Royals Draft Preview

Tomorrow night, the MLB Amateur Draft will begin at 7 p.m. Eastern time with the first round. The Royals have the fifth overall pick and there are many options in this year’s draft – it’s been billed as one of the deeper talent pools in recent memory.

The Royals are virtually certain not to mess up their first pick with many strong picks available to them at their turn.

Jeff Herr and Ryan Wood have profiled the potential selections when it gets to the Royals.  If you’ve missed them, you can catch up from the list below:

• RHP Dylan Bundy – Owasso (OK) High School
• OF Bubba Starling – Gardner/Edgerton (KS) High School
• RHP Gerrit Cole – UCLA
• RHP Trevor Bauer – UCLA
• 3B Anthony Rendon – Rice University
• Ryan Wood looks at other first round scenarios…
• …and then at local talent that may be available in later rounds

If you’re the type to look at mock drafts, our Minor League-themed site, Seedlings to Stars, has a mock available.  If you’re looking for odds of certain players being selected in a positoin, DCProSportsReport.com has that calculated based off of their MLB Mock Draft Database.

Kevin Goldstein at Baseball Prospectus has a mock draft of his own, while Baseball America has finalized one as well in preparation of tomorrow’s first round.

And if that’s not enough (and let’s be honest, there’s always more to talk about during a draft), our own Ryan Wood will conduct a live-blog of the first round.  Just check in tomorrow evening to add your comments and discussion while he runs down the picks.

As for my hopes, I’d be just fine with Starling as the Royals pick.  I’m not worried about his commitment to Nebraska for football this fall, and the Royals can pay up if they have to if that’s what it takes.  As a two-sport draftee, they can distribute any bonus over a five year period.  I don’t think he could refuse the money and he has as much upside as anybody in the draft.

If it’s not Starling, I want Trevor Bauer.  There are concerns about his workload and always the rumblings about his training program, but he’s a unique talent and has drawn comparisons to Tim Lincecum who had similar concerns when he was drafted in 2006.  Nine other teams passed on Lincecum, including the Royals who selected Luke Hochevar with the first overall pick.  Bauer shouldn’t slip that far.  He may not even make it to the Royals at #5 anyway.  After setting the Pac-10 single season strikeout record in his last start on Saturday, he’s primed for a high selection.

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