MILB.com's Draft Coverage Has Begun; Also: Make Brewers Pick in Mock Draft

[Mass Haas]

MLB has started to do a better job of draft preview coverage in the last year or two via MiLB.com. They kick off their features today with this.

[Blazer25]

Very cool.

 

Two of my favorite guys in the 2008 class Skipworth and Tonkin.

 

The scouting report doesn't do Tonkin's FB the justice it deserves. He's got a Derek Lowe type sinker. It's potentially that good.

[colbyjack]

Thanks for the link Mass. I'll add it to the draft resource thread to go along with everything else once they get their default draft page up.

 

The videos are always awesome, as it's a resource most of us don't usually have. However, there are some errors in the reports, or at least oversights that likely can be chalked up to unfamiliarity with these players, and I'm guessing that is because Jonathan Mayo, whose work I respect, is writing the reports. He probably has some great resources to pull from, which I'm guessing includes access to the MLB's scouting bureaus reports. However, he lacks some history based on what I know about guys like Aaron Hicks and Tyler Chatwood and what Blazer commented on Michael Tonkin, history that he would be aware of if he did a little more homework on these players.

 

Plus, the college mention almost seemed like an accident and I'm curious as to why he even bothered writing that part of it.

 

I guess I'm a little more critical of this stuff since Mr. Mayo is getting paid to do this stuff full-time yet doesn't have as good of a feeling for these players as a lot of other people do that don't do this stuff for a living.

[moffydream]

Good Information..

I like Tonkin, Gose(as pitcher) from the list.

Tonkin has really really weird delivery which would be dangerous, but that delivery makes tons of ugly swing and add more movement on his ball.

Gose is two-way prospect but I like Gose as pitcher than Gose as hitter.

He's pretty raw right now, but lefty who can top 94mph is not common.

Right now they're not considered as First-round pick, but if they have great year they would be picked early.

[colbyjack]

moffydream, welcome to the site. However, I have to ask you if you work for Skillshow and/or Perfect Game USA and if not how you were able to obtain those videos. Thanks.

[moffydream]

I'm not working for Skillshow/PG , but I got the videos by subscribing to baseballwebtv.com.

If uploading these files makes problems, I'll delete the files and wouldn't upload them.

[Blazer25]

Tonkin has really really weird delivery which would be dangerous, but that delivery makes tons of ugly swing and add more movement on his ball.

Not to nit pick too much but the "ugly" part of his delivery really is just his front leg. There's not too much danger, in that his arm works pretty well and there's not a lot of effort to his delivery. It's herky-jerky no doubt, but the jerkyness comes from his lower half and really just causes him to lose some velocity.

 

The fact that his ball is so live and that his delivery disrupts timing, more than makes up for the fact that his FB has only been in the 90-92 range. It's really hard to see the ball comming out of all those moving parts and nobody really took good swings against him. Not to mention he really has plus sink...the ball disappears at the plate. I was actually right behind homeplate when that video was shot and Tonkin was about as filthy as anyone that day.

 

FYI, the movement is not such much related to his delivery as his huge hands and good downward plane on his release.

 

 

For a guy who has a "stressful" and potentially dangerous delivery check out how deep Palazzone's arm and how much stress there is on his shoulder and elbow as he starts forward. That's a very deep arm-swing and the arm drags along more than acts as lever of the torso. He's actually already had some elbow issues at a young age as I recall.

 

Again, Palazzone has filthy stuff and can really pitch but there might be a concern for some scouts that he'll break down.

[GagneCY03]

Blazer, do you think if Tonkin starts bending his landing leg more and getting more extension that he'll lose some movement on his fastball?

[colbyjack]

moffydream, as an employee of Perfect Game I respect you for having a subscription to BaseballWebTV, but that subscription isn't meant for you to download the videos, re-format them into different movie types and share them with other people. I would recommend that you remove them from you blog as you have them and in the future please directly link to videos that you would like to refer to, even if those videos are for subscribers only.

 

And really that is a policy we have across the board here. You may notice that certain Baseball America subscriber-based content is linked to and then summarized, but never copied and pasted.

[Blazer25]

Blazer, do you think if Tonkin starts bending his landing leg more and getting more extension that he'll lose some movement on his fastball?

Nope. I don't think it will affect his movement at all. I do think it might make it easier for hitters to see the ball, making him less deceptive though.

[moffydream]

colbyjack, sorry for my fault. I deleted the links and I'm sure that I'll do not post illegal data later.

[Mass Haas]

John Sickels chimed in on the draft today as well.

[colbyjack]

More reports and videos up at MiLB.com:

 

http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080311&content_id=356818&vkey=news_milb&fext=.jsp

[GagneCY03]

CJ, what do you think of Gordon Beckham? His incredible start makes it seem like he'll be a first rounder, but do you think he'll stick at SS and hit for power?

[TooLiveBrew]

cj answered what was basically my same exact question ( http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif ) in the College Resource thread. Or, more specifically, I asked if he felt Beckham would translate his power to wooden bats... to which cj responded that Beckham led the Cape Cod league (wood bats) in HR & RBI this past year. As for his fielding, I'm not so sure. I know cj was 'wowed' by some plays that Beckham made v. Oregon State a couple weekends back, but I have no idea about consistency there.

