As a reminder of the draft’s hit-or-miss nature, MLBPipeline.com’s Jim Callis looks back at the 2007 draft and guesses how teams would pick with a decade of hindsight. Despite the presence of several superstars in this year’s class, only six of the 2007 first-rounders also appear in Callis’ new mock first round. It makes for a fun series of “what-if” scenarios given all of the big names in play…or maybe not that fun, if your favorite team made an ill-fated pick ten years ago.
Here’s the latest on news about this year’s amateur draft, which takes place on Monday…
- The Twins will have high schooler Hunter Greene in for a workout on Friday, MLBPipeline.com’s Jonathan Mayo reports. Recent reports have linked Minnesota to Vanderbilt righty Kyle Wright with the first overall pick and the Twins could simply be doing their due diligence on another highly-touted youngster. That said, as Mayo writes, the timing of Greene’s visit is “not exactly the kind of thing a team does so close to the Draft for a player they’re not considering.”
- From that same item, Jim Callis looks at how teams could use Brendan McKay, who is drawing attention both as a first baseman and as a left-handed pitcher. The Twins, Reds, and Padres (who own the top three picks) are all likely-to-certain to use him as a pitcher, while the Rays (fourth overall) and Braves (fifth) would probably make McKay a full-time position player. Callis, for the record, doesn’t believe McKay would fall past Tampa on the draft board. McKay is so intriguing as a two-way player that Callis believes his future team could use him as a first baseman/DH on days he isn’t pitching, in order to gain more information about his ideal landing spot in the big leagues.
- Fangraphs’ Eric Longenhagen breaks down the first round of picks in a mock draft, based on such criteria as “rumors I’ve heard from various industry sources, the presence of front-office members at certain games (especially lately), each club’s own particular modus operandi, etc.” Longenhagen has Wright to the Twins with the first pick, with McKay also a strong possibility; Greene and prep southpaw MacKenzie Gore are less likely candidates. Greene is projected to go second to Cincinnati, Gore to San Diego, McKay to Tampa and shortstop Royce Lewis to Atlanta, though quite a bit seems to be up in the air with just five days away from the draft.
- For an in-depth look at the talent available, Baseball America has a ranking of the top 500 draft prospects, with individual scouting reports available for BA subscribers. BA has Greene, Wright, McKay, Gore and Lewis as the top five (which, of course, doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be taken in that order on Monday).
- Joe Perez, a high school right-hander out of Florida, will undergo Tommy John surgery, Baseball America’s Carlos Collazo reports. Despite this injury setback and the fact that Perez has committed to the University Of Miami, Collazo feels teams will still be interested in the righty, who also has drawn interest as a first baseman. Perez is rated 99th on BA’s list and 92nd on MLB Pipeline’s top 200 rankings.
I think Hunter Greene will likley end up a pitcher. All of the teams at the top of the draft need pitching
The Reds are well stocked with young pitchers. They could use a impact position player to be the future face of the team.
They have more young sluggers than pitching. They could go either way but i see the reds going with him on the mound. Its a good problem in this draft because the 2 way players will have a fallback possibly if they bust at the position they start at
Senzel, last year’s #2 overall pick, is that “impact position player.” And honestly, the Reds need more pitching in the system. The system is pretty stacked with infielders (Senzel, Dilson Herrera, Shed Long, Alex Blandino, Alfredo Rodriguez, and the recently-signed Jose Garcia, to name a few), they have 2 young infielders in the Majors that could be long term pieces (Geno Suárez and Jose Peraza), and have good outfield depth in the minors behind Hamilton, Duvall and Schebler as well, with Jesse Winker, Aristides Aquino, Phil Ervin, TJ Friedl, and Taylor Trammell, plus more. Pitching is always a bit of a wild card, because less pitching prospects pan out.
he is no doubt a pitcher
Most scouting reports I’ve seen have him ultimately coming out as a pitcher, but the drafting team will let him try both until he fails as a position player. The Red Sox did this years ago with Casey Kelly; they let him play short for a couple years and he just couldn’t hit, so converted him strictly to the mound. Kelly never developed, so maybe that was a bad path, but it’s probably going to be the one a team takes with Greene.
Tommy John in high school? Poor kid.
Over 50% of Tommy John surgeries are performed on 15-19 year olds… more than any other age range. Unfortunately, it’s not an uncommon thing.
Man, while I’d love to add a talent like Kendall to the White Sox organization, his swing really worries me. I’d much rather draft one of Beck, White, Adell, or Pratto. Any way you slice it, there’s going to be a lot of talent for Hahn to choose from when he’s on the clock. It’s going to be interesting for sure.
Let’s hope it doesn’t turn into Trubisky 2.0
Seeing as they can’t trade up in the MLB draft, that shouldn’t be an issue.
Who is Trubisky? Is that the college football player who was just drafted last month?
Correct.
Is there something wrong with him? I’m not following the narrative here.
I’m hoping Haseley falls. Or they pick Burger. I just really want a bat but wouldn’t mind them taking a pitcher if one is BPA.
I don’t like his swing at all. But as with Kendall, I’d be more than happy to add him to the system – just not my preference. Burger is well below the other guys for me personally.
Can someone even explain to me why SI is calling Greene “the next Lebron or Babe Ruth” and yet he might not even be a top 2 pick?
he’s not going to be a top 2 pick because he’s in high school, nobody really drafts a high school pitcher with the first couple picks for obvious reasons
What this guy said. Jason Groome was fairly consensus as the #1 draft prospect in baseball last draft season but in the months before the draft started to slip simply because he’s a Prep Pitcher. The reasoning for him slipping all the way to BOS at #12(?) is more political but my point remains.
I think part of the problem with Groome is that he fully intended to go to college if he didn’t get the signing bonus he wanted
Teams often try to stay away from players they see as “unsignable”
There were also rumors of off the field issues that are often cited.
Well, all that really tells me is SI is grossly overvaluing him. If he were really Lebron’s caliber… or friggin Babe Ruth… high school or college wouldn’t matter. He’s supposed to be just as good at hitting as he is at pitching.
They are saying that because they want to generate a flashy-sounding headline.
They compare him to Babe Ruth because the Babe was one if the best lefty pitchers in baseball then because of his bat they made him an OF’er. Thats all.
Because it sells magazines and gets page views?
Seriously though — super talented with lots of potential, one of the increasingly rare young black pitchers and the fact that he’s just a super nice kid all makes it really easy to make a big deal out of him. But reality is, teams shy away from hs pitchers because so few will pan out, they’d rather take a less risky pick.
The Padres seem to really like Greene, and that would be good if they could draft him 3rd. Still, “two-way” players like that always make me kind of hesitant. The last two-way top prospect guy the Padres had was Casey Kelly, and look how that turned out.
Yeah, the Red Sox tried to let Kelly do both for a couple years, but he couldn’t hit so he eventually just pitched. He probably wasted crucial development time and the pitching never caught up. Then he had TJ and it was over.