• Stanford ace righthander Mark Appel had a great outing against Oregon on Friday night. Appel gave up one run on 10 hits over nine innings while walking two and striking out 13. Appel, who threw 149 pitches, got a no-decision and the Cardinal lost the game in the 10th inning, 4-2.

• Arizona State shortstop Deven Marrero has been sliding on draft boards after having a lackluster spring. There are questions about how much he’ll hit at the next level, but he had a good weekend against Southern California, going 5-for-11 with a triple, a home run (his fourth of the season) and a stolen base. Marrero raised his season line to .290/.347/.427. Even after the slide, he still projects to go in the top half of the first round.

• Texas A&M righthander Michael Wacha shut out Kansas in a complete-game victory on Friday. Over the nine innings, Wacha allowed just four hits and no walks while collecting six strikeouts. On the season, Wacha is now 5-0, 2.42 with 50 hits, 11 walks and 66 strikeouts over 63 innings.

• Duke righthander Marcus Stroman held on to the lead for the most strikeouts in the country with eight more against Maryland this weekend, raising his season total to 93. Oklahoma State lefthander Andrew Heaney is in second place with 85 strikeouts on the season.

• Florida lefthander Brian Johnson pitched well against Tennessee, throwing six shutout innings while allowing six hits with one walk and four strikeouts for the win. Johnson also went 6-for-12 with two doubles and a home run to raise his batting line to .315/.347/.517 on the season.

• California second baseman Tony Renda went 6-for-9 on the weekend against Washington with two doubles, a home run and a stolen base. On the season, the 5-foot-8, 173-pounder is now hitting .365/.447/.518.

• Cal Poly outfielder Mitch Haniger collected eight hits in 13 at-bats this weekend against Cal State Northridge, including a double and a home run. The junior raised his line on the season to .333/.405/.589 with 10 doubles and seven home runs.

Here are all of the weekend stats for the nation's top draft-eligible college players, listed alphabetically by school. The stats were collected by CollegeSplits.com. Follow CollegeSplits on Twitter @collegesplits. The list of players was selected before the season to include this year's top college talent for the draft. . .

[...] Continue Reading »

See Also: Byron Buxton scouting report

See Also: Byron Buxton video from Under Armour game

Baseball America headed south this weekend to check out a couple games from outfielder Byron Buxton and the Appling County High (Baxley, Ga.) Pirates. Over the two games against Long County High (Ludowici, Ga.) and Calvary Day School (Savannah, Ga.), Buxton went 4-for-6 with two doubles and two walks. He showed off his well above-average speed on the bases and in the outfield, where he ran down a ball easily in the left-center gap.

Of all those things—getting a hit, stealing a base, or making a good defensive play—there's one Buxton likes better than the other two.

"Running a ball down," Buxton said. "Because you're keeping somebody else from getting on base."

Buxton—"Buck" to most of the fans in the stands, except his grandma, who has always called him "Big Boy"—is the type of athlete who makes everything look easy. He doesn't get overanxious at the plate, remaining patient and waiting for his pitch. He's a smooth, gliding runner and he got on the mound to close out the first game and ran his fastball up to 94 mph.

On top of all that, he handles everything that comes with being the top prospect in the country—the scrutiny from other teams, as well as the fan and media attention—with a relaxed grace.

Buxton, a Georgia recruit, isn't likely to wind up on campus because he projects to be picked in the first five picks of the draft. That was evident on Saturday by the teams in attendance to scout the tooled-up outfielder. The Astros (picking first), Mariners (3rd), Orioles (4th) and Pirates (8th) all had scouts at the game to see Buxton play.

With four more stolen bases over the two games, Buxton is now 21-for-21 in steals on the season. He hasn't stolen home this year yet, but he did do it once last year and always has the green light—both at the plate and on the bases.

"I tell him, if he gets a good read, he's on his own," Appling County High head coach Jeremy Smith said.

Even with all the draft hype and attention this year, Buxton's goal remains simple.

