Kyle Skipworth

With last year’s top pick, David Price, making his pro debut yesterday, we are now two weeks from the 2008 "Rule 4 Draft" and the top of the draft is not as clear this time around. There are five candidates that could go in the top slot: Buster Posey, the FSU catcher; Vanderbilt’s third baseman Pedro Alvarez; San Diego lefty Brian Matusz; Southern California high school catcher Kyle Skipworth, and Georgia high school shortstop Tim Beckham. Earlier this week we heard that the Rays were leaning towards Posey or Alvarez, while the Pirates were said to be torn between Alvarez and Beckham with the second pick. Recent mock drafts from Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo, have Beckham going to the Rays with the top pick.

Let’s take a look at what is being said about the upcoming draft in the Blogosphere…

• Minor League Ball ranks the top 30 prospects, with Posey and Beckham at the top of the board, while Alvarez’ injury knocks him down to #8.
• Baseball Mastermind would like to see a push for a little more hype in the baseball draft and feels that baseball fans would benefit from more debate on the merits of the available talent. They also can’t see the Rays taking Alvarez with the top pick now that they have Evan Longoria locked up to a long-term deal.
• DRays Bay wonders if recent reports of the Rays drafting Beckham or Posey were just smoke-screens to lower the price on Alvarez, who is a Scott Boras client.
• Rays of Light note that Alvarez would be the ideal choice, but believe signability may be too big of a factor to ignore, making Posey more attractive.
• Bucs Dugout feels a team should select the best available player with the second pick, but suggests that a team like the Pirates, that is still several years away from contending, may be better off drafting high school talent. The idea is that an Alvarez will not help a Bucs club in ’09 or ’10 while a Beckham will remain under the team’s control for more years.
• Camden Depot doesn’t sound very excited about the prospect of the Orioles drafting Matusz.
• McCovey Chronicles is hoping that Alvarez falls to the Giants at #5.

Cork Gaines writes for Rays Index and can be reached here.