which I assume is why he made the post. A little harsh on your response, don’t you think?

but, I don’t think we can automatically say the success of that draft makes this draft, or Mier specifically, a slam dunk. That being said I like Mier, and I think he is a pretty safe HS player since he has a great defensive tools, has shown the ability to hit, and could/should grow into some very respectable power. I also really like Tanner Bushue.

Rich: I remember Tate in the Aflac Classic last August quite well. He had a couple of memorable at-bats. In the sixth inning, after being behind in the count 0-and-1 and 1-and-2, he worked the count to 3-and-2 before flying out to left on the eighth pitch of his at-bat. Tate had an even better at-bat in the ninth inning when he fell behind 0-and-2 and fouled off five pitches on his way to working the count to 3-and-2, then got on base via an infield single to shortstop. He also scored the East’s first run that inning on a wild pitch. I wrote down on my scoresheet, “tall, strong, fast, runs well” but was most impressed with his approach in those two at-bats.

Paul: It’s interesting that you mention those ab’s, because we heard some rumbings during the spring that Donavan’s bat was “raw,” and yet we had a representative at nearly all of his games and just didn’t see it. I guess it all depends on the perspective: the bat may be “raw” as compared to his other tools or as compared to the top college bats, but as compared with the other high school bats… we felt comfortable with the risk.

http://baseballanalysts.com/archives/2009/06/qa_paul_depodes.php

I don’t know what to make of this, I heard the “questionable hit tool” comments and didn’t take Tate in Sickels’ mock draft… However, I think the Padres drafting team deserves a lot more credit than they get (Decker, Darnell, Forsythe, etc.) and thus I’m not going to pretend I know more about Tate than they do.

Purke has as slinging motion that puts a lot of strain on the shoulder.