This mock draft I’m doing a little “where there’s smoke, there’s fire” version of the draft. The past two weeks I’ve heard different rumors on where certain prospects may land, what team is hot for what player, etc. in another Sisyphean attempt at the mock draft. Oh, the mock draft. How it mocks me.
- Tampa Bay: Buster Posey, C, Florida State—I believe it was Buster Olney who had the scoop that Tampa is pretty hot for him. Despite Posey’s impressive power surge this year, most feel his style portends to high average/high on base type of hitter with moderate power. He plays premium defense and addresses an organizational weakness for the Rays. He doesn’t strike me as a typical 1, 1 player, but the Rays really can’t go wrong here.
- Pittsburgh: Pedro Alvarez, 3B, Vanderbilt—Pedro would probably be a clear cut #1 had he not broken his hamate bone, and he hasn’t been any better than average since returning. I see Pittsburgh making a splash with Pedro as the 2nd overall pick.
- Kansas City: Tim Beckham, SS, HS, GA—Sure, they drafted Mike Moustakas last year and are playing him at SS, but most feel he’s a 3B or a RF down the road. Beckham on the other hand should stick at short, and it’s hard to leave a 5-tool player of his caliber on the board.
- San Fransisco: Justin Smoak, 1B, South Carolina—Word is they really like Smoak in San Fran. [Insert hippie reference/bong joke here.] The Giants are looking to find an impact bat that can help them in short order.
- Baltimore: Gordon Beckham, SS, Georgia—The O’s like Beckham, and he addresses a huge organizational need at SS. He should fly through their system.
- Florida: Brian Matusz, LHP, San Diego—He hasn’t been as impressive as he’s capable of this season, but he’s still the safest pitcher to pick in this draft.
- Cincinnati: Aaron Crow, RHP, Missouri— Aaron Crow, RHP, Missouri—He’s faded a bit since his scoreless inning streak was snapped, but he’s still got that power arm. Mechanical concerns abound, but there’s still a lot to like here for Walt Jocketty and Co.
- Chicago: Eric Hosmer, 1B, HS, FL—High priced and highly advanced high school hitter has possibly the best power in the draft.
- Washington: Josh Fields, RHP, Georgia—Jim Bowden throws a curveball and reaches a bit to get (arguably) the best college closer in the draft to replace Chad Cordero in the very near future. He just might be closing games in DC by September.
- Houston: Kyle Skipworth, C, HS, CA—Excellent hitting lefty catcher with improved defense.
- Texas: Tanner Scheppers, RHP, Fresno St—The Rangers cut Beane’s legs, taking the guy he was hoping to snag.
- Oakland: Yonder Alonso, 1B, U of Miami FL—The A’s are real hard for me to peg. They have a lot of depth at pitcher, but really need some middle infield depth, but there isn’t a great fit here. Maybe Casey Kelly? Jemile Weeks? I’m puzzled about what they do here, so I’m just going with whom I’d personally take.
- St. Louis: Shooter Hunt, RHP, Tulane—The ceiling…the stuff…the control issues. Hunt is the best pitcher available here. Don’t tell Picklefork, but I believe Hunt is the man here.
Filed under: 2008 MLB draft
erik
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fewgoodcards
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I think you have the order wrong…O’s draft at 4, Giants at 5.
This draft has me completely “meh.”
If we can get Hunt at 13 I’ll be ecstatic.
The college heavy style of drafting has finally wore down the pickle…I am pretty resigned to the fact they will go for high floor, safer picks at the expense of higher upsider, higher risk, higher bonus HS’ers.
I dont even scout the HS kids anymore.
As for your mock..I agree…I also think they will take Hunt if he is there.
A couple of us were giving our top 4 pick mocks for the Cards.
#13 Shooter Hunt
#39 James Darnell
#59 Aaron Shafer
#91 Logan Forsythe (The yearly Descalso Reach pick)
All college all the time….
JP–Yeah, I knew that. Maybe something got goofy when I was formatting, I was in a little bit of a rush.
P’Fork. If they land Shafer that would be a nice score. In my next mock I’ll try and go all the way to their supplemental pick.
I got a sneaky feeling the top 10 will have 2 or 3 big surprises in it…..after 4 or 5 players..there isnt much difference between player #6 and player #25.
So you might some predraft deals worked out…
Just a hunch though..I dont know anything.
i wouldn’t really consider shooter hunt to be high floor, safer pick. there is a huge amount of risk with him, but on the other side if he puts it together he could be a #2 starter. he is a lot like a high school pitcher except 3 years older.
Ya I too dont consider Hunt a high floor guy…..was just going by past history.
We will see how it plays out..maybe they will make me eat my words.
I hope they go back to the 2005 draft blueprint.
Bryan Smith of BP really likes Ethan Martin as a pitcher. He has hit 96 on the gun and could add velocity. Scouting reports say he has three above average to plus pitches that could all end up being plus. His velocity stays with him late into games. He’s a number 1 type guy. I usually root for them to use their first pick on a position player but I would be happy if they take Martin.
okay, heres the deal, Shooter Hunt lived with me over the summer, he played some Cape League. The kid throws some heat. And if you want a nice fan favorite, he’s a handsome kid, and great man. I wish Boston could get him though, Good luck to all
Does Picklefork, who seems knowledgeable, really think it’s possible to trade baseball draft picks, or is he just being facetious? I’m not familiar enough with his style to be certain.
I love reading mock drafts for this year’s draft, and I’ve been soaking them in all over the place. But I wonder if it’s the right thing to do when the end result is merely attempting to figure out who the Cardinals will take.
I mean, is there any chance that you’ll have a mock draft in the future where any of that top 8 slips to the Cards? I don’t think so. Why don’t we assume that top 8 is gone, and then post different scenarios for 9-12? That would be a nice way of looking at the names they are considering … or at least, the names you think they’re considering.
and even if the top guys do fall, the cardinals haven’t shown a willingness to take them in recent years so either way we should just consider the scenarios like you mentioned. another thing to consider is that the cardinals have been known to go a little off the board in recent years with guys like ottavino and mortensen who weren’t seen as consensus picks in the area they were taken.
when we get closer to the draft i will start having more posts discussing potential picks. i will do a post like you mentioned discussing 4 or 5 different scenarios and how the cardinals may react. i will also profile some players who fit the cardinals prototype for some of the later rounds.
Mike G, i assume you are talking about Pickle’s post where he mentioned pre-draft deals? he didn’t mean trades, a pre-draft deal in the baseball draft means a team talks to a player prior to the draft and says we understand you are not going to go before pick 20 (just using that as an example), if you want we will take you at pick 14 and pay you a little less than the slot for that spot. pickle said he thinks a lot of teams will be doing that since a lot of people think a lot of these players are pretty equal in talent.
Thanks. I realized that eventually, but I guess I hadn’t had enough coffee earlier and was mentally challenged when I wrote that.
My husband also has the Cards taking Shooter Hunt at #13 over at 3guysandasportspage.com He also has them taking Destin Hood - OF, St. Paul’s Episcopal (Mobile, AL) at #59 in round 2