As many of you probably found out from the various mock articles on this website, you know I am a huge Max Guzman fan. Well red baron at VEB wrote something amazingly awesome on him that I thought you all would like to check out. After reposting for him, will also post a great reference for any of you who like to shadow draft.

Max Guzman, IF, Osceola High School (FL)

6'0", 215 lbs

Bats: Right

Throws: Right

So, what's so great about this guy?

I first came across the name Max Guzman last August, when he put on a show in the Home Run Derby at the Perfect Game All-American. He ended up hitting ten dingers in the timed event, and very few of them were cheapies. Andrew Yerzy, the lefty-swinging catcher from Canada, was the guy who stood out in the home run derby held for amateurs coinciding with the Futures Game last summer at the all-star break; a month and a half later it was Guzman knocking everyone's socks off.

Following that event, I looked into Guzman some, found a bad-body slugger with a very intriguing swing, and packed his name away on the 'follow' section of my spreadsheet. And then, of course, didn't actually follow; that column is really just there to remind me of players I found interesting at one point or another.

Well, I have to give a tip of the hat to CardzZilla, who as part of his preparations for running the Cards' mock draft over at Sickels's site reached out to me. In the course of the conversation that followed, he brought up Guzman to me again, and at the very least got me interested enough to go back and take a second, harder look at the kid.

Spoiler alert: I like Guzman quite a bit, and think he could end up a bit of a steal in this year's draft.

Further spoiler alert: there are definite reasons he's not going at the very top of the draft, and we'll get to those in a minute.

The thing that stands out most when it comes to Guzman, as you might expect from a kid who jumped on the scene thanks to a big performance in a home run derby, is the power. He has legit elite-grade power, at least a 70 and maybe better. Huge raw bat speed, and a swing plane seemingly built to put balls in the air. He hits with a big leg kick at pretty much all times, and actually uses it well to maintain balance in his swing. He very rarely gets stuck out on his front foot, and the fact he's strong enough to do damage to center and right field helps him as well, since he doesn't have to sell out to try and pull the ball for power.

Beyond the power, the rest of the hitting profile is very good as well. His swing can get long at times, particularly facing pitchers who try to get him out with offspeed stuff, but even so, he puts the bathead in the zone and keeps it there. How he deals with elite velocity remains to be seen, as he hasn't faced tons of high-octane arms on the showcase circuit the way some players with a longer track record have, but he shouldn't be an all-or-nothing hitter who is only capable of thumping homers but struggles to make contact in general. He's patient and disciplined, as well; even if he doesn't hit for a huge average I think he should be able to get on base at a good clip. In short, this is a very, very good offensive talent, cut from something like the Jose Abreu sort of mold.

So why is this a guy who's not going in the first round? Or the second? Or probably even the third? Well, there are a few reasons, including that shorter track record of showcase events, weaker competition in school, and questions about that swing -- which, again, he doesn't always maintain a good hand path and the like -- translating to the high-octane stuff he's likely to see from top prospects in pro ball. Mostly, though, there's really just one big question. Or one big question, and one smaller question related to it. The big question is the body, and the related question is where Max Guzman is going to play on the diamond.

Guzman is a big kid, and is likely to be a very big man. If he had the body he currently has coming out of college, it might actually be a little less of a concern; there's a difference between being heavy at 21 and heavy at eighteen. One has to be concerned about how well his conditioning is going to hold up, when he's already shown a propensity for packing on the pounds at such a young age. A couple years ago Josh Naylor was the first pick of the Miami Marlins, and he was a bad-body, big offensive upside player from Canada. That kind of player going anywhere near the top of the draft is a marked rarity, though.

To Guzman's credit, he has taken steps to get in better shape, and was relatively open about trying to slim down in an interview this spring. You have to admire both the work ethic and the willingness to honestly assess oneself, but there is a physical component here that's just going to be difficult for him to deal with. Maintaining one's weight when one is predisposed toward packing on the pounds is just plain tough; somewhat paradoxically, it can actually be as tough or even more difficult for an athlete, as in spite of the natural advantages they would seem to have in terms of muscle mass and genetics, they're also limited how severely they can shoot for weight loss, due to having to maintain strength more religiously than the general population.

It's easy to talk about Pablo Sandoval as being simply undisciplined, but what about a player like Miguel Cabrera? Cabrera has a dedication to the craft of baseball most of us can't imagine, and still struggles mightily to keep himself in shape. Guzman may very well get himself into better shape in the short term, hopefully boosting his draft stock, but how well that holds up when he's 22, or 26, or 30, is very much an open question. Of course, looking out that long term is maybe a bit overzealous, but you take my point, I hope.

The attached question of where Guzman plays is a simple fact of his physical build. He moves quite well for a player his size, but there's still the qualifier of 'for a player his size' built in. He's played catcher in the past, has moved mostly to third base, and is more likely than not a future first baseman. Maybe there's a chance he could play third; if a team is willing to try Brett Wallace over there someone will certainly give Guzman a shot. He has the arm for the left side of the infield. But realistically, you're probably talking about a first base profile. And that, of course, puts a heavy burden on the bat to produce.

The good news is, I think there's a very good chance Guzman can produce at a level it won't matter where he plays. I have some concerns about his ability to catch up to top velocity, in spite of his bat speed -- as we've seen with Byung-ho Park of the Twins this year, bat speed and power don't mean you necessarily get the bat there faster, onlytravelling faster, if that makes any sense -- but I love the approach, and he's going to be able to put balls over walls pretty much anywhere he plays. He's also a true baseball rat, with both a passion for the game and a real drive to succeed, so I believe he'll put in the work to get there.

I wouldn't pick Guzman in the first round, or the second. Probably not the third, either. But I wouldn't shy away from taking him and paying him to turn pro in that 4th-6th round area, at all. He's almost certainly destined for a first base or DH role, and it's probably always going to be a struggle for him to keep his body in top condition. But he can hit. I'm not quite as sold on the bat as I was that of Zack Collins back in 2013, but I'm certain that I would love to have this guy in my system.

Read for yourself at: http://www.vivaelbirdos.com/2016/6/8/11875278/2016-draft-preview-no-22-a-last-batch-of-young-bats

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And for all of you shadow draft fans, Rob Ozga put out a ton of awesome info recently. I have not had a chance to read it yet, but I know he rocks a;ready and it is worth your time.

Check it at: https://baseballdraftreport.com/