2010 Draft and Prospects

November 20th marks the day that teams can sign free agents that played for other teams last season.  It also marks the day that teams need to finalize their 40-man rosters for the purposes of protecting eligible players from being selected in the Rule 5 draft.  So, it may seem kind of out of place to do a post about the 2010 draft considering that it is about 8 months away.

Frankly it really is kind of out of place, but I wanted to share some prospect stuff I’ve come across and get the draft ball rolling while we wait for Dayton Moore to pull the trigger on another minor trade or signing.

If you’re into following and reading about prospects, you probably already know about Project Prospect and Baseball Beginnings.  Both sites are wonderful sources of information and are among the slew of RSS feeds I am subscribed to.  I hope you will check them out if you have time and interest.

Before I drop some links to specific content from those two sites, I wanted to draw your attention to the extensive write-up on the World Wood Bat Association World Championship Adam Guttridge did for The Hardball Times.  It was published on November 2nd, so it is a little old, but it is definitely worth a read.

Project Prospect’s Matt Garrioch, published an article on five High School players to keep an eye on for the upcoming draft.

Adam Foster, also of Project Prospect, recently caught up with Dominic Brown* and interviewed him.  I thought it was relevant to include since I included Brown in a hypothetical trade recently.

*Dominic or Domonic?  It appears both ways and I am confused.  Baseball America’s 2009 Prospect Handbook has him listed as Dominic, and that was the spelling I went with in my earlier post, but I’m not sure which is correct these days.  MiLB.com has him listed as Domonic, Baseball Reference.com has him listed as Dominic, and Baseball America.com has him listed both ways.  I’d call him “D” Brown, but thanks to failed Royals prospect Dermal “Dee” Brown, I don’t want to go down that road.

A couple of Scouting Reports and Videos to pass along from Baseball Beginnings:

Report: RHP-Dylan Covey, Marantha HS (California)

Report: RHP-Jameson Taillon, Woodlands HS (Texas)

Report: RHP-Cameron Bedrosian, East Coweta HS (Georgia)

Report: OF-Trey Griffin, Martin Luther King HS (Stockbridge, Georgia)

Video: RHP-Peter Tago, Dana Hills HS

The 2010 class figures to be pitching heavy.  Among the HS pitchers, A.J. Cole and Jameson Taillon already stand out, but you’ll surely be hearing more about all of these players quite a bit in the coming months.  With the Royals set to pick 4th overall* next June, one of these guys could be joining the organization relatively soon.

*Some mock drafts have the Royals picking 5th, but I am pretty sure they are picking 4th.  I found 4 sites with them picking 4th and one site picking 5th.  Then again I thought I knew how to spell Dom(i/o)nic Brown’s name so take that for what it is worth, and yes there are already mocks out there for the 2010 MLB draft.  Talk about throwing darts.

Speaking of throwing darts, Dayton may elect to draft a college player with the Royals 1st round pick and all the above players will find homes with other teams.  Personally, I’m a believer in ML bloodlines, so Cameron Bedrosian is a guy I will be attempting to keep tabs on between now and next June.