Mack Draft: - Taylor Featherstone, Justin Hageman, Gerrit Cole, Jeremy Baltz, Ryan Wright

Player spotlight: Taylor Featherston - Even hitting in a pitcher-friendly park at TCU for his home games,Taylor Featherston was able to produce a slash line of .338/.418/.560 -- with the folks at collegesplits.com normalizing for park factor and strength of schedule to produce a weighted line of .380/.454/.630 and a wOBA of .465. Towards the end of the spring in 2010 and particularly during Trials week for the USA Collegiate National Team last summer, Featherston struggled to get his lead foot down in time, throwing off his trigger some and exasperating his troubles with quality breaking balls. He also can get caught expanding the strikezone when behind in the count, and could generally do a better job keeping his bat on a flatter plane to keep it in the zone a little longer. All-in-all, though, he has an interesting offensive profile with a chance to hit for some average and with power to the gaps. Defensively he can run into issues with his hands when he rushes, but his footwork is solid. With pro instruction and reps, he has a chance to develop into an average Major League shortstop, but could also provide a nice glove on the other side of the bag. The draft class is light on collegiate shortstops, so a strong spring could put him in play as early as the sandwich round. - http://diamondscapescouting.com/rankings_2011_preseason_top300_pt2.html  







Starting pitcher — Justin Hageman — Western Kentucky University - WKU head coach Chris Finwood says freshman right-handed pitcher Justin Hageman, the 2010 32nd round pick of the Royals, has as much talent as any pitcher he saw on a Friday night during his time in the Southeastern Conference, but it remains to be seen what Hageman’s role will be with the Hilltoppers. He figures to begin the season as a midweek starting pitcher, but will move to the weekend rotation if he proves himself in that role. - http://blugrassbaseball.com/







RHP Gerrit Cole UCLA 6'3 1/2 220 - power armed rhp with solid above ave fb that will reach 97-98 on occ, pitches at 92-94 consistently with run and sink on his fb, best when down in zone using the L on a hitter, hard slider 81-85 breaks properly sometimes too big, must stay within himself and not rush which can cause him to get his elbow down in position from his 3/4 arm slot. Could be in the ML quickly either as a closer or as a 2-3 man in the rotation. Still some roughness to iron out, but plenty of upside left in the tank with pro instruction. http://xmlbscout.angelfire.com/





Jeremy Baltz – St. John’s - Baltz had, arguably, the best overall year by a true freshman since the original bat restrictions went into place more than a decade ago. The Red Storm slugger took his team triple crown, batting .396 with 24 home runs and 85 RBIs in 2010. He also had 16 doubles and a triple for a 1.250 OPS to earn not only Freshman All-American but also National Freshman of the Year honors. His 24 HR tied for 7th in the nation, while his 85 RBIs tied for 6th. Baltz hit safely in all but 10 of his team’s 63 games in 2010. His regular season exclamation point was a 4-for-5, four home run & seven RBI performance against Louisville on May 18. After helping fourth seeded St. John’s win the Big East Tournament, it speaks volumes that Baltz was named the Charlottesville NCAA Regional MVP despite the fact that his team lost to Virginia in the Regional final. His two HR and four RBIs against the Cavs on June 6 forced a winner take all game won by UVA the next day. - http://collegebaseball360.com/2011/02/07/top-college-baseball-outfielders-to-watch-in-20116



Player of the year: Ryan Wright — University of Louisville - The preseason player of the year award is essentially a two-way race between UofL junior infielder Ryan Wright, and WKU senior catcher Matt Rice, but the award goes to Wright in a tight race. BluGrass Baseball recently ranked Wright the No. 1 collegiate player in the state, and the second baseman has already been named a preseason All-American by Louisville Slugger, the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and Baseball America. The Indiana native batted .366 with 16 home runs, 80 RBI and 61 runs scored in 2010. He recently earned the nickname, “RBI Mongrel” from his head coach Dan McDonnell for compiling 146 RBI in two seasons at UofL. - http://blugrassbaseball.com