Mack’s Sunday Morning News – 4-24-15- A, J, Puk, Jason Groome, Cal Quantrill, Reggie Lawson

Good morning.

We’ll it’s getting closer to the end the school baseball season that will qualify some of our top players for the draft and what better way to not screw up the stat-soup than to shut down a couple of the higher ranked kids that could easily fall down bidder list based on questionable injuries,

The current projected number one draft pick (fourth overall pick in the draft) is Florida’s LHP A.J. Puk who reported has developed back pain this past outing and will be not available for the weekend (or possibly the rest of the season).

He’s joined by last week’s announcement that the first overall pick in the draft, LHP Jasone Groome, who was shut down for 30 days for changing high schools without getting permission by, well, somebody.

We did add two more mock drafts to the excel sheets this week, so will re-add things up and tell us who the 19^th and 31^st pick are coming out… err… averagely –

1.     LHP      Jason Groome    High School TBD       

2.     LHP      A.J. Puk              Florida

3.     OF         Kyle Lewis           Mercer

4.     OF         Blake Rutherford    Charminade HS (CA)

5.     OF         Corey Ray           Louisville

6.     RHP      Riley Pint           St. Thomas Aquinas HS (KS)

7.     SS          Delvin Perez       Intl Baseball Academy (PR)

8.     IF           Nick Senzel         Tennessee

9.     RHP      Alec Hansen       Oklahoma

10.   OF       Mickey Moniak  La Costa Canyon HS (CA)

11.   RHP    Connor Jones     Virginia

12.   OF       Bryan Reynolds   Vanderbilt

13.   3B/P    Josh Lowe             Pope HS (GA)

14.   RHP      Jordan Sheffield   Vanderbilt

15.   IF         Nolan Jones          Holy Ghost Prep (PA)

16.   OF       Buddy Reed          Florida

17.   OF       Will Benson          Westminster Schools HS (GA)

18.   LHP     Matt Krook          Oregon

19.   RHP      Cal Quatrill        Stanford

20.    OF      Nick Banks          Texas A & M

21.   RHP    Daulton Jefferies  Cal

22.   3B        Bobby Dalbec     Arizona

23.   2B        Drew Mendoza     Lake MinneolaHS (FL)

24.   RHP    Kevin Gowdy      Barbara HS (CA)

25.   RHP    Logan Shore       Florida

26.   RHP    Ian Anderson      Shenendohowa HS (NY)

27.   RHP    Robert Tyler      Georgia

28.   C          Chris Okey         Clemson

29.   RHP    Dakota Hudson    Mississippi State

30.   C          Zack Collins       Miami

31.   RHP    Reggie Lawson     Victor Valley HS (CA)

Both Quatrill and Lawson are new projected Mets picks, so let’s take a peek at both of them and share some scout info –

Quatrill - On talent alone, Cal Quantrill deserves to be right there with Jefferies as a potential top ten overall pick contender. Last year’s Tommy John surgery and the subsequent lost time in 2016, however, complicate the matter, though it’s hard to say how much. Quantrill’s 77-81 MPH change-up is one of my favorite pitches in this entire class. Easy velocity (89-95, 96 peak), a pair of interesting breaking balls, all kinds of pitchability, and that change-up…what more could you want? Good health, I suppose. A few late season starts would go a very long way in easing the minds of big league scouting directors charged with making the decision whether or not to cut a multi-million dollar check (or cheque in the case of the Canadian born Quantrill) to the Stanford righthander. I recently wondered aloud about how teams will perceive Quantrill in this his draft year…

The attrition at the top of the college pitching pile has left Cal 

Quantrill, yet to pitch in 2016 as he recovers from last year’s Tommy John surgery, one of the college game’s most intriguing mound prospects. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, right? I wonder if the star student out of Stanford knew this and staged the whole elbow injury to allow time for his competition to implode all over the place. 

That’s a joke. Not a good one, but a joke all the same.

I also have said on the record that I’d consider taking him sight unseen (in 2016) with a pick just outside the draft’s top ten. You might say I’m bullish on Quantrill’s pro prospects.

Current 2016 stats at Stanford – has not pitched this year

Reggie Lawson –

          From River Avenue Blues –

         

Background - Lawson, who turns 19 in August, attends Victor Valley High School in Victorville, which is not too far outside Los Angeles. So far this spring he has allowed six runs on nine hits and 12 walks in 18 innings while striking out 19. Last summer Lawson impressed on the showcase circuit, and he dominated out of the bullpen for Team USA’s 18-and-under squad last fall. He’s committed to Arizona State.

Scouting Report - At 6-foot-4 and 190 lbs., Lawson is a classic projection high school right-hander. His spent most of his junior year topping out at 90 mph, but, by the end of the summer, his fastball was hitting 92-93 mph regularly and topping out at 95. He’s held that velocity this spring. Lawson’s breaking ball is a low-to-mid-70s curveball, and his changeup at this point is close to nonexistent. There are some concerns about his delivery, specifically the way he has shortened his stride, which has hindered his location and taken some of the snap away from his curve. Apparently that is considered fixable.

Miscellany - In their most recent rankings, both Keith Law (subs. req’d) and Baseball America ranked Lawson as the 26th best prospect in the 2016 draft. MLB.com had him 37th. The Yankees hold the 18th overall pick this year and scouting director Damon Oppenheimer sure loves his Southern California players, but Lawson is probably going to have to show a little more this spring to play his way into consideration for the middle of the first round. He was so good last summer that it is definitely possible. Right now Lawson looks more like a late-first round prospect.