Draft Preview - Kansas City Royals

by Andy Seiler on Feb 5, 2026 2:11 PM EST Comment 11 comments

The fourth team draft preview on my blog focuses on the Kansas City Royals and their scouting director J.J. Picollo. I had to search back to Picollo's days as a Mid-Atlantic scout with the Braves early in the last decade to get a few players, and then I added last year's draft, Picollo's first as scouting director.

Here's an excerpt from the writeup, which features small writeups on 12 players involved with Picollo's work:

The Royals have about as much scouting experience in their front office as any front office in all of baseball. Though Picollo has less experience than most scouting directors, he’s surrounded by a wealth of scouting talent, including former long-time Phillies scouting director Mike Arbuckle. Dayton Moore, Dean Taylor, Art Stewart, Donnie Williams, Brian Murphy, Louie Medina, Pat Jones, Mike Toomey, Gene Watson, Lonnie Goldberg, and Scott Sharp all have extensive scouting experience, and they’re all in the front office in Kansas City at the moment. This is on top of the usual scouting structure that the Royals employ. The one difference that Kansas City has is that Picollo is also in charge of the player development side of things, so he handles all things involving young players, which is a lot to handle. Most teams split the scouting and player development sides of things so that their scouting director isn’t overworked, but the Royals believe this is a positive structure. Since it’s a little early to pick up on trends for this draft, considering Picollo was only simply turning in times as an area scout, the only thing I can say is that Picollo seems to prefer either a very toolsy prep player or a very finished college player. Crow, Coleman, White, and Meyer match that on the college side, and Myers, Herr, and Nelson fit on the prep side. Dwyer might be seen as more a prep player, and he’s unique in his draft situation anyway. Overall, the trends aren’t quite apparent, but Picollo seems to be using the extensive experience in the front office well.

Direct link here.

As always, read about the 2010 MLB Draft Notebook and pre-order it here.

What do you think? What will the Royals do?

Poll

Assuming all these players are available, who would you choose?

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Read More: Kansas City Royals, Atlanta Braves, Philadelphia Phillies

Comments

Zach Cox

I actually think they’ll go with a bat, but not Colon. After drafting Crow and Melville the last couple years, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them reach for Cox. Much may hinge on what Moustakas does in his first half. If they think he’s going to be an everyday 3B they’ll skip Cox, but if they don’t, I think they take him over an arm.

by MightyMoose on Feb 5, 2026 3:47 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

I think they take...

Ranaudo. Big arm and a boras client. They have shown they are not afraid to deal with Boras and many believe Ranaudo will be the best arm in the draft.

by joegonzo on Feb 5, 2026 3:59 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Taillon if he's there is my prediction

i’d be plenty pleased with either him or Ranaudo. but it is early.

baseball rules.

by doublestix on Feb 5, 2026 6:56 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Jameson Taillon vs Anthony Ranaudo

I believe Taillon is head and shoulders a better prospect than Ranaudo. Taillon throws it up to 96 mph on a good day, his fb has late life, his thows his slider 84 with late life, His out pitch is his hard slider. He needs to improve his command in the zone, but it’s alreaedy a plus pitch which could be a plus plus pitch.

Orioles Scout on Taillon

Scouted:
Aflac All-American Game, August 16, 2025 (film)
Under Armour All-America Game, August 8, 2025 (in attendance)
Perfect Game National Showcase, June 11-14, 2009 (film)
Perfect Game World Showcase, January 3-4, 2009 (film)

Frame:
Close to maxed-out, but already big league body. Sturdy, workhorse build. Good athleticism and well above-average body control. Moves well and shows excellent awareness of his actions.

Motion:
Taillon has a simple side step into his motion with little movement in his upper-body. He has an exaggerated closed leg kick (closed all the way to the LF side of the 3B bag), adding some deception and making it difficult for the hitter to pick-up the ball out of his low hand break. He moves to a drop-and-drive approach to the plate as he begins to rotate his body back towards home. Explosive in his stride, he has a sizeable step, giving his arm plenty of time to get into the cocked position as he plants. He gets good hip/shoulder separation, creating good rotation through his core and helping to generate his plus velocity. He drives directly towards home consistently, fully utilizing all the momentum he builds-up through his kick and stride. His arm comes from a 3/4 slot and is easy, coming across his body. His follow-through could be cleaned-up some, falling off towards first (though he’s generally under control). Most impressive is his body control and the repeatability of his mechanics — a rarity in a high schooler with such a big body.

Stuff:
Fastball - Generally sitting 93-95 mph with good life, touching 96. Taillon can pound the zone with his fastball and it’s good enough to simply throw by hitters at this point. He’ll need to improve his command in the zone, but it’s already a plus pitch that could be plus-plus down the line.

Curveball - Taillon’s curve is an impressive power breaking ball with 2-plane action and plus late bite. Already excellent depth, the pitch could be a plus to plus-plus offering as he improves his feel and command. Potential strikeout pitch as both swing-and-miss and in the zone. On my gun at 77-81 mph.

