Marcus Stroman continued to look like a top of the draft arm with 13 K's in 7 UP. Kevin Gausman kept his upper 90's velocity deep into the game going 8 2/3 with 11 K's and Kyle Zimmer K'd 13 in a complete game. Mark Appel K'd 14 in a complete game as well.The top arms are keeping their stock up.
I'm doing something a bit different this week for the rest of the notes with a draft stock watch.
Three Up
I thought I may have overrated Catcher Dane Phillips this spring, having him in the top 20, but he is hitting .410 with 10 homers, although it is against somewhat inferior competition at Oklahoma City. He is worth keeping an eye on to see if he keeps it up.
Barrett Barnes, OF, Texas Tech, impressed me this weekend. He uses his speed very well and has good pop in his bat. He has a pull oriented approach that could cause problems against good pitching but I was impressed by his speed. He used it well in center field as well as on the base paths. He even stole home at one point and it wasn't real close. It was very exciting to see.
Andrew Heaney for Oklahoma State threw a three hitter this weekend striking out 8 and lowering his ERA to 0.92. I haven't talked about him much but he is a lock to go in the first 3 rounds and could move into late 1st round consideration if he keeps this up.
Three down
ASU's Deven Marrero just isn't squaring the ball up this spring. He is hitting .306 and is still playing great defense but the bat is a question. It's hard to put a 50 grade or better on someone who doesn't induce hard contact a lot. If he keeps this up, he will slide to the lower part of the top 10 or even out of it. He will stay in the 1st round due to his defense and position though.
Florida's Brian Johnson is a tough prospect to quantify. He shows a lot of potential both at the plate and on the mound but as a first baseman, you really have to hit and there are questions there. On the mound, his stuff is average or below for a pro pitcher. The results are inconsistent as well. I just don't know what to think of him. I wouldn't take him in the top 2 rounds, I don't think.
Adam Brett Walker, Jacksonville's 1B, has some of the best raw power in the draft but he is only hitting .257 this year. He needed to prove himself this spring as he has always had contact issues. He has 19 hits and 18 K's. He is falling on my draft board and I'm sure many teams feel the same.
Other Notes:
Catcher Tom Murphy at Buffalo hit a couple more homers this weekend and is up to six for the spring while hitting .357. He is a 1st round candidate if he keeps this up. Kevin Plawecki at Purdue, Peter O'Brien at Miami, Ronnie Freeman at Kennesaw State, and Josh Elander at TCU are all hitting really well. College catching is loaded this year, that's not to mention the obvious name in Mike Zunino, who is hitting .403 and slugging .806, and the aforementioned Phillips.
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