Add Davidson, Pollock and Phegley to potential 1st round list
Posted on June 8th, 2009 by erik in 2009 MLB Draft, tags: aj pollock, josh phegley, matt davidsonMore rumors this afternoon:
Baseball Analysts interviewed Matt Davidson, a 3B out of Yucaipa HS in California, and in the interview Davidson tells us that one of the teams he worked out for the was the Cardinals. Like Grichuk, Davidson is a bat, only a more highly regarded bat. Baseball America rated him the 42nd best overall amateur talent in the draft. Baseball Prospectus, 41. Keith Law went as far as to rank him 15th overall. This scouting report gave him a 54 overall future potential (OFP) grade on the 20-80 scale, rating his power potential as a 70. The downside with Davidson is while he’s a 3B now, he’s expected to move to 1st as a pro. I’ve heard this story before. You can see some video of Davidson here.
Derrick Goold gives us the low down on a couple collegiate hitters who visited today, Notre Dame outfielder AJ Pollock and Indiana catcher Josh Phegley. Phegley has power and patience and if he can stick behind the plate, he’d be a pretty interesting pick. Problem is, no would bet that he would. Law says:
Because he can hit well for a catcher, he’s a sandwich or second-round prospect, but a team that doesn’t think he can catch probably will not rank him in the top five rounds.
Pollock was a guy I thought he Cardinals could be on all along. He hit .377/.445/.556 in the Cape and also played well for the Irish this spring. BA says:
He projects as a 30 doubles/15 homers threat in the majors, and he’s a slightly above-average runner who has plus speed once he gets going. Pollock also has good instincts and a solid arm in center field.
Goldstein compared him to Nate McLouth with less sock, I think he’s Skip Schumaker part 2. In fact, there’s the notion of moving him to 2nd base. His best tools are his speed and fielding range, he should hit for average, but lacks power. BA ranked him 23rd overall. Law ranked him 33rd. He’s more of a low floor, medium reward type of player.
I haven’t heard of one pitcher having worked out for the Cardinals yet, though I’m sure they have. I’ve heard from they were all over some familiar names this spring: Mike Minor, Rex Brothers and Kyle Heckathorn.
In my view, the Cards look more and more like they’re thinking bat first, which is playing it by the numbers.
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Law speculates that the Cards would draft Pollock and move him to SS.
Ugh….
he was my preseason prediction, just seems like the cardinals type of low-risk, meh reward type of player.
he’s played SS before, no?
do you have a link to where Klaw says that?
pollock seems nice…but i’m not gonna lie…i would be disappointed with that pick…i want upside!!!
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/events/draft/y2009/reports.jsp?content=pollock
Here is a good place to look up some of these guys. In the video it says Pollock use to play SS.
If one of these high upside arms falls to the Cardinals and we pass. . . well, I hope they learned their lesson in 2007.
i’m with you azru…the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results
i’m just afraid of seeing the insane reactions we’re going to likely see tomorrow.
Law said that on the radio, Bernie Miklasz’s Show on 101 locally here in STL. He said that if Pollock projects at SS he’d be a top ten pick. Obviously most teams don’t project him there since he’s 27 or less in most mock drafts. We have an organizational obsession with changing players defensive positions. Moving people to the corners is one thing but moving them to the middle infield is entirely different.
He also said he thinks Kyle Gibson will fall totally out of the first round with his recent injury issue. He’d make a nice second round pick if he falls that far.
I wouldnt be too terribly upset with phegley in the second round. I think that there will be better prospects to be had at that point but phegely is an interesting prospect.
i promise i will be level headed and sane in any reaction i give…but doesn’t mean i am going to like the pick…having said that, i will support whatever players we select until they show they are not major leaguers
I make no promises of sanity. Nor rationality, nor level-headedness, nor reasonability.
Speaking of Kyle Gibson, it’s reported that he has a stress fracture in his forearm, so…
1. If he’s there in the 2cd round, you take him, no questions about it, but
2. Should the Cards actually take him in the 1st? Here’s a kid who was a top 10 projected pick all year. When healthy, his fastball sits at 89-93 and he’s got a nice slider and change already. He screams Dave Duncan to me. The downside, if his injury proves more than a stress fracture, and he does apparently project as more of a middle rotation type than a 1.
For my part, I intend to reserve all my judgments on all players the Cardinals draft this year until their professional baseball careers have panned out.
Then, I will confidently assert my opinions of said players and claim retroactively that I held these correct opinions the whole time, thus showing all of you up.
I suspect this condescending attitude will result in much derision and blog-comment argumentation, which is entirely the point. It might be trollish, but it’s the long-term, Cask-of-Amontillado/Khan Noonian Singh-style vengeance trolling that I admire.
Gentlemen, prepare to be extremely aggravated with me in eight years.