ESPN's Keith Law found yesterday's first round insane. To fully understand why you should join ESPN Insider and read his piece, which I heartily recommend. A few highlights:
- Law found it interesting that the Brewers snagged high school righty Dylan Covey at #14, because they are a team in need of more immediate rotation help. GM Doug Melvin explained to Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that scouting director Bruce Seid deserves credit for not taking the easy path in the form of a college hurler. On yesterday's conference call, MLBTR's Ben Nicholson-Smith learned that Covey feels there's a "really good chance" he'll sign rather than attend the University of San Diego.
- Law felt that the Reds took the best player available at #12 in college catcher Yasmani Grandal, and having strong catching depth in the system will not be a bad thing.
- The Cardinals drew praise for landing college third baseman Zack Cox, who surprisingly fell to #25.
- The Red Sox and Angels' many first-round picks were lauded by Law. College righty Anthony Ranaudo was an intriguing choice by the Red Sox. The Boras client was considered one of the draft's top talents before suffering a stress reaction in his forearm. WEEI's Alex Speier has more on Boston's three picks.
- The biggest surprise of the draft had to be the Cubs taking college righty Hayden Simpson at #16, who was not considered a first rounder by most draft gurus. Cubs scouting director Tim Wilken told Phil Rogers of the Chicago Tribune he had it confirmed that other clubs would've taken Simpson before the Cubs picked again at #65. The Yankees' selection of high school shortstop Cito Culver at #32 was another surprise.
- The Dodgers took a very tough sign in high school pitcher Zach Lee, who has a commitment to play football at LSU. Dodgers assistant GM Logan White insisted to Dylan Hernandez of the L.A. Times that the team did not purposely take an unsignable player to save money.
My favorite pick in the top 10 would be the Mets taking Matt Harvey. Harvey is a very good pitcher out of UNC, i’ve got to watch him a few times. If Mets give him 2-3 years in the minors, he’ll be a very good pitcher.
Omar probably wants to call him up the second he signs.
Wouldn’t surprise me, but if he does that, Harvey would be the younger version of Perez.
I was joking. If Harvey was called up now, especially with his college workload, he wouldn’t be the younger version of Oliver Perez. He would be the humanoid version of burnt toast.
I’m really surprised Stetson Allie is still on the board. Come onnnnn Nats!
The Cubs taking Hayden was a huge suprise…But he does have three good pitches with the curve, slider and fastball. He also throws a changeup that needs to develope. They may have stretched to get him before someone else, but he should turn into a good #2 or a great #3 within a few years. Plus he should be pretty cheap for a first rounder. Only time will tell but I think this has the makings of a great draft pick. The Cardinals got lucky as hell with their pick, way to go Redbirds
I’m going to have to trust Wilken’s track record on this one. The guy has earned the benefit of the doubt. And if Hayden Simpson was the guy they liked and there were multiple teams ready to grab him, then it makes sense that the Cubs pulled the trigger early. The way this draft is shaping up, it looks like the Cubs may be able to get a more conventional “first round talent” later in the draft.
As for Simpson, his stuff seems good enough for the first round. 4 pitches that have a chance to be average or better and very good velocity. He has the kind of athleticism Wilken favors in his picks. The reasons he wasn’t projected so early are his small frame and his level of competition. Let’s hope the Cubs outsmarted the other teams and not themselves on this one.
hah wouldn’t expect Law to say anything good about the jays picks.
Actually Law and others have been very impressed with the players the jays drafted. The guys in the compensation round in their opinions will turn out to be better than mcguire if everything works out and apparently they have huge upside.
In that Phil Rogers article, Wilken was quoted as saying he had it confirmed that the Angels were set to pick Hayden Simpson. I find it a little ironic that a team regarded as having one of the better drafts was set to pick a player whose selection was widely panned by the baseball media. In other words, at some point, they settled for someone else who they actually liked less than Simpson, and wound up getting lauded because they made a more conventional pick.
So really, isn’t getting lauded by the media, and, by extension, the baseball fan, just a matter of making the expected pick rather than their favored pick?