Yesterday, Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos told ESPN's Buster Olney that he's less-than-thrilled with the depth in this year's draft. However, you'll be hard pressed to find scouts that aren't high on the talent near the top of the boards. Here's the latest draft news..
- UNC third baseman Colin Moran is moving up draft boards and some say he might even go first overall to the Astros, tweets Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com. However, Jonathan Gray, Mark Appel, and Kris Bryant are generally viewed as the top three players in the draft.
- Speaking of Appel, Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com writes that he has no regrets about his decision to return to Stanford last year rather than sign with the Pirates. "I tried to shield myself from it," Appel said of talk that he only returned to school to land more money this year. "But when you're on Twitter and anyone can say anything behind a keyboard without having to say it to your face, people will show their true colors. I saw a lot of people calling me greedy and things like that. Initially, it affected me, because I don't think anyone likes it when people don't like you. Then I realized that these people don't know me. All they know is I turned down $3.8MM."
- The international draft talk is raising job security concerns amongst scouts, writes Ben Badler of Baseball America. Some area scouts are worried about being moved to part-time status or losing their jobs altogether, particularly in countries that don’t produce a high volume of talent. In the long term, scouts are concerned that if a draft leads to a decrease in the number of players signed in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, then that could hurt scouting jobs in those countries as well. However, most international directors say that they aren't planning on changing much if an international draft is put into place.
