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NEED A REDS MOCK DRAFTER!


My lovely place of work informed me today that I would be needing to come into work tomorrow, BLAH!, thus I will have to call out of the Mock Draft for the Reds. WHO WANTS TO BE THE REDS MOCK DRAFTER TOMORROW?

What was going to be my MOD #2 post is below if anyone who takes over for me wants some notes:

Pick #8 overall targets:

Zach Wheeler/Shelby Miller/Tyler Matzek: Great HS arms. They've all got their plus/minuses but those seem to have been hashed out here before I don't really have any original info or thoughts on these guys.

Mike Leake: Good stuff, great track record, great command, great athleticism, seems like a mortal lock to be a least a good pitcher with a decent shot at becoming a perennial all-star

Donovan Tate: I'm not afraid of taking risks. The tools are still there. Some say he has the highest ceiling in the draft/

Alex White: I love White's combination of upside and safety. The upside comes from being a great athlete with a great FB who has flashed two plus secondary pitches and has faced the best of the best in college baseball. He could develop into a front-of-rotation starter The safety comes from the fact that White is probably damn close to being a decent MLB reliever right now.

Grant Green: Again, I don't mind risks. USC plays in a pitchers park (the last time a USC team had 2 players in double digit HRs was 2003, some Southeastern teams have their whole lineup in the 10-20 HR range), he HAS performed in the past (good frosh year, great Soph year, phenomenal with wood bats on the Cape), he has a good frame and good tools. The USC program is also kind of dysfunctional right now. Maybe getting away from there would help him develop. Look how quickly Brandon Crawford has shown progress in pro ball.

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Pick #43 (supplemental 1st round):

Baseball America's #43 prospect is Louisiana HS RHP Brody Colvin, a raw arm with great stuff, athleticism and potential.

Reds long-term C situation is questionable, so as much as I am normally against doing anything but "best-player-available" MLB draft wise an overdraft of Indiana C Josh Phegley or Boston College C Tony Sanchez (Sanchez will probably not be there) would be acceptable considering the dearth of college catching in this draft. CA HS C Max Stassi would be a neat pick here too.

I still like Kentrail Davis. If he is signable here I would be tempted to take him. The talent is still there for me.

Matt Davidson (HS 1b/3b slugger), Wil Myers (same, except he can maybe play C) or Mychal Givens (former first-rounder, lots of upside at SS or as a P) would be great picks here too.

I would strongly consider taking USC C/RHP Robert Stock here as a P if he is signable. Some reports say he won't sign if taken as a P so he can go back to college and try to prove himself as a hitter/catcher one last time. I don't see any reason NOT to take Stock if he is available here. He isn't too big but he has been raved out since he was 15 and has finally shown results this year and they have been great results off the mound and his arm backs those numbers up.

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Pick #57 (2nd round):

Baseball America's #57 prospect is Baylor LHP/OF Aaron Miller. Miller was a huge recruit out of HS as a OF first, LHP second. He has been a solid college slugger but hasn't been a good enough hitter overall to live up to his HS draft hype as an OF prospect. With his offensive career fading he took up pitching again as a Jr and re-established himself as a pitching prospect with good athleticism, a good frame and a powerful left arm.

Indiana's Matt Bashore could be a great pick here. An Ohio native, Bashore started the year as a possible top-40 pick but got off to a slow, injury-plaugued start. As he got healthy he started to dominate and went on a huge tear down the stretch. One thing I really like his college career is that, despite usually playing only fair competition, when he did get to face SEC lineups he struck out those monster college hitters by the boatload.

If Texas A&M RHP Alex Wilson is still around he would be a good pick here too. I've liked his arm since I saw him pitch for Winthrop. Great stuff.

If Indiana C Josh Phegley is still around he would be a great pick here.

I like Kansas St RHP AJ Morris here too. Good stuff, though not great stuff. He is not afraid to go head-to-head with anyone and has shown he can beat anyone

UNC 2b/3b Kyle Seager might be a little bit of an overdraft here but he is such a solid bat. He has a compact line-drive swing. It is hard to picture him NOT hitting at least .280 with 30 doubles in MLB.

Lousiville 3b Chris Dominguez is a game-changer with underrated athleticism. He isn't a burner but he can play a decent 3b (cannon arm too!) and steal a base if a catcher isn't looking. His power can scare anyone, it is a 70 or 80.

NC HS OF Brian Goodwin is a good tools pick. His bat isn't quite there (I saw a 5-8 16-yo teammate have a better batting practice than him in travel ball last summer) but it is a solid bat with good potential (AFLAC All-Star game MVP) and his defensive tools are great. Might be a tough sign though.

I would also look at any appealing HS arm that happened to fall.

Pick #88 (3rd round):

If I pick Tate Stock or someone else likely to be tough-to-sign at pick #8 or #47 this is a good spot to make a draft a quality senior to makeup for the large expenditure earlier. At this point in the draft you can get a senior worthy of a high-ish pick talent-wise but pay him much less than you would a junior or a HSer.

UNC's Adam Warren comes to mind here. His fastball has been better than ever as a senior (sitting low 90s and hitting 94) has he has good control and a solid repertoire that he knows how to use. Very experienced, smart pitcher with good stuff.

Alabama OF Kent Mattes, a corner OF with power (among the top NCAA HR leaders) and some athleticism, would also be good but he probably will not be here.

Baseball America's #88 prospect is Rhode Island RHP Eric Smith who dominated Miami earlier in the year. It was the first time Miami had been shutout since 2004. Miami coach Jim Morris described Smith as so: ""That pitcher just stuffed us. It wasn’t like he was a thumber–I think he’s going to pitch in the big leagues. He was 6-foot-3, throwing 88-92 with good sink, and a good hard breaking ball. He threw strikes, pitched inside, had a 1.1(-second) release time, and ate our lunch. We didn’t hit the ball hard off him, at all. What a crazy game. We faced pretty good pitching at Florida this weekend and hit the ball pretty hard, and this guy just ate our lunch for eight innings. He ate everybody’s lunch from one through nine.""

If any college bats like Marc Krauss, Ryan Jackson, Jason Kipnis, Kyle Seager or Chris Dominguez are here I would take 'em.

Brooks Raley is an interesting player but I'm not sure if I like him as a leadoff CF type or a quality LHP and he could stand to develop a little more at each (he is a draft-elig soph)

Indiana OF Kipp Schutz is a nice sleeper here. I like Cal OF/RHP Blake Smith here too

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