Draft stuff...

With the baseball draft just a few weeks away, I am going to try something new this year. Rather than doing a mock draft and trying to project which teams will pick which players (which is almost impossible with players dropping due to agents/sign-ability issues), I am going to rank the players available in this years draft based on how good a major league career I think they will have. Rick Porcello was a top 10 prospect a few years ago but drpped to #27 due to him wanting $5 million plus. It seems this is a more appropriate way to project big-league success.

I will certainly leave players off this list like Jameson Taillon and Stetson Allie because they are high school projects that need a lot of tweaking. Neither has been overly dominant or showed they are even close to being big-league ready.

1) Bryce Harper – Clear cut #1 that has exploded in Juco while hitting with a wooden bat. .415-23-68 is pretty impressive and he has shown the ability to play catcher or outfield.

2) Drew Pomeranz – Lefty from Ole Miss with nasty stuff could be a fast riser to the majors by 2011.

3) Zack Cox – Pure hitter from Arkansas that has feasted on the top pitching in the SEC. Third baseman that needs to add some power, but once he figures it out he will be an everyday guy.

4) Anthony Ranaudo – 6’7 righty that could be a #3 or #4 starter in the big leagues by 2012. He projects as a front line starter in his prime.

5) Yasmani Grandal – Will probably go the Buster Posey/Matt Wieters route and spend 2 years or so in the minors before becoming an everyday catcher in the majors. Heading into the weekend, he is .425-13-54 while playing in the ACC.

6) Chris Sale – Left handed starting pitcher that has shown tremendous upside while dominating the Juco level. He is 6’6 and 10-0 (1.97) with 135 K’s in 96 innings so far in 2010.

7) Deck McGuire – Georgia Tech ace has 4 quality pitches and has above average command.

8) Christian Colon – Slick fielding shortstop from Cal-State Fullerton is hitting .349-14-52 while leading the Titans to another solid season. He may be a second baseman at the big-league level, but is solid at shortstop as well.

9) Josh Sale – Big time high school hitting prospect out of Washington (Gonzaga commitment) that is very polished at the plate. He drives the ball to all fields and is very advanced with his plate discipline.

10) Micah Gibbs – Possibly the SEC player of the year from LSU, the catcher is hitting .415-8-52