{"id":16625,"date":"2021-06-04T14:17:44","date_gmt":"2021-06-04T18:17:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=16625"},"modified":"2021-06-04T14:21:30","modified_gmt":"2021-06-04T18:21:30","slug":"2021-draft-coverage-mock-draft-mania-and-current-draft-trends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=16625","title":{"rendered":"2021 Draft Coverage: Mock Draft Mania and current draft trends"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"563\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Leiter-jack-vandy-via-sportsnet-1024x563.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-17087\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Leiter-jack-vandy-via-sportsnet-1024x563.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Leiter-jack-vandy-via-sportsnet-300x165.jpg 300w, https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Leiter-jack-vandy-via-sportsnet-768x422.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Leiter-jack-vandy-via-sportsnet.jpg 1040w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption>Jack Leiter has been in 1-1 consideration forever.  Photo via sportsnet<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n<p>We&#8217;re starting to get into draft season!<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s my current collection of Mock Drafts from leading pundits.\u00a0 We usually see the first crazy-early mock just after the 2020 drafts, then again after the end of the 2020 season when the draft order is more or less determined, then it really starts to heat up in May.\u00a0 Thanks to the draft moving back to July\/All Star break, we will get a whole new batch as players finish up college seasons and start wood bat leagues\/show cases.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll keep adding to this list as Mocks come in and re-publish just before the draft with a final prediction.\u00a0 In the mean time &#8230;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Here&#8217;s the\u00a0<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Mock draft collection.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>I&#8217;ve generally listed their top-5 and then who they project the Nats to take at #11 (if they project out that far).\u00a0 this year I&#8217;m ordering them Chronologically as rec&#8217;d instead of grouping by pundit&#8230;. this should let us see kind of an evolution of the top of the draft.\u00a0 Players are bolded the first time they&#8217;re mentioned, not again afterwards.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Baseball America (<strong>Carlos Collazo<\/strong>) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseballamerica.com\/stories\/2021-mlb-mock-draft-way-too-early-top-10-picks\/?utm_source=Newsletter&amp;utm_medium=email\">Way too Early 2021 Mock<\/a>, 6\/12\/20:\u00a0<strong>Kumar Rocker, Jack Leiter, Brady House, Adrian Del Castillo, Matt McLain<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Prospects365 (<strong>Mason McRae<\/strong>) <a href=\"https:\/\/prospects365.com\/2020\/06\/25\/mason-mcraes-2021-mlb-mock-draft-1-0\/\">2021 Mock draft v1.0<\/a> 6\/25\/20: Rocker, Leiter,\u00a0<strong>Jud Fabian<\/strong>,\u00a0<strong>Luke Leto<\/strong>, McLain<\/li>\n<li>Prospects365 (<strong>Mason McRae<\/strong>) 2021 Mock draft v2.0 9\/4\/20: Rocker, Fabian, Leiter, Del Castillo,\u00a0<strong>Jaden Hill<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Prospects365 (<strong>Ian Smith<\/strong>) 2021 <a href=\"https:\/\/prospects365.com\/2020\/11\/09\/ian-smiths-2021-mlb-mock-draft-1-0\/?utm_source=feedly&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=ian-smiths-2021-mlb-mock-draft-1-0&amp;utm_source=rss&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=ian-smiths-2021-mlb-mock-draft-1-0\">Mock Draft 1.0 11\/9\/20<\/a>: Rocker, Leiter,\u00a0<strong>Jordan Lawlar,\u00a0<\/strong>Hill, Fabian.\u00a0 Nats take\u00a0<strong>James Wood<\/strong>, prep OF from IMG Academy in Fla.<\/li>\n<li>BA (Collazo) v1.0 Draft 1\/4\/21: (missed it)<\/li>\n<li>BA (Collazo) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseballamerica.com\/rankings\/mlb-mock-draft\/?utm_source=Newsletter&amp;utm_medium=email\">v2.0 draft 3\/29\/21<\/a>:\u00a0<strong>Jordan Lawlar,\u00a0<\/strong>Rocker, Leiter,\u00a0<strong>Marcello Mayer<\/strong>, Del Castillo.\u00a0 Nats take House.<\/li>\n<li>MLBPipeline (Callis\/Mayo) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/nationals\/news\/mock-mlb-draft-2021\">Apr 2021 mock draft 4\/26\/21<\/a>: Leiter, Lawlar, Rocker, Mayer, House.\u00a0 Nats take <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/prospects\/draft\/jackson-jobe-695549\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jackson Jobe<\/a>, RHP, Heritage Hall HS (Okla.).<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>BA (Collazo) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseballamerica.com\/rankings\/mlb-mock-draft\/?utm_source=Newsletter&amp;utm_medium=email\">v3.0 Mock draft 4\/28\/21<\/a>: Leiter, Lawlar, Mayer, Rocker, House.