2013 Draft Discussion

[davell]

6 K's, 1 hit allowed thru 5 for Manaea.

[Guest]

Patrick Ebert of Perfect Game has Manaea up to 95, Keith Law said 94 in the first inning.

[davell]

Gray went 9, gave up 5 hits, walked 0, K'd 12. Edited March 16, 2013 by davell

[davell]

Kris Bryant's last 10 games: 18-34, 10 HR, 13W, with a .529/.660/.1.500 slash.

[Guest]

Hilarious ending to that Indiana State-Minnesota guy.

[davell]

Trevor Williams with the weird(and bad) line of the night- 7IP, 13H, 9R, 7ER, 1W, 4K's on 101 pitches.

[RammyFanny]

Gray went 9, gave up 5 hits, walked 0, K'd 12.

There isn’t much that can go wrong when Gray pitches at Friday’s level. The win only required 111 pitches and his fastball still topped 100 miles per hour in the ninth inning.

[davell]

Gray went 9, gave up 5 hits, walked 0, K'd 12.

There isn’t much that can go wrong when Gray pitches at Friday’s level. The win only required 111 pitches and his fastball still topped 100 miles per hour in the ninth inning.

I'm getting really close to putting him ahead of Manaea at this point.

[RammyFanny]

Gray went 9, gave up 5 hits, walked 0, K'd 12.

There isn’t much that can go wrong when Gray pitches at Friday’s level. The win only required 111 pitches and his fastball still topped 100 miles per hour in the ninth inning.

I'm getting really close to putting him ahead of Manaea at this point.

Law has

:

He commanded the fastball just about all night, starting to slide a little in the eighth inning, and showed no fear with the pitch even when going after hitters within the strike zone. His secondary stuff, on the other hand, was ordinary, an average slider at 78-82 that he never seemed to finish properly and a changeup in that same velocity range that had decent arm speed but, despite a split-like grip, has no significant action to it.

Manaea's arm isn't especially quick, but he generates velocity by taking a very long stride toward the plate and getting some torque from hip rotation. He has a high leg kick and stays over the rubber well before driving forward. His arm action is a little long in back; when his front foot lands he's still showing the ball to the center fielder, only pronating after his front leg is already planted. He comes from a slot below three-quarters, somewhere in the Clayton Richard-Madison Bumgarner range, and should be very tough on lefties even if the slider isn't more than average. If he finished that pitch later and stronger out in front, it might be plus again as it was last summer. For now, he's still really interesting because of the velocity and command, but I couldn't take the guy I saw tonight in the top five picks, and certainly wouldn't take him ahead of Oklahoma right-hander Jonathan Gray today.

http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/blog/_/name/mlb_draft/id/9059159/sean-manaea-yet-recapture-cape-cod-league-form-mlb-draft

[RammyFanny]

Great view on Gray's highlights yesterday.

[davell]

Rammy, thanks for the clip. Was that first paragraph you posted Law talking about Gray? I'm not sure what his secondaries are supposed to be rated as, but I thought he had a plus slider currently, according to some reports?At any rate, he's got a hell of a lot of movement, seeing that clip.

[RammyFanny]

Everything from Law was on Manaea, he only mentioned Gray in that last sentence.

[davell]

Everything from Law was on Manaea, he only mentioned Gray in that last sentence.

Ah, cool. As for Keith Law, I've had it in my head for a while now-Wish we would hire him in some capacity. Or Parks. They give us much more true insight than any of the other guys. Maybe I should include Badler with them as well.

[Guest]

Stanek wasn't the only SEC ace demoted this week; Crawford is now Florida's Saturday starter (at least Arkansas demoted Stanek in favor of a good pitcher). Crawford had another mediocre outing but at least his velocity bounced back well.

[Guest]

Rammy, thanks for the clip. Was that first paragraph you posted Law talking about Gray? I'm not sure what his secondaries are supposed to be rated as, but I thought he had a plus slider currently, according to some reports?At any rate, he's got a hell of a lot of movement, seeing that clip.

