The info over the next few days will come fast and furious, so I’ll just share it and we can discuss it. Two interesting notes from a chat with Alan Matthews and John Manuel at Baseball America today..

Q: Sean from Toronto asks:
Is there any chance Chris Withrow is selected in the first round? How does Withrow compare to fellow Texan Blake Beavan?
A:

Alan Matthews: I first saw Withrow in a showcase at the U. of Arkansas right after last year’s draft, and fell in love with his delivery and projection. He was not invited to attend the Area Code Games last summer in California, which was curious to me because I thought, in terms of projection, he deserved to be mentioned in the same breath with the more-heralded Beavan. He began to turn some of that projection into present stuff this season, and is one of the sleepers of this year’s draft. First round? Might be a stretch there, but certainly I would not be surprised to see him go as high as the Philles at 37 or Dodgers at 39.

I know that our own draft guru JE is a huge fan of Withrow, so this must make him happy to see the Phillies associated with him at 37. Sounds good to me. Here is Withrow’s profile again, still no video.

And then this..

Q: Sean from Toronto asks:
How would you rank Dominguez, Ahrens, Mesoraco, Noonan, and Kozma based purely on their bats?
A:

Alan Matthews: Strictly on the bat, it’s Dominguez, Mesoraco, Ahrens, Noonan and Kozma.

I still don’t think Dominguez will be there at 19, but if both he and Mesoraco are there, and we don’t take one of them, I’ll be ticked. Dominguez is a true 3B, potential gold glove defender, and his bat has improved this spring, according to another tidbit later in the chat. He seems like a lock at 19 if there.

I was really looking forward to Keith’s take on the first round, he seems very informed on the amateur side of the game and probably has a wealth of connections from his prior job. Law’s first round looks a bit different from many of the other mocks I’ve seen, but his logic makes sense on many of the picks. His pick for the Phillies wouldn’t surprise me, but it sure would disappoint me, then again, we’re Phillies fans, disappointment is all part of the game, right? Anyway, here goes…

Continue reading Keith Law mock draft →

A bunch of random things on my mind this morning, let’s get to it.

* The Lakewood rotation is in shambles. This article a few days ago mentions that Kyle Drabek is on the DL (why?) and Jarrod Freeman was sent back to extended spring training….presumably because he was having trouble getting guys out. Ben Pfinsgraff, a personal favorite of mine, is back in action after some time on the DL, and could move back into the rotation for the time being. He’s been lights out as a reliever, and I wonder if he will be fast tracked once the new crop of guys from the draft make their way to Lakewood in July.

Continue reading Monday morning notes →

This will be fairly self explanatory. Yesterday I attempted to outline the best and worst case scenarios for the Phillies picks, now I’ll take a shot at laying out the entire first round. My guesses are, well, just that, guesses. With so much talent in this draft, one guy sliding or jumping could change the entire composition of the first round. I’ll give small blurbs with each pick as to why I see it going down in that fashion. Only one person sent me their own guess at the first 30, I’ll post that after I give my rundown, then we’ll see who gets closer.

Continue reading MLB 1st round mock draft →

Ok, so we’ve done a lot of discussing, we’ve looked at a lot of different guys, and now it’s time to figure out who the Phillies should take, who they are likely to take, what the best case scenario would be, and on the flipside, what the worst case scenario could be. The draft is very volatile, meaning that one guy going higher or lower than expected could cause a ripple effect and influence many other picks. For that reason, I’m only going to guess the #19 and #37 picks, because, well, at #84, there’s really no telling who may have slipped because of signability. So, I’ll give you my “best case” for both picks, listing 3 players who would be ideal at that spot, in my order of preference, and then I’ll give the “worst case”, 3 guys I really don’t want to see, then I’ll sum it up with my exact guess on the pick. Tomorrow I’ll roll out my complete mock draft of the first round, we’ll see how close I can get. If you’d like to take a guess yourself, check back to last week, I made a mock draft post with the draft order, just copy that into an e-mail, fill it out, and send it to me, I’ll post your results along with mine. On to the picks

Continue reading Final analysis of Phillies’ first two draft picks →