Amateur Notes: Cuba, Draft
The latest notes on various segments of the amateur market:
- Baseball America’s Ben Badler has released a new ranking of the top twenty Cuban prospects who still reside on the island (1-10; 11-20). The veterans at the top of the list — Yulieski Gourriel, Alfredo Despaigne, and Jose Fernandez — will be familiar to anyone who has followed player movement out of Cuba. Slotting in after that group are a series of younger players, including Yulieski’s brother Lourdes Gourriel and teenage outfielders Victor Mesa, Jorge Ona, and Julio Pablo Martinez.
- As MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo explains, this year’s top 100 draft prospect list is heavily influenced by injuries to several top players. There is uncertainty in terms of talent as well, reaching all the way to the top of the class, which is currently led by middle infielders Brendan Rogers and Dansby Swanson along with righty Dillon Tate. What may be lacking in terms of upper echelon ability is made up for, perhaps, in depth. Given those facts, and the role of bonus pools in draft strategy, it could be rather an interesting selection season.
- If you are already well-acquainted with those players expected to be chosen in the coming summer, then be sure to check out this early 2016-17 draft preview from Kiley McDaniel of Fangraphs. Towering Oklahoma righty Alec Hansen tops his current list.
Stanford’s Cal Quantrill To Have Tommy John Surgery
Stanford righty Cal Quantrill, who appeared likely to be a top draft pick in 2016, is out for the rest of the season with elbow trouble and will have Tommy John surgery Friday, Jeff Blair of Sportsnet.ca tweets. Quantrill posted a 2.68 ERA with 8.0 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9 in 110 2/3 innings in his freshman year at Stanford in 2014 and was off to a good start in three outings in 2015. The Yankees drafted him in the 26th round in 2013. He is the son of former big-league reliever Paul Quantrill.
The Blue Jays took injured pitcher Jeff Hoffman with the ninth overall pick in 2014, and the Nationals selected another injured pitcher, Erick Fedde, with the No. 18 pick and have had great success so far with another prospect, Lucas Giolito, who was known to have elbow issues when selected. So Quantrill’s injury might not prevent him from being selected early in 2016, particularly since there’s time for him to be mostly recovered by the time next year’s draft rolls around. Nonetheless, Quantrill’s injury is part of an epidemic of elbow trouble for pitchers at all levels, most recently including Yu Darvish, Josh Edgin, Tim Collins, Brandon Cumpton and Joel Hanrahan.