 

Gray has a plus slider.

 

Manaea's slider appears to have regressed slightly from summer on the Cape.

[davell]

I'm kind of wondering if Crawford could fall to us in the 2nd at this point. I asked Kiley, he said Crawford, Wahl, and Austin Wilson are all still top 30 guys though.

[Guest]

I'm kind of wondering if Crawford could fall to us in the 2nd at this point. I asked Kiley, he said Crawford, Wahl, and Austin Wilson are all still top 30 guys though.

 

I think Wilson has to play (poorly) before he can drop out of the first round. But sadly for him, his injury has limited how far he can move up. Sounds like he's close to coming back.

 

Scattered random notes: I wonder how many teams are aggressive enough to move Gray ahead of Manaea. And I know why Gray gets Cole comps (similiar body type and build, 100 mph FB, plus SL, holding velocity late) but Cole's change was a plus pitch at UCLA, Gray's is a work in progress.

[davell]

No clue. I'll say this and it may be totally unfounded. But I'm hoping Appel falls to us. I think he's the perfect blend of upside and safeness. Manaea scares me somewhat. And thats not what I want out of a 2nd pick. Is Gray going to solidify his status? If so, then I still don't know what to think about him at 2.

[RammyFanny]

Frazier tweeted that he homered again yesterday, for anyone keeping track.

 

Edit: Just saw that was posted on the last page.

[RammyFanny]

keithlaw ‏@keithlaw

 

Below Meadows & Gray, at least. RT @Jaypers413: If you had it to do over again today, where would Manaea rank on your top 50?

[Hairyducked Idiot]

No clue. I'll say this and it may be totally unfounded. But I'm hoping Appel falls to us. I think he's the perfect blend of upside and safeness. Manaea scares me somewhat. And thats not what I want out of a 2nd pick. Is Gray going to solidify his status? If so, then I still don't know what to think about him at 2.

 

It gets back to what I said earlier about not trusting guys who show up out of nowhere and start flashing amazing stuff. I'd rather have the guy who has had it all along. Unfortunately, if Manaea falls back, even if someone else steps up, I think that makes it even harder for Appel to fall.

 

If it's not Appel, I really just don't want a pitcher. The rest are all projects where you have to worry about their polish *and* their health.

[davell]

Product of a weak draft, but I want more out of the 2nd pick than we got at 6 last year. And it seems quite a few are putting Frazier and Meadows underneath Almora and Dahl from last year. Gray hasn't come completely out of nowhere, at least. BA had him at 36 on their top 100 college players heading into the year. But I get the gist:It's scary and its a pick we really need to make count.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Yeah, if we don't come out of that draft feeling like we picked someone who comes in ahead of Almora, I'll be disappointed.

[davell]

My hope is Frazier continues to mash and Houston takes the cheap approach again, to acquire more talent by spreading around their allotment. With SP our top need, whoever it is, in that scenario, I really like our FO's chances if it gets their choice of the top shelf guys.

[Guest]

Meadows And Frazier Both Have Premium Tools

 

HITTING - Advantage: Meadows

POWER - Advantage: Frazier

SPEED & DEFENSE - Advantage: Push

ARM - Advantage: Frazier

 

FINAL VERDICT

For all the similarities, there are also plenty of differences. Meadows does everything smooth and easy. Frazier, pardon the pun, plays like his hair is on fire.

 

"That's how he's been his whole life," the area scout said. "The bigger the stage, the bigger the game, he's just an animal. You could take the top 40 kids in the country and put them in a steel cage and say, 'Who comes out with the baseball will go first,' and I'd bet you that kid would go first. That's just his mentality."

 

There won't be a steel cage in the MLB Network studio on June 6. Both players are still the cream of the crop and scouts are still divided as to which one will be the better major leaguer.

 

BA feels Meadows is more patient and that he projects to hit 25 HRs at his peak.