The godfather is stepping in with some early draft knowledge. Word to your respective mothers.
There’s a new SBN blog out there that’s worth subscribing to in you RSS thingy called MLB Bonus Baby, a site dedicated to all things MLB draft. Mock drafts are fun, and usually wrong, but it gives us something to talk about. In Andy’s latest mock, he has RHP Matt Harvey going to the Cards.
25. St. Louis Cardinals – Matt Harvey, RHP, North Carolina – As Matt Harvey continues to answer questions about his checkered collegiate career this year, I continue to look for a draft slot that fits in with his talent. I believe that he’s reached consideration for the back end of the first round, and the Cardinals aren’t afraid to invest in pitching in the draft, especially if they consider that pitcher elite, as they did with Shelby Miller last year. It’s all about Boras and Harvey’s performance for the balance of the season. Previously: NR, NR, 36.
I remember Harvey from the 2007 draft, and seem to remember we all sort of wanted him. He was sort of our Shelby Miller before we had Shelby Miller. Here’s some video of him in action:
And here’s his stat line via collegesplits.com
| W | L | W-L% | ERA | APP | GS | IP | R | ER | H | HR | BB | K | AVG | BABIP | WHIP | HR/9 | BB/9 | K/9 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raw Totals | 4 | 1 | 0.800 | 2.08 | 8 | 8 | 52.0 | 18 | 12 | 36 | 0 | 24 | 54 | 0.197 | 0.279 | 1.15 | 0.00 | 4.15 | 9.35 |
| Park Adj. | 4 | 1 | 0.800 | 2.08 | 8 | 8 | 52.0 | 19 | 12 | 37 | 0 | 24 | 54 | 0.202 | 0.287 | 1.17 | 0.00 | 4.15 | 9.35 |
| Schedule Adj. | 4 | 1 | 0.800 | 1.90 | 8 | 8 | 52.0 | 16 | 11 | 33 | 0 | 22 | 59 | 0.180 | 0.266 | 1.06 | 0.00 | 3.81 | 10.21 |
| Park/Sch Adj. | 4 | 1 | 0.800 | 1.90 | 8 | 8 | 52.0 | 17 | 11 | 34 | 0 | 22 | 59 | 0.186 | 0.274 | 1.08 | 0.00 | 3.81 | 10.21 |
His scouting report, in a nutshell: 92-95 fastball, putaway curveball, developing change.
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Harvey used to have a devastating curve, but the word this year is that he has switched to a power slider as his primary breaking ball.
I’ve been following Andy Seiler’s site for a few years now. He was a little raw of a scout a few years ago but his dedication has helped him improve greatly in his analysis. He gives deep dive details on games and players he scouts. He just joined SBN.
As far as the Harvey pick there is very few players in the draft with the raw tools and upside as him. I think his performance in the next 4-6 weeks will dictate if he is worthy of a late 1st round pick.
Do not like his pitching motion. It seems to put all the stress on his arm, rather than having his momentum do some of the work.
http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/blog?name=mlb_draft&id=5105074
Doesn’t sound like any of his breaking balls are very good (yet alone plus or “put-away” and has serious command issues.
Forsch, it is worth noting that the video you are watching is from last year which is by far the worst year of his college career. he had different mechanics than that his senior year in high school and part of his inconsistency has been due to an ever changing delivery. it is possible that he is using different mechanics this year.
What’s the diff between a high school stud pitcher and Harvey? Harvey is a year or two closer to the majors.
I have a feeling, that if he keeps pitching like this, some college heavy organization that doesn’t want to get sideways with the commissioners office by going way over slot with a high school kid, will pop him before he falls to #25.
Then again, Scott Boras might go ahead and demand the same if not more than what the Angels offered in 2007 for Harvey. His first two years at North Carolina be damned.
I still can’t believe at one time, I actually thought Harvey was going to be a better prospect than Porcello.
@RydeShelby:
The difference is that Harvey has been wildly inconsistent for most of the last three seasons at a top ten college program, with some of the best coaching in college baseball, and an 18 year old kid straight out of prep school is still a blank slate with plenty of projection.
Harvey as for the most part peaked in terms of overall talent(so you know what you are getting), and the eighteen year old is still nothing but projection.
Is it common knowledge that the Cards may be going after overslot again in order to to replenish the what we lost getting Holliday? On another note our minor league teams are doing outstanding this year so far.
@Kazakhstanny Danny: My question was a weak joke. Three years ago, Harvey was a high school kid who wanted a big bonus; he did not get it and went to UNC. He is now the same guy, three years later and better. Its often prudent to take an accomplished college pitcher.
@Ryde
But he’s not accomplished.
Looking at the film of Harvey it really looks like he’s taking too short of a stride. This causes alot of problems with him staying up in the zone, I htink that a Cardinals minor league pitching coach could get ahold of him and work this out. Also do you think we will spend Shelby Miller money on Austin Wilson if he drops that far for signability issues?
Note on Matt Harvey, it looks like he’s worked out his issues. He won ACC Pitcher of the Year going 5-2 with a ton of strikeouts. He seems to ahve worked out some of his control problems. Would love to see him fall to 25, but Im rooting for Austin Wilson due to people worrying about him not signing. He really seems to be worth a large signing bonus. Why not we have plenty of depth in our system we just need to start getting a few more stars.