\u00a0 Nats also take Jobe.<\/li>\n<li>MLBpipeline (Callis): May 2021 mock 5\/6\/21: Lawlar, Leiter, Mayer, Rocker, House.\u00a0 Nats at 11 take Jobe.<\/li>\n<li>CollegeBaseballDaily May 2021 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.collegebaseballdaily.com\/2021\/05\/11\/2021-mlb-mock-draft\/?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CollegeBaseballDaily+%28College+Baseball+Daily%29\">mock 5\/12\/21<\/a>: Rocker, Leiter, Lawlar, <strong>Kahlil Wilson<\/strong>, Mayer.<\/li>\n<li>MLBpipeline (Mayo) May 2021 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/nationals\/news\/mlb-mock-draft-2021-may-19\">mock 5\/20\/21<\/a>: Mayer, Lawlar, Davis, House, Leiter.\u00a0 Nats take <strong>Ty Madden<\/strong>, RHP Friday night starter from UTexas.<\/li>\n<li>BA (Collazo): v4.0 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseballamerica.com\/rankings\/mlb-mock-draft\/?utm_source=Newsletter&amp;utm_medium=email\">Mock Draft 5\/24\/21<\/a>: Lawlar, Mayer, House, Leiter, Davis.\u00a0 Nats take Jobe.<\/li>\n<li>ESPN\/McDaniel <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/insider\/story\/_\/id\/31422161\/kiley-mcdaniel-2021-mlb-mock-draft-10-pirates-tough-choice-make-no-1-overall-pick\">Mock 1.0 5\/25\/21<\/a>: Lawlar, Leiter, Mayer, Rocker, Davis.\u00a0 Nats take Jobe.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p>My thoughts on the top of the draft, based on what we&#8217;re seeing.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Three of the names that have been projected in the top 5 have been there since the beginning (<strong>Kumar Rocker, Jack Leiter, Brady House<\/strong>).<\/li>\n<li>Very early in the spring HS season, two prep HS short stops in <strong>Jordan Lawlar<\/strong> and\u00a0<strong>Marcello Mayer\u00a0<\/strong>started getting mentioned as top5 guys &#8230; and now several mocks are thinking they go 1-2.<\/li>\n<li>Rocker and Leiter&#8217;s starts are hyper overanalyzed each week; Leiter missed a start and suddenly the next mock dumped him out of the top5.<\/li>\n<li>I really like Leiter; if you&#8217;ve seen him pitch, he looks like he could be in a MLB rotation right now.\u00a0 Rocker is impressive, but has been really inconsistent and I could see him slipping.<\/li>\n<li>College catchers who can hit go high; see <strong>Adley Rutschmann<\/strong>.\u00a0 <strong>Henry Davis<\/strong> fits that boat and is a safe pick for a team that has been burned in the past by either a prep kid or a pitcher.\u00a0 He&#8217;s going to go high.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>My current prediction on the top5 (which excludes any bonus money shenanigan picks that we&#8217;re hearing Baltimore may pursue) would basically include the 5-6 names just high lighted here, in some order.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>What about the Nats at 11?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Well, its pretty notable that a number of the Mock drafts all have the Nats taking the same kid: prep arm  <strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/prospects\/draft\/jackson-jobe-695549\" target=\"_blank\">Jackson Jobe.<\/a><\/strong>  Yes, another pitcher.  And a HS one at that.  Echos of the failure we saw in our ability to capitalize on <strong>Lucas Giolito<\/strong>, or the ridiculosly bad luck of the <strong>Mason Denaburg<\/strong> pick.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I&#8217;ve seen a couple outlier mocks here and there; i&#8217;ve seen <strong>Ty Madden<\/strong> mentioned (#2 Texas&#8217; friday night starter) and <strong>Sam Bachman<\/strong> (Miami of Ohio&#8217;s big arm).  Both are safer than a prep arm &#8230; but both also might be gone by #11 based on these projections.  I&#8217;d like either honestly; i like college track records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Notably &#8230; nobody has them on a bat.  I know this will irritate some who read this (ahem KW), but there&#8217;s no point fighting it.  If it wasn&#8217;t clear by now, this team focuses on pitchers in the draft and then uses them like currency to acquire bats later on.  So, be prepared for another pitcher-heavy draft in July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We&#8217;re starting to get into draft season! Here&#8217;s my current collection of Mock Drafts from leading pundits.\u00a0 We usually see the first crazy-early mock just after the 2020 drafts, then again after the end of the 2020 season when the draft order is more or less determined, then it really starts to heat up in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-draft"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16625"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17088,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16625\/revisions\/17088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}