Something I was thinking of the other day when I was reading something and got myself mad at Al again... Avila was in MLB almost 25 years before getting a GM job. Imagine being in that position and probably dreaming about one day getting one of these jobs and thinking about all the things you'd want to do, and then actually getting it and spending your entire tenure doing absolutely nothing out of fear of making a mistake. What a waste.
I'm kind of excited to follow the three SEC pitchers this year and currently hope we take one of them. And for some reason Rocker is third on the list of guys I'd currently want. It might just be one of those stupid things where you hear enough about someone over a 2-3 year period that you just move on to someone else, though.
I’m not crazy about any of the positional guys but I will follow them. McClain seems solid but I think he turns 22 soon, and would be 24-25 by the time he reaches majors. Fabian has tons of swings and misses. Castillo probably won’t stick at catcher
I'm currently not big on the college bats in this class. I am intrigued by the HS shortstops like Lawlar and Marcelo Mayer, though. I'm always intrigued by guys with their skill sets, though.
Seems like 3 isn't an awful spot this draft. Get Rocker, Leiter or if they go 1-2 have our choice of any hitter
Rocker, Leiter, or Lawlar all seem like solid choices. Jaden Hill could play his way into the top 3. Marcelo Mayer is another guy moving up boards.
Good at bat. Tangentially related, the gun has Gerrit Cole throwing 98-100 in his first spring start? Haha.
All the reports I've seen have these guys throwing 100 MPH in their first or second bullpen sessions the last few weeks. deGrom was allegedly doing that last week, as have others. I don't get it. Maybe some of these guys just can't throw any other way at this point.
Law’s top 10 1. Leiter 2. Lawlar 3. Rocker 4. Jaden Hill 5. Adrian Del Castillo 6. Marcelo Mayer 7. Gunnar Hoglund 8. Brady House 9. Ryan Cusick 10. Kahlil Watson
The Hill conversation is going to be very interesting if he's healthy and performs all year, because he has the best stuff of the pitchers at the top. He's just never really pitched very much and had some elbow issues a few years back that didn't require surgery. There's questions on all three guys, I think. Leiter's always going to have people question his size. Rocker has size questions in the complete opposite direction and also kind of a different profile. Hill has the stuff and the size, but no track record and some injuries in his past.
I don't know what to make of Rocker because I haven't watched him a ton. He's got a secondary pitch with the slider that's been hugely successful for him at Vandy. He had 19 Ks in a no-hitter v. Duke, and all of them came on the slider. The problem is not all breaking balls translate because the ball is different (college has higher seams) and you have to be able to throw your breaking ball for strikes in MLB. Law seems to think one or both of those is a problem, I'm guessing (just basing that on what he wrote). Andrew Miller had an amazing slider in college but it took him 6-7 years to be able to throw it in the big leagues, and that was out of the pen. That happens sometimes. I think people just don't really know what to do with Rocker because his body type is so different from most college kids. He's 6'5" and has been listed at 250+ lbs since he was at least a JR in HS. Usually you read people talk about projectability with body types for you pitchers, and Rocker doesn't really have it. So it's like "he's probably not going to throw harder, so is he going to end up throwing with less velo as he gets older?" If that happens, is he a top of the rotation guy? I have no clue.
Don’t matter what Keith Law thinks. Avila will take the best player available per the mlb pipeline draft board.