Stott SS, College(UNLV).  Reds are rumored to be heavily scouting college pitching with most mocks having them take LHP Nick Lodolo or possibly Rutledge.  I just think they've had so much success with college hitters in recent drafts and Bryson Stott is so much like Nick Senzel, I think they will take Stott here, which is what they should do.

8.  Rangers:  Jackson Rutledge RHP, JC.  Lots of mystery around the Ranger who are rumored to be looking for an underslot deal.  Most mocks have them taking HS 3B Brett Baty here.  They desperately need an ace pitcher who can move up quickly and Rutledge has the highest ceiling of any pitcher in the draft.  He transferred to JC specifically so he could be drafted this year, so may also be amenable to an underslot deal.

9.  Braves(compensation pick):  Quinn Priester RHP, HS.  The Braves love to draft HS pitching and Priester is the composite of what a Braves first round draft pick looks like.

10.  Giants:  Keoni Cavaco, 3B, HS.  The Giants have been linked to Bryson Stott, Alek Manoah RHP, College(West Virginia), RHP Matthew Allan, HS and Kameron Misner OF, College(Missouri).  Although each of those names makes sense in some way, they all feel like smokescreens to me.    I've been trying to figure out who the Giants real target might be and a lightbulb switched on when I read Bryan Murphy's piece and he floated Cavaco's scouting report.

There was another piece on MCC, I think by Kevin Cunningham, on the different personalities in the Giants scouting department and who each of them might like in this draft.  Bryson Stott seems like a very John Barr pick, but he is off the board in this scenario.  The Braves under Brian Bridges drafted almost exclusively HS pitching in the first round.  That would lend credence to the Matthew Allan rumors. We know Brian Sabean loves players who perform well in the Cape Cod League which might explain the interest in Alek Manoah. The two guy who are going to have the biggest say in the first round pick, though, are Farhan Zaidi and Michael Holmes.

Zaidi and the A's are very data driven in their approach, but don't forget that the cutting edge of data these days is the ability to objectively measure things like velocity, spin rates, exit velocity, launch angle, time to impact, barrel velocity.  Zaidi is known to be a tool fool and the A's have completely sold out for tools in the last several drafts.  Cavaco feels like this year's Austin Beck.  I had even thought the Giants might be going after one of the football players, Maurice Hampton or Jerrion Ealy as high as #10 after the A's risked everything on Kyler Murray last year.  One other clue comes from Keith Law, who has ties to JP Ricciardi from their Blue Jays days.  He says the Giants are not locked into college players and even implies they might be preferably looking at HS players.  As Kevin Cunningham also pointed out, Farhan Zaidi also has a fetish for stockpiling catchers so don't be shocked if the pick is Shea Langeliers C, College(Baylor) an elite defensive catcher who should also hit.  I might throw myself down the stairs if the Giants take Langeliers at #10!  LOL!

So, I'm all in on Keoni Cavaco to the Giants at #10.  Look this kid up.  I think he has a very Heliot Ramos vibe to him which John Barr just might be on board with.

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I'll take a quick stab in the dark on the Giants second through 6'th round picks:

Round 2 #51:  Michael Toglia 1B/OF, College(UCLA).

Round 3 #87:  Brett Thomas RHP, HS.

Round 4 #116:  Jared Triolo 3B, College(Houston).

Round 5 #146:  Drake Fellows RHP, College(Vanderbilt).

Round 6 #176:  Glenallen Hill Jr. OF, HS.

Over/under on which round the Giants first take a player we've never heard of from a school we've never heard of?