SF is in the lead to have first crack at top prep SS Brice Turang. Photo via baseball America
About this time, I like to look at the bottom of the standings to see who’s going to have the first crack at talent in next year’s Rule-4 amateur draft.
With two weeks left (roughly 13-15 games), here’s how things stand. There seem to be 4 contenders for the title (records as of saturday morning 9/16/17).
- San Francisco, 57-92. what a season for the Giants, going from presumed contenders to currently owning the worst record in the majors. They’ve lost 15 of their last 20 and might not be catchable for the #1 pick. Pretty impressive for the team with the 5th highest opening day payroll.
- Philadelphia: 57-90: we knew they’d be bad and so did they … but they’ve played .500 ball for the last month to take themselves out of the running for their 2nd straight #1 overall pick. They seem likely to end up 3rd or 4th.
- Chicago White Sox: 59-88: another team that clearly waived the white flag this past off-season, but which stocked up so heavily on top-end prospects that their possible end of 2018 rotation (Carlos Rodon, Reynaldo Lopez, Lucas Giolito, Carson Fulmer and Michael Kopech is a murder’s row of 1st round/highly rated prospects. They could return to glory and fast, especially with another year of top draft picks. They’ve rebounded as of late though and are playing themselves out of the running for #1 overall.
- Detroit: 61-86: keep an eye on the Tigers though, who have won just 8 of their last 30 and have (finally) admitted to themselves they need to sell, moving face of the franchise Justin Verlander and probably selling off everything they can this coming off-season. Detroit by the way had the 2nd hghest payroll on opeing day only behind the Dodgers. Now that’s hard to do.
- New York Mets: 63-84: they’re 6 games out of the “lead” but are in free fall, losing 20 of their last 30 and being led to the finish line by a manager that should be canned for incompetence this off-season.
Next few teams: As, Reds and Padres, all of whom are playing .500 ball right now and seem unlikely to get into the top 5.
End of year prediction: SF, Detroit, Mets, Philly, White Sox.
So who’s in the “race” for #1 overall next summer? Its really early, and these rankings drastically change with spring performances, but here’s some of the top names to keep in mind:
College:
- Brady Singer RHP, Florida. Dominant in 2016 CWS. 2017 USA Nat’l team.
- Casey Mize RHP, Auburn. 2017 USA Nat’l team star.
- Nick Madrigal 2B, Oregon State: Golden spikes semi-finalist 2017 as sophomore. All-american as Soph. 2017 USA Nat’l team.
- Seth Beer 1B/DH Clemson: monster freshman year in 2016: Dick Howser award, Golden spikes finalist. 2017 USA Nat’l team.
- Griffin Conine OF, Duke. Jeff Conine‘s son. Exploded in Cape Cod League 2017, All-Cape 2017, named top prospect
- Jeremey Eierman SS, Missouri State; All-American 1st/2nd team 2017 as sophomore. 2017 USA Nat’l team invitee.
High School
- Kumar Rocker RHP, North Oconee (GA) (Vanderbilt commit). 18U team.
- Brice Turang SS, Santiago (CA) (LSU commit). 18U team.
- Ethan Hankins RHP, Forsyth Central (GA): (Vanderbilt commit). 18U team.
- Jared Kelenic OF, Waukesha (WI) (Louisville commit). 18U team.
If the draft was tomorrow, it’d probaby go Turang, Singer, Rocker at the top.