John Sadak has a fun job. He is the voice of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, amongst many other announcing gigs. He has been on hand for an amazing transformation in the Yankees farm system, and has seen some of today’s stars at the big league level develop from question marks to the reigning AL Player of the Week.
He’s never been shy to talk Yankees prospects, as he brings an aspect to prospect talk little others can. He sees these prospects play every day, watching them grow in each at bat, or unfortunately sometimes never meet the lofty expectations that are placed upon them. This year, he saw a lot of positives.
This past week, 2015 first overall draft pick Dansby Swanson made his big league debut. Roughly a month earlier, Alex Bregman, the 2015 second overall pick, made his big league debut. Swanson has been a hit since day one, while Bregman — after a well-documented slow start — has been on a tear the past 10 games.
Also on fire of late, as if to say “hey guys, don’t forget about me,” is Colorado Rockies 20-year-old shortstop Brendan Rodgers, the third overall pick in 2015.
As we continue our look back at the first-round Almost Mock Draft picks, we focus at another top ten talent that slipped all the way to the back end of the 2016 MLB Draft. While the first player to slip fell because of questionable mechanics and where he fits in as a reliever or starter, the second slipped because of his own doing, getting caught in the evil baseball underworld of PEDs just days before the draft.
Somehow, the St. Louis Cardinals were able to get both.
Yesterday, we took a look at Dakota Hudson, who was projected to go tenth in the Today’s Knuckleball Almost Mock Draft. Hudson, of course, wound up going 34th overall to the St. Louis Cardinals while the Chicago White Sox — owners of the tenth pick — went a completely different direction.
Skipping over pitching, the White Sox swooped in and took the best catching prospect in this year’s crop.
Looking back at May’s Almost Mock Draft, most of the projected top-10 picks went close to where they were projected. Not Dakota Hudson.
Hudson, who has been on a roller coaster the past few months, seeing his stock rise from mid-second rounder to top-ten, wound up being selected at the back end of the first round. His roller coaster continues as he already finds himself in High-A ball.
Right-handed pitchers simply don’t go first overall. It isn’t a rule by any means, it just doesn’t happen with any sort of regularity. Thus, when we looked at Today’s Knuckleball’s Almost Mock Draft back in mid-May, and high school right-hander Riley Pint was in serious talks about being the first overall pick, it spoke volumes of the talent most felt he possessed.
Yesterday, in revisiting May’s Almost Mock Draft, we took a look at the pitcher that many expected to go first overall, A.J. Puk. Puk of course slipped to No. 6 .
The debate about the top high school arm in the draft seemed to come down to Jason Groome or Riley Pint, and all eyes were on which one would go first.
The Atlanta Braves have been a busy team the past two seasons. While they began their rebuild last season getting rid of the old and bringing in some of the new, they really haven’t been able to reap the rewards of their work, the fruits of their labor if you would. Today it all begins.
Everyone likes a pitcher who strikes batters out in high numbers. Don’t get me wrong, watching a finesse pitcher like Greg Maddux control a game is a thing of beauty, but watching Randy Johnson chase 20 strikeouts in every performance is exhilarating.
That’s why the New York Mets prospect Thomas Szapucki caught my attention.
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