2018 MLB Draft: Some final thoughts

The 2018 MLB draft begins in less than two hours. Here are some final thoughts for your consideration.

****I had hoped to get another dozen or so draft profiles posted but that proved to be too ambitious. That said, all the information is ready and will be folded into the commentary on each draft pick as we live-blog.

****Here are a few of my personal favorites, not necessarily super-analytical here but just guys I have a good intuitive feeling about:

Brice Turang: Maybe I’m just stubborn but he seems like a steal if he really does fall towards the bottom of the first round as anticipated.

Steele Walker: Completely honest, I just love his name. Oh, yeah, the power helps too plus since he’s a Big 12 product I have seen him in person more often than most of other elite talents.

Jordan Groshans: The more I study him, the more I like him. I get a sort of David Wright/Ryan Zimmerman vibe with him. Teams may agree, as his stock seems to have gained a lot of helium in the last 24 hours according to rumor.

Xavier Edwards: Quick-twitch guy with baseball skills. Sign me up.

Kris Bubic, LHP, and Nico Hoerner, INF: Stanford products I wanted to get fully written up but ran out of time. I like them both, Bubic as a pitchability lefty who could move quick and Hoerner as a guy who seems like he could hit better in pro ball than he did in college and can stay up the middle. Hoerner showed substantial power in the Cape Cod League last year and wooden-bat records are meaningful in my opinion.

PLAYERS I’M NOT SURE ABOUT

Kyler Murray: Steele Walker’s teammate at Oklahoma, uber-toolsy and another guy with helium based on his tools. It’s not that I don’t like him, I do, but will it be worth buying him away from football? First round just seems too rich for me but I am also notably risk-adverse.

Jarred Kelenic: Usually I’m a big advocate for the cold-weather guys. Supposedly the Mets are interested in him at number six, maybe looking at him as similar to Brandon Nimmo eventually. Again, as with Murray I like Kelenic, but I think of him as more like a mid first rounder rather than a number six guy.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

Parker Meadows has late helium. Could this be because of his brother Austin’s early success with the Pittsburgh Pirates?

Osiris Johnson. . .right up there with Steele Walker and Seth Beer in the Great Name category. He’s got terrific tools too and there are rumors he could go in the first round.