[GagneCY03]

cj answered what was basically my same exact question ( http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif ) in the College Resource thread. Or, more specifically, I asked if he felt Beckham would translate his power to wooden bats... to which cj responded that Beckham led the Cape Cod league (wood bats) in HR & RBI this past year. As for his fielding, I'm not so sure. I know cj was 'wowed' by some plays that Beckham made v. Oregon State a couple weekends back, but I have no idea about consistency there.

 

Ah, thanks for clearing that up. He looks like he has good leverage in his swing. And I have read mixed reports on his defense, though I've never seen him play. It seems that he can make the exceptional play but flub on a routine one, which seems fairly common among good amateur shortstops. Hopefully his consistency will improve as he matures.

[colbyjack]

This biggest knock on Beckham seems to be his size (listed 6', but most seem to agree that he's a few inches shy of that mark), almost as though people don't want to believe that he might just be for real.

 

I've seen that he may have to move to 2B and to 3B, but it seems to be, as with Jonathan Mayo in this instance, he's doing so because that is what other people are saying and not because of anything he has seen for himself or truly believes.

 

It's not like I've seen a ton of Beckham, but I've seen him a few times over the last 2+ years, and I haven't seen anything really that suggests he should move off of shortstop. If a player can make all of the spectacular plays but for some reason frequently botches easy ones (which so far isn't the case this year), I would give that player every chance in the world to see if they become more consistent with tons and tons of ground balls in pro ball.

 

And for me it's the bat speed. He gets his bat through the zone so fast that it allows him to allow the ball to travel deeper into the strike zone as well as adjusting more quickly to balls that he's late to recognize.

 

Last night I looked at BA's top 100 prospects and Beckham (actually both Beckham's) could easily be the top two prospects at the position right now.

[TooLiveBrew]

This biggest knock on Beckham seems to be his size (listed 6', but most seem to agree that he's a few inches shy of that mark), almost as though people don't want to believe that he might just be for real.

 

Beckham is 5'10"-5'11" at the most. No joke - it's not that people don't want to believe as much as it is that people just don't believe... that he's a 6-footer (because he's not). Remember when Prince was 6'0"?

 

http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[colbyjack]

I realize Beckham isn't that tall, my point is that you don't have to be 6' to play shortstop. It's an even greater stigma than the one against short RHPs.

[TooLiveBrew]

Ah - I see. I definitely agree with you on that... though to be fair it probably is a good rule of thumb though to expect that a bigger athlete (obv. not like Frank Thomas big) would be better suited to play the position. Beckham is a sturdily-built young man - I don't know if he played football in HS or not, but it wouldn't shock me if he was a RB or something. I like what you said about just how good his bat speed through the zone is. Both of the HR I saw him hit were squared up perfectly, and both were to the LF side of the OF, which obviously demonstrates that he can get around on the ball.

[Mass Haas]

Help make Milwaukee's pick at minorleagueball.com -- poll will be over soon in mock draft

[splitterpfj]

Pitchers Joshua Fields, and Christian Friedrich are making this a two-man race in the mock draft right now.

 

If you've got a preference, or you'd prefer a bat, hit Mass' link and make your pick.

[colbyjack]

Aaron Hicks, Joshua Fields, Bubba Meyer, Casey Kelly and Ethan Martin would all be solid picks for the Brewers at that spot. Sonny Gray is probably the one name missing that also would fit the Brewers drafting preferences.

 

I like Christian Friedrich, but I think his ceiling is somewhat limited, which hasn't really gone hand-in-hand with the Brewers early picks with Jack Z. at the helm.

[fewgoodcards]

colby, who do you think are some of the guys the cardinals may be considering at 13? also, do you consider kelly as a shortstop or a pitcher? do you think hicks is going to hit?

[colbyjack]

It's looking less and less likely that Scheppers lasts to the Cardinals, but how about Shooter Hunt? Hunt could go in the 8-12 range just ahead of the Cardinals pick, but I don't think it would be crazy to see him at #13.

 

I think you've mentioned Friedrich before and he could be at that pick as well, although the Cards have targeted more live arms in recent years.

 

And they should be in a very good position to take the best prep players not named Hosmer, Skipworth and Beckham, and of course Hosmer could still be there given the Boras thing. Tim Melville would be a natural fit given the proximity, and I heard his last start was much better than the one you saw. They've been alternating between hitters and pitchers the past several years, although I'm sure that isn't by design, but that still causes me to believe they'll lean towards a pitcher. I think we've talked about this before, but their top pitching prospects seem to be either relievers or starters that may be better suited to relieve. Outside of Hunt and Friedrich and even Melville, I think Bubba Meyer or even Sonny Gray would make a lot of sense for the Cardinals.

 

I think Kelly goes as a positional prospect if a team is able to sign him away from his FB commitment to Tennessee, but I don't think he stays at SS. 3B could be his position at the pro level. I'm starting to hear more and more that he'll go in the first round which would buy him out of that FB commitment.