"I want to lead us to the state championships, that's it," Buxton said.

Below is video of Buxton from April 13 & 14.
 

St. John's shortstop Joe Panik became the second first-rounder from the 2011 draft to sign, agreeing to a $1.116 million bonus with the Giants on Saturday. The first was Padres second baseman Cory Spangenberg, who turned pro the day before.

Panik's bonus matches MLB's recommendation for the slot in which he was drafted, No. 29 overall.

Panik's bat is his best tool, and he showed it off by hitting .297 in the Cape Cod League last summer and .398 for the Red Storm this spring. He offers gap power and slightly above-average speed, and he has a chance to stay at shortstop in pro ball. While his selection in the first round was somewhat of a surprise—Baseball America rated Panik as the 67th-best prospect in the draft—he has a similar profile to North Carolina shortstop Levi Michael, whom the Twins drafted at No. 30.

HITTERS

54. Matt Dean, 3b, The Colony (Texas) HS
66. Derek Fisher, of, Cedar Crest HS, Lebanon, Pa.
83. Tyler Greene, ss, West Boca Raton (Fla.) HS
85. Tyler Gibson, of, Stratford Academy, Macon, Ga.
87. Kyle Gaedele, of, Valparaiso
88. Nick Delmonico, c/3b, Farragut HS, Knoxville
107. Senquez Golson, of, Pascagoula (Miss) HS
115. Dusty Robinson, of, Fresno State
124. Billy Flamion, of, Central Catholic HS, Modesto, Calif.
131. Taylor Sparks, 3b, St. John Bosco HS, Bellflower, Calif.
138. Daniel Camarena, lhp/of, Cathedral Catholic HS, San Diego
143. Bryson Myles, of, Stephen F. Austin State
144. Steven Proscia, 3b, Virginia
146. Jason Coats, of, Texas Christian
148. Dante Flores, 2b, St. John Bosco HS, Bellflower, Calif.
149. Aaron Brown, of/lhp, Chatsworth (Calif) HS
150. Riley Moore, c, San Marcos HS, Santa Barbara, Calif.
165. Garrett Buechele, 3b, Oklahoma
166. Cody Stubbs, 1b/3b/ Walters State (Tenn.) JC
167. Preston Tucker, of/1b, Florida
168. Phillip Evans, 2b, La Costa Canyon HS, Carlsbad, Calif.
172. Nick Martini, of, Kansas State
180. Christian Lopes, 2b, Edison HS, Huntington Beach, Calif.
181. Johnny Ruettiger, of, Arizona State
182. Jake Cave, lhp/of, Kecoughtan HS, Hampton, Va.
185. Chris Mariscal, ss, Clovis North HS, Fresno
194. Nick Rickles, c, Stetson
196. Richard Prigatano, of, St. Francis HS, Mountain View, Calif.

PITCHERS

43. Kyle Winkler, rhp, Texas Christian
46. Dillon Maples, rhp, Pinecrest HS, Southern Pines, N.C.
62. Charlie Lowell, lhp, Wichita State
91. Burch Smith, rhp, Oklahoma
100. Logan Verrett, rhp, Baylor
104. Dillon Peters, lhp, Cathedral HS, Indianapolis
111. Colton Murray, rhp, Kansas
113. Navery Moore, rhp, Vanderbilt
114. Brooks Pinckard, rhp, Baylor
128. Jake Reed, rhp, Helix Charter HS, La Mesa, Calif.
132. John Curtiss, rhp, Carroll HS, Southlake, Texas
134. Nick Burdi, rhp, Downers Grove (Ill.) South HS
137. Hawtin Buchanan, rhp, Biloxi (Miss.) HS
139. Kody Watts, rhp, Skyview HS, Vancouver, Wash.
140. Clay Holmes, rhp, Slocomb (Ala.) HS
141. Matt Price, rhp, South Carolina
154. Cody Kukuk, lhp, Free State HS, Lawrence, Kan.
155. Andrew Suarez, lhp, Columbus HS, Miami
158. Carson Smith, rhp, T exas State
161. Cole Green, rhp, Texas
163. Aaron Nola, rhp, Catholic HS, Baton Rouge
169. Michael Cederoth, rhp, Steele Canyon Hs, Spring Valley, Calif.
170. Pat Connaughton, rhp, St. John's Prep, Danvers, Mass.
171. Ian Gardeck, rhp, Angelina (Texas) JC
173. Taylor Hill, rhp, Vanderbilt
177. David Goforth, rhp, Mississippi
178. Matt Stites, rhp, Missouri
189. Ricky Jacquez, rhp, Franklin HS, El Paso
190. Blake Treinen, rhp, South Dakota State
191. Brian Flynn, lhp, Wichita State
192. Cole Wiper, rhp, Newport HS, Bellevue, Wash.
195. Jesus Valdez, rhp, Oxnard (Calif.) CC
198. Carlos Rodon, lhp, Holly Springs (N.C.) HS
199. Chris Lamb, lhp, Davidson
200. Amir Garrett, lhp, Findlay Prep, Henderson, Nev.

