Feeling a Draft

Fellow writer Ryan Wood and myself are gonna bring something to Kings of Kauffman that you all will hopefully find interesting.  As the Major League Baseball Amatuer Draft is coming up on June 6th we thought it would be both fun and entertaining to outline draft prospects  the Royals could select at #5 (which is a good spot because there is a lot of talent in this years draft) and compare them to a current prospect or rookie that is currently in the Royals system.  The idea is to profile where they fit in the organization and how they will most likely be handled moving forward.  The Royals have a couple waves of talent coming but there is a slight hole after that.

If you count the first wave as Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, Alcides Escobar, Lorenzo Cain, Mike Montgomery, Danny Duffy, Aaron Crow, Tim Collins and Louis Coleman; then count the second wave as Will Myers, Christian Colon, Salvador Perez, John Lamb, Chris Dwyer, Jake Odorizzi, and Noel Arguelles (and I’m sure there are those I have not listed in both waves); after that the talent starts to dry up.  Admittedly with all the talent in the previous sentence the Royals shouldn’t be too concerned, but if not all of them pan out (which they all won’t), and the Royals need to fill some holes all they have right now is the likes of Ryan Stovall, Jason Adam, Brett Eibner, Robinson Yambati, Yordano Ventura and maybe a few others that are flying below the radar.  Point is, there is room in the lower levels for some talent, which is evident by the strugles of the Kane County Cougars.

That said, the issue for the Royals is whether they want to try to catch fire with the first and second wave or if they want to make sure they continue to have wave after wave in case they can’t keep all of them.  It’s a common conundrum with a team in this situaition, the Twins were able to keep players like Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer but David Ortiz, Johann Santana, and AJ Pierzynski were sent on their way.  The Twins still remain competitive because they continue to pump talent through the system and target the ones they want to keep (Mauer and Morneau).  The Rays have started to do the same thing (signing Evan Longoria to a club friendly deal) and look like they are here to stay as well.  I can’t speak to the Royals strategy but I do know it’s definitely a discussion they are having.

But I digress, the first prospect we are gonna go over is a high school right handed pitching prospect Dylan Bundy.

Dylan Bundy – RHP – Owasso (OK) High School – 6’1” 200 lbs.

Bundy has signed with Texas to pitch but lots of projections have him going top five or top ten, which would make that money hard to pass up to go to Texas.  Dylan has a brother who is pitcher in the Orioles farms system and they are both big time users of an interesting method of training which can be seen here on YouTube.

Bundy can bring the heat with a 95-96 MPH fastball with a hard, swing-and-miss breaking ball.  Being slightly on the short side for a pitcher the concern is usually that a player will have a maximum effort delivery (think Tim Lincecum) that puts a lot of strain on the shoulder and could lead to injuries and a shortened career.  However, according to all the scouting reports Bundy doesn’t have a max effort delivery, and his is actually quite fluid.

Scouting Report (keep in mind I am in no way a scout and have not seen Bundy in person, I have read about him through articles and scouting reports online and have tried to assimilate everything for everyone here):

Best Pitch: Fastball in 92-95 range with good life

Secondary Pitch:  Hard curve with 12-6 break and proper drop and rotation

Third pitch: Change-up, his worst pitch but still good and will get better; according to Baseball Beginnings Bundy can tip this pitch a bit as he has a tendency to slow his arm down when throwing it, but not an uncommon trait for an amateur pitcher, something he should be able to fix.

Best Comparison in Royals System:  Jake Odorizzi

Bundy, like Odorizzi, comes out of high school with good stuff and, from what I have read, it seemswill most likely be a big strikeout pitcher.  However, with his 3 pitches and change up needing work he will most likely work his way slowly through the system (if for no other reason than he is young and there is so much talent ahead of him), but with a draft and sign early this year, he might be able to get some time in the rookie leagues and then hit Low A next year projecting him to be in the majors in the 2015 range which would put him right in that second or third wave of prospects right as players like Montgomery or Duffy could be moving on (although they hopefully won’t).  Bundy is a strong talent and lately it seems he has shot up some boards and might not make it to #5 where the Royals pick, but he would be another great arm in an area of need (right handed pitchers) in our system.