Mets #1 Pick - OF Brandon Nimmo

6-5-11: - mlb-baseball-blog. - I had a toss-up on who should be the last high school hitter we profiled. I almost went with Trevor Story, since he's got some Texas ties. But, this kid from Wyoming won me over. If there is a sleeper late in the first round, I think it's him. Nimmo is a big unknown. He didn't have a high school baseball team, so he needed to spend his time on the local American Legion team. That also limited scouting opportunities and brings up all sorts of questions on what kind of pitching he's faced and whether he can succeed at the next level. However, as John Klima says below, Nimmo may be the player that Bubba Starling should be. He's got power potential, he's good good-to-great speed and he should stick in center field. That's enough of a package to win sleeper status from me. The team that takes him will have to be very comfortable with the risk, though, and I wonder if Nimmo would be better served going to college for a few years and proving himself against higher competition. If he does that, he could shoot up draft boards for 2014.

3-22-11: - http://rise.espn.go.com/baseball/articles/2011/03/22-Brandon-Nimmo.aspx - There’s been nothing conventional about Nimmo’s path to stardom. Unlike kids in California, Florida and Texas, playing year-round just isn’t an option because of the weather. And because of that weather and a lack of school support, the Wyoming High School Activities Association doesn’t recognize baseball as a high school sport. So instead of suiting up for Cheyenne East, Nimmo instead plays for Cheyenne Post 6. Yet somehow none of these obstacles have impeded Nimmo on his way to becoming an early-round prospect for this June’s Major League Baseball Draft. The 6-foot-2, 185-pound center fielder is rated the nation’s No. 10 high school senior by Baseball America and the No. 43 overall draft prospect on ESPN.com by Scouts Inc. senior baseball analyst Keith Law.