Printer-friendly

Contact Author

March 30, 2007

Future Shock

2007 Draft Notebook, 3/30/07

by Kevin Goldstein

As Opening Day arrives, so does the draft crunch. "You think you have a lot of time," said one scouting director I talked to this week. "Then all of a sudden you have just two months to go."

College Players Disappoint

On both the hitting and pitching sides, the college talent level has disappointed. When it comes to position players, there's Georgia Tech catcher Matt Wieters, and then an uninspiring group of low-ceiling safe picks that many evaluators have trouble getting excited about. "It's a very, very, thin position group in the college ranks," said one scouting director. "Health is definitely a factor here," he added. "If guys like the pair at Tennessee, [outfielder Julio] Borbon and [catcher J.P.] Arencibia can get healthy, they might separate themselves -- but overall, the talent is just all right at best."

Another scouting director saw the lack of elite talent moving some players into draft positions that are significantly higher than the talent merits.

"There are those teams out there, that for philosophical purposes, are going to focus on college players," said the lead scout. "That's going to push some guys up into the first round that don't belong there. So you're drafting a decent player, but his draft status and bonus is that of a future star." Another agreed with the assessment by adding, "There's just not a lot of guys where you look at them and say, 'This guy is really going to hit'."

The situation with pitching is much the same. There is Vanderbilt southpaw David Price, and then there is the rest, though multiple scouts singled out Missouri State lefty Ross Detwiler as one name who has put himself ahead of the pack for now. After that, it's anybody's guess.