Slider - Taillon’s slider has good tilt and comes out of the same slot as his fastball. Low- to mid-80s on the gun (82-84 mph) and could be another swing-and-miss offering at the pro level. Doesn’t command pitch yet.

Change-up - Not needed much at this point, but shows feel for the pitch. Good arm speed. Could be yet another average to above-average offering depending on the work put in. Good velo separation from fastball (around 10 mph).

Nick’s Notes
Taillon has been nothing short of incredible each time I’ve seen him (on film and in person), and I do not pass that compliment out lightly. As mentioned above, his body control really stands out for such a big-body. There’s an excellent combination here of well above-average pure stuff, an ideal Major League pitcher’s body, athleticism and poise. In some ways, this summer will make things more difficult on Taillon, as he’s set the bar very high for his spring season. At the same time, I never expected to enter the 2010 season with anyone but Bryce Harper atop my big board — Taillon has given me reason to examine that slot more closely. He has all the makings of a potential front-end starter.

Projected Position: Front-end Starter

Updates:
8/18/2009 - Taillon continues to roll on, making a case to be the first high school player off the board next June, and perhaps the top overall. Taillon cruised through two innings at PetCo in the Aflac All-American Game, striking out four batters in the process. He’s still sitting mid-90s with his fastball, even after a long summer circuit.

8/15/2009 - Taillon took home MVP honors for Team One at the Under Armour All-America Game. He was selected by PnR Scouting as the top performer at the event (article here; rankings here).

Photo Copyright: PnR Scouting

GRADING OUT (FUTURE):
Motion: 45 (55/60)
Fastball: 60/65 (70)
Curveball: 50 (60/65)
Change: 40 (50/55)
Slider: 40 (50/55)
Control: 45/50 (60)
Command: 40/45 (55/60)

VIDEO: - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ca-tqBvBFj0

I of course always favor the power pitchers. Some compare him to Kershaw. Ranaudo had elbow problems in 2008 which saw his velocity dropped to the 89-91 range. He’s also too emotional on the mound. Think Joba x 10. Ranaudo is the more polished pitcher, but he doesn’t throw hard despite his size. Ranaudo does have a a true 12-to-6 offing that comes out of the same arm slot and flight path of his fastball before breaking, which is something I like. Tailon is already being compared to Roger Clemens. which I think is ridiculous to do at this point, but but he does throw hard and was dominate for Team USA during the COPABE “AAA” Pan American Championships. Not bad for a HS player uh?

by Hank Aaron on Feb 6, 2026 1:04 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Ranaudo does throw hard.

I don’t know what your qualification for “throwing hard” is, but Ranaudo’s fastball is a plus offering as rated by every single scout I’ve talked to. What most people have seen from Taillon is one or two inning stints where his fastball will, of course, be harder than a full game. We know Ranaudo’s pretty durable, but we don’t know whether Taillon can handle a season’s workload like Ranaudo did last year.

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by Andy Seiler on Feb 6, 2026 1:12 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Ranuado

He lost velocity, that’s a fact. He had elbow trouble, that’s a fact. He gets over emotional on the mound, that’s a fact.

I see more red flags with Ranuado than Taillon, even if we’ve seen more of Ranaudo.

by Hank Aaron on Feb 6, 2026 3:07 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Lost velocity?

LSU rode him into the ground last year, that’s a fact. You’re making assumptions about his velocity from the College World Series, where he was tired, mainly because he threw over 120 innings in just 19 starts. Spread his stats over 33 starts he would get in the Majors and that’s a 216 inning season. As a 19 year old.

Until you see Taillon do that, you can’t judge the little dip in velocity at the end of the season.

As for the elbow trouble, everyone I speak to says that it’s not a concern anymore. He answered all the questions last year. They have no reason to believe he’ll suffer any ill effects from it in the future.

On to the over-emotional part, that’s subjective. You can’t call it a fact. His competitiveness is one of his plus strengths. He’ll mature, like everyone else, and you’ll see a much more balanced player over the course of his career. You can’t say that Roger Clemens’ over-emotional demeanor hurt him.

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by Andy Seiler on Feb 6, 2026 3:59 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Renaudo

Renaudo may turn out to be a fine pitcher, I just think Taillon has more upside. Like I said, I prefer the power pitchers and Ranaudo isn’t a power pitcher despite his size. If everyone thought the same the world would be a boring place.

by Hank Aaron on Feb 6, 2026 5:35 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Upside

I’d agree that Tallion has the edge in upside, but Renaudo (at this point) seems to be the more complete pitcher in the sense that he has more polish and experience.

Also, I’ve watched video on both players and that slight pause in Tallion’s motion is jarring, he also throws with a lot of arm. This makes me question his ability to repeat his mechanics. Break down in mechanics usually leads to some type of arm issue or just plain ineffectiveness.

by nmh on Feb 8, 2026 2:06 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Renaudo

I don’t think Renaudo will ever be an overpowering pitcher at MLB level. He could prove me wrong. It won’t be the first time I’ve missed on a player. I just think for a man his size he should show more power.

by Hank Aaron on Feb 6, 2026 5:55 PM EST reply actions 0 recs