Thursday, October 30, 2008

BA Draft Report Card

This is a little bit old, but for people who may not have seen it, BaseballAmerica did their 2008 draft report card on the Rays. It's insider-only, so I'll just post some of the interesting stuff here:

BEST PURE HITTER: SS Tim Beckham (1), the No. 1 overall pick, slumped early but batted .275 in the final month and the Rays believe he'll be a five-tool player. They're also enthused about the lefty bats of C Jake Jefferies (3), 1B Mike Sheridan (5) and OF Anthony Scelfo (8).

BEST SECONDARY PITCH: RHP Shane Dyer's (6) knuckle-curve. (Kyle) Lobstein and RHP Jason McEachern (13) also have good curveballs, and LHP Josh Satow (25) owns a deceptive changeup.

CLOSEST TO THE MAJORS: Beckham and Lobstein should move fast for high schoolers. Gorgen may not need much time to get ready for big league bullpen duty.

BEST LATE-ROUND PICK: McEachern or Gorgen. McEachern was throwing just 82-84 mph in the summer before his high school senior year, but he's now up to 88-92 mph and there's more projection remaining with his body and delivery.
I was a huge fan of McEachern of at the time of the pick, and he had a solid enough pro debut. He's almost a full year younger than a lot of other HS draftees(he didn't turn 18 until October), so he'll be back at Princeton in 2009, likely as part of the rotation.
-- By Riven G at 12:17 PM

3 comments:

  1. AnonymousOctober 30, 2008 at 12:34 PM

    Kevin - anything more specific on Mike Sheridan?

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  2. Riven GOctober 30, 2008 at 1:04 PM

    That article didn't have anything else on him, but his game is about making contact and not striking out. I would think that, in order to become a starting 1B, he'd need a bit of a power breakout(he hit 15 his junior year in a pretty weak conference and none in his pro debut), at least 15-20 HR power.

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  3. AnonymousOctober 30, 2008 at 1:19 PM

    Kevin - thanks. I saw Mike play more than 75 games the last three years (including Summer ball), and know the score re: his power numbers. He was at Fall instructs, and the Rays instructors worked with him, "tweaking" his stance/swing to generate more power. The important thing is not to do too much such that his AVG and (lack of) K's remain intact. Next year is a crucial year in his development.

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