Links for Wednesday…
- ESPN's Jerry Crasnick looks at nine revolving door positions for various teams, such as Red Sox shortstop and Braves' left fielder.
- RotoAuthority looks at a few potential buy-low candidates on the young fantasy season.
- Murray Chass takes USA Today to task for publishing inaccurate salary data.
- Jim Callis ranks Baseball America's #1 prospects from the last ten years, putting Jason Heyward behind only Matt Wieters and Josh Beckett.
- MLB.com's Anthony Castrovince looks at the background of the Indians' GM-in-waiting, Chris Antonetti.
- ESPN's Keith Law agrees with Ben Goessling of MASN, saying the Nationals have "more or less settled on Bryce Harper." Law says the Nats would be nuts to take someone else.
- MLB.com's Ian Browne tweets that Red Sox GM Theo Epstein has been in touch with Alan Embree's agent, perhaps regarding the lefty's April 15th out-out date.
- Richard Griffin of the Toronto Star notes that the Blue Jays have to place Adeiny Hechavarria on the 2013 25-man Opening Day 2013 roster, or else place him on waivers.
- SI's Melissa Segura tweets that the Twins were impressed by outfielder Vicmal de la Cruz, "perhaps the jewel of the 2010 July 2 class." Click here to view Kiley McDaniel's video of the kid.
The Nats picked two good years to get the top picks…
I don’t know if I’d say that. The MLB draft has been getting more coverage these past couple years, so that’s a large part of why the top prospects are being hyped so much more. In terms of Strasburg, he has some serious mechanical issues and a lot of people think he is going to wind up spending a lot of time on the DL. I’m not an expert, so I don’t know myself, but I do know I’ve had that said A LOT.
People have gone colder on Harper since he hit college. He’s still performing well, but he’s come down to earth a little in terms of his production. I’d say he’s still the consensus number one pick, but for awhile there Jameson Taillon was nipping at his heels a little bit.
Next year’s draft includes Anthony Rendon, who one of the guys at Baseball America called the best college position player in the country–a group which includes Bryce Harper. He could possibly be viewed as the better prospect by the time next year’s draft rolls around. Look for hype about him to heat up considerably after the 2010 draft ends.
Considering the last several drafts, who do you like better as a pitcher and position player, respectively, than Strasburg and Harper?
Jason Heyward (2007), Evan Longoria (2006), and Tim Lincecum (2006) jump to mind immediately. None were first overall picks, but they were all taken in the first half of the first round.
Because of the nature of professional baseball you don’t see results on top prospects quickly. But I think some other guys from the high first round picks in 2007 and 2008 will turn into star players as well. Guys like Pedro Alvarez, Matt Wieters, etc.
Harper is still number one, but man, Taillon is hard to pass up. Some of these guys are making this sound like it’s not even a decision. They probably haven’t seen Taillon pitch.