At pick No. 49, San Francisco popped projectable righthander Kyle Crick of Sherman (Texas) High. After playing most of his junior at first base, Crick has been up to 97 this spring.

With their first pick of the night, the White Sox take Keenyn Walker, an outfielder from Central Arizona JC. He is a 65 runner that can stay in center field and profiles as a leadoff hiter.

With the 40th overall selection, the Red Sox took South Carolina outfielder Jackie Bradley. The 2010 College World Series Most Outstanding Player, Bradley hurt his wrist in April and sat out the rest of the season. There's a possibility he could return during the postseason.

With the 36th selection of the draft, the Red Sox take the first Southern California arm in lefthander Henry Owens. A teammate of Christian Lopes and Eric Snyder—two other high school prospects for 2011—he lost his only game of the season in the quarterfinals of the Southern Section Division I playoffs.

Tall and lanky, Owens has a fastball that sits 89-91, but he has touched 94 and scouts think he will hit that more consistently as he fills out. He also has a big, sharp curveball.

The Padres were linked to Spangenberg for the past few weeks, but we thought they would get him further down in the draft. With an unprotected pick at 10, the team reached a little bit to make sure they got one of the best pure hitters in this year's draft.

Spangenberg was drafted as a second baseman, which would be a new position for him—he mostly played third base at Indian River (Fla.) JC.

Anthony Rendon's slide ended at pick No. 6. The Rice third baseman had been expected to go to number two to the Mariners. For the third year in a row, the Nationals have selected Baseball America's top-ranked player, joining Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper. Likewise, the Nationals have been successful negotiation with Rendon's adviser, Scott Boras.

Today is Rendon's 21st birthday.

Within the next couple weeks, we'll be releasing our position-by-position rankings for the draft and then scouting reports on the Top 200 players and then we'll start rolling out our state-by-state reports. While 200 is an arbitrary number, it gets us through the middle of the sixth round this year and it shouldn't come as a surprise that a vast majority of big league regulars that were drafted were picked within the top 200 picks.

With that in mind, here is a handy team-by-team breakdown of the top 200 picks in this year's draft. . .

See Also: 2011 Draft Order

Here are the weekend stats for the nation's top draft-eligible college players, listed alphabetically by school. The stats were collected by CollegeSplits.com. Follow CollegeSplits on Twitter @collegesplits. [...] Continue Reading »

It may not bring the same fame that comes with the NFL Draft's final spot (and no free trip to Newport Beach, Calif.), but the 2010 baseball Mr. Irrelevant is Western Kentucky catcher Matt Rice, who was selected with the 1,525th pick of the 2010 draft by the Yankees.

Rice had a very solid junior season for the Hilltoppers this year–he led the team with a .369 batting average and a .446 on-base percentage while slugging .585. He was also named a second-team academic all-American and was a semifinalist for the Johnny Bench award, given to the nation's top college catcher.

