Mack – Draft News – Daniel Cabrera, Landon Knack, Clayton Beeter, Max Meyer, Jordan Walker

Athlon Sports     offered up their list of their top 50 college prospects that will be available in the 2020 draft.

One is:

18. Daniel Cabrera, OF, LSU

Fan Buzz - The 6-foot-1 junior is a five-tool outfielder that was tabbed a 2020 First-Team Preseason All-American by Baseball America after manning left field for LSU baseball the past two seasons.

As a sophomore, he had what he considered a “down” season after hitting .284 with 12 home runs, 12 doubles and 50 RBIs. Seven of those homers and half of those RBIs came in 26 SEC regular-season games.

That’s no small task considering the pitching they saw out of schools like Florida, Vanderbilt, Georgia, Auburn, Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi State and Ole Miss. Read up on Emerson Hancock and Asa Lacy if you’re unfamiliar.

bA  -

            2. Landon Knack, RHP, East Tennessee State

Knack is among the least likely seniors on this list to return in 2021, because he used an abbreviated 2020 season to become a legitimate draft prospect, even in the face of the draft being shortened to as few as five rounds

The righthander was a good pitcher for ETSU as a junior in 2019, going 9-4, 2.60 with 94 strikeouts in 97 innings of work, but he was on another level through four starts in 2020. He was 4-0, 1.08 with a 51-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 25 innings of work, featuring a fastball that reached the high 90s.

Baseball Prospect Journal  -

          Clayton Beeter, RHP, Texas Tech

Texas Tech righty Clayton Beeter is in the mix to be selected as high as the second half of the first round. Numerous teams are high on Beeter, but his draft status remains unknown because he doesn’t have the track record other college pitchers have in this year’s class.

The 6-foot-2, 220-pound righty served primarily as Texas Tech’s closer as a redshirt freshman last season. He earned All-American honors last year and returned this season as Texas Tech’s No. 1 starter. In 21 innings, Beeter recorded a 2.14 ERA with 33 strikeouts (14.1 per nine innings) and four walks allowed this season.

In his four starts this spring, he had an electric repertoire of pitches, which was headlined by his mid-90s fastball and above-average breaking ball.

Multiple scouts that I have spoke with are extremely high on Beeter and believe he’s one of the top college starting pitchers in this year’s draft. One area scout even said he might have been a top-10 pick last year had he been eligible and displayed the stuff he did this spring all of last year as a starter.

BA -

          Max Meyer, RHP, Minnesota

Why You Should Know Him: Meyer always had big-time stuff, but one of the questions with him entering the season was how well could the undersized righthander maintain his electric stuff in a starter’s role? While we’ll never know how he could have handled that over a full season, the stuff was plenty good over the first four weeks and he’s got plenty of athleticism, enough to garner comps to Sonny Gray and Marcus Stroman. Where Meyer winds up being drafted will show how the industry values undersized, but explosive and proven arms.

Prospect Insider -

                    20. Jordan Walker, 3B — Decatur HS (GA)

The 6-foot-5, 220-pound Walker edged Pete Crow-Armstrong, Cole Wilcox, C.J. Van Eyk, Carson Montgomery and Jake Eder here, and you can argue for any of them, but I received slightly better reports on Walker.

For Mariners fans, he might remind you a bit of Kyle Lewis in some of his early video at Mercer. He’s a bit raw and doesn’t run well enough to project well in the outfield, but the power is legit and he has the swing to back it up.

He has a very good arm, and projects to third OK for now, though there are a lot of area guys penciling in a walk across the diamond.

When I asked two checkers to rank Walker, Van Eyk and Crow-Armstrong, Montgomery, Wilcox and Eder, one had Walker No. 1, the other No. 3. Eder received the other No. 1 vote, but was ranked last in the group by the first scout. Crow-Armstrong was ranked No. 2 and No. 3 and would have been No. 21 had the rankings gone that far.