Last year's Mr. Irrelevant, Alibay Barkley did sign and hit .389 in limited action (18 at-bats) with the Angels Arizona League club last year.

There won't be commentary on every pick, but make sure you're also following us on Twitter, checking out our Draft Database and reading all of our 850+ scouting reports posted in our state-by-state writeups.

Three shortstops go off the board in the first five picks of round three with Rick Hague going to the Nationals, Mike Antonio going to the Royals and Tony Wolters going to the Indians.

[...] Continue Reading »

As the draft closes in, Baseball America is going where the scouts are.

National Writer Aaron Fitt is at the Southeastern Conference tournament in Hoover, Ala., all week. Just on the first day of the event, he saw Jimmy Nelson of Alabama throw his third straight complete game, followed by a heavily-scouted Drew Pomeranz start for Ole Miss. Check in on Aaron all week on the College Blog and his Twitter feed, @aaronfitt.

And for the weekend, draft writer Conor Glassey will head to Sebring, Fla., for the Florida coaches association's four-team, four-game all-star event. Florida's high schools could produce 15 to 20 single-digit draft picks, so follow Conor here on the draft blog and on his Twitter feed, @conorglassey.

Aflac announced that the 2010 Aflac All-American Game will take place August 15 at Petco Park. Rosters will be released in May.

With the Pirates’ victory yesterday, the Nationals secured the first-overall pick in the 2010 draft. With the win, the Pirates are now 59-96 with seven games left to play. The Nationals also won and are 53-103 with six games left to play. So, even if the Nationals win out and the Pirates lose their final seven games, the teams would end the season in a tie, and the tie-breaker would go to the Nationals because they also had the worst record last year.

This marks only the second time a franchise has held first-overall picks in back-to-back years. The Rays had first-overall picks in 2007 and 2008 when they chose lefthander David Price and shortstop Tim Beckham, respectively.

The rest of the top 10 picks are still up for grabs, though. Here are the contenders:

[...] Continue Reading »

During their game against the Cubs at Petco Park, the Padres just officially announced the signing of No. 3 overall pick Donavan Tate, a deal that has been suspected done for a few hours. No details on the terms yet, but we’ll keep digging.

Here are the players that ranked in the top 50 of our recent rankings that are still on the board . . .

9. Tanner Scheppers, rhp, St. Paul Saints

19. Everett Williams, of, McCallum HS, Austin

21. Andrew Oliver, lhp, Oklahoma State

25. Garrett Gould, rhp, Maize (Kansas) HS

26. Tyler Skaggs, lhp, Santa Monica (Calif.) HS

28. Kyle Heckathorn, rhp, Kennesaw State

30. Max Stassi, c, Yuba City (Calif.) HS

31. Wil Myers, c, Wesleyan Christian Academy, High Point, N.C.

33. Rich Poythress, 1b, Georgia

37. James Paxton, lhp, Kentucky

38. Sam Dyson, rhp, South Carolina

39. Kentrail Davis, of, Tennessee

41. Zack Von Rosenberg, rhp, Zachary (La.) HS

43. Brody Colvin, rhp, More HS, Lafayette, La.

45. Madison Younginer, rhp, Mauldin (S.C.) HS

46. Mychal Givens, rhp/ss, Plant HS, Tampa

47. Keyvius Sampson, rhp, Forest HS, Ocala, Fla.

49. Tommy Joseph, c, Horizon HS, Scottsdale, Ariz.

50. Victor Black, rhp, Dallas Baptist

It’s good to hear from Strasburg on the show here. It really wouldn’t have been good for the draft show to not have the No. 1 pick on the show. Strasburg told friend of BA Kirk Kenney that he didn’t want to go back east to be on a draft show and not share the moment with teammates, coaches, family and friends. And Kirk also reports Strasburg is not, as had been blogged, at Boras Corp., but is instead having a draft party at his mother’s home—which is just a two or three miles from Tony Gwynn Stadium.

However, he’s apparently on his way now up the coast to Boras Corp. for a press conference.