There's still alot of season to be played. I'm hoping the new orioles coach lights a fire under them and they get all their players back from injury.
Keith Law : Miami-area RHP Luke Jackson increasingly likely to go in the first round - Milwaukee, Houston, Florida, Yankees all interested. Frankie Piliere's Mock Draft : [rquoter] 1. Nationals -- Bryce Harper, C, College of Southern Nevada 2. Pirates -- Jameson Taillon, RHP, The Woodlands (Texas) HS 3. Orioles -- Manny Machado, SS, Brito HS (Miami) 4. Royals -- Yasmani Grandal, C, Miami 5. Indians -- Drew Pomeranz, LHP, Ole Miss 6. Diamondbacks -- Chris Sale, LHP, Florida Gulf Coast Univ. 7. Mets -- Matt Harvey, RHP, North Carolina 8. Astros -- Josh Sale, OF, Bishop Blanchet HS (Seattle) 9. Padres -- Michael Choice, OF, Texas-Arlington 10. Athletics -- Zack Cox, 3B, Arkansas 11. Blue Jays -- Austin Wilson, OF, Harvard-Westlake HS (Studio City, Calif.) 12. Reds -- Deck McGuire, RHP, Georgia Tech 13. White Sox -- Bryce Brentz, OF, Middle Tennessee State 14. Brewers -- Jesse Biddle, LHP, Germantown Friends (Pa.) HS 15. Rangers -- Karsten Whitson, RHP, Chipley (Fla.) HS [/rquoter]
Keith Law: Insider's Report- Dylan Covey RHP | Maranatha HS, Pasadena, Calif. Weight: 205 lbs. Height: 6-2 Summary : Covey comes from a high 3/4 slot and will sit 93-94 in most outings, touching 96 on his best days. He gets on top of the ball very well, driving it down in the zone, although he needs to do that more consistently. He'll show four pitches, with the slider as more of a show-me pitch at this point; he'll show a hard curveball with two-plane break in the upper 70s, and a hard changeup with more run than fade around 83-84 mph. Covey's arm works extremely well, and he generates great arm speed with a long, forceful stride towards the plate. At 6'2", 205, he offers a little less projection than some of the skinnier kids in this draft, but he's probably one of the closer prep arms to the big leagues.
I've heard that this years draft will be weak compared to next years. We let berkman walk if he promises he won't accept arbitration, land the two picks then the Astros picked a good time to be a terrible team. :grin:
Here is a link to MLB.com's scouting reports for the top draftees. All the reports include video and text: http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?topic_id=8080130
If I had to pick between Choice or Sale I would pick Choice. Choice is being mention in the same breath as Ryan Howard, and with the success of Howard and Price Fielder I say you take a chance on this guy. I just seen one of the video of Josh Sale, there is no way a high schooler can be that size without a little help from the juice.
Or maybe just a great work-ethic and good genes (dad's a former drug-free power lifter apparently) http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/highschoolsports/2011727881_mason29.html Bishop Blanchet baseball star Josh Sale always hunting for the perfect pitch Josh Sale, a senior at Bishop Blanchet, is hitting .560 this season. The hard worker is likely to be a first-round choice in the draft this June. By Mason Kelley Seattle Times staff reporter PREV of NEXT MIKE SIEGEL / THE SEATTLE TIMES "I think there are a lot of people with a lot of ability, but they don't work as hard as he has," says Bishop Blanchet coach George Monica of outfielder Josh Sale. Related Mason Kelley's High School Sports Blog BURIEN — It is 6:15 a.m., and Josh Sale is hunting. While several bleary-eyed teenagers amble into RIPS Baseball Training Complex, the Bishop Blanchet senior is wide awake, ready to work. He walks in with two bats — one metal, one wood — and walks past a row of cages. Off to one side, large sheets of lined yellow paper are stapled to a green wall. There is a list of times on each sheet, and Sale's name is written between 6 and 6:30 a.m. five days a week. He stretches and slips on batting gloves. He steps under the netting of Cage 4 and picks up a T-ball bat. He takes one-handed cuts off a tee. Then he grabs a wooden bat and practices a walk-up approach off the tee. One step. Two steps. Thwack. Swoosh. The ball explodes into the netting. Then Aaron Horrocks, Sale's personal hitting coach, lobs him some underhand pitches. After that, he takes live batting practice. This is what it takes to be a hunter, to train someone's eyes to pick up the perfect pitch. "I'm looking for a certain pitch," Sale says. "I'm hunting, as we like to call it. It's being picky, but it's the ball that you're looking for." Teammate Sam Williams tries to shake Sale's focus, but later says, "Getting into his head is like trying to break into the White House." After a little more than an hour of work, Sale talks to a scout who made the early-morning trip to the cage, packs up and heads to school. There is a reason the left-handed-hitting outfielder is the top baseball prospect in the state. It starts with his natural gifts, the simple ability to drive a baseball out of any park with a quick turn of the hips and a swing of the bat. But it is his work ethic, the ability to get up before sunrise and get cuts in before school every day, that sets him apart. The thrill of the hunt, the quest for the perfect pitch, drives him. Keep your eye on the ball Jesse Sale starts to laugh when he thinks back to the first time his son hit a golf ball. It was one of those plastic golf sets, a starter kit for 1-year-old protégés. Jesse and his wife, Kelley Richardson, took their son to a park and set a ball on the ground. "Pull out that big club," Jesse told his son. Kelley provided words of encouragement. "Keep your eye on the ball," she said. Josh picked the ball up and placed it against one eye. He set it back on the ground, took a swing and made contact. "He was so literal," Jesse said, trying to stifle a laugh. As a child, golf became Sale's first passion. He told his father he wanted to be an athlete when he was about 5 years old. Jesse didn't ask for much. "You've got to give me your best effort every day," Jesse said at the time. Sale found golf because of his father. They watched Tiger Woods play and Sale, who originally golfed left-handed, dreamed of one day competing at Stanford and on the PGA Tour. One day, before he turned 10, he was messing around with a friend on the course. He picked up a right-handed driver and knocked the ball 200 yards. The people who saw the swing thought it looked natural, so he kept doing it. He worked his way to a single-digit handicap, but at 13 his baseball game started to take off. "The challenge of being able to hit better pitching and do it consistently and as best I could at that age was something that really gave me a drive to get better and better," Sale said. The early-morning drive There aren't many teenagers who look forward to an early wake-up call. But some of Sale's fondest memories involve pre-dawn drives with his dad. When Sale was a student at St. Alphonsus in Ballard, the family lived in Renton. Because Jesse worked nearby, he would drive his son to school every day. Sometimes they would sit in silence, but sometimes they would talk about Tiger's round at the Masters or something Sale saw on "SportsCenter." "My dad and I have a pretty special bond you don't find in too many other places," Sale said. After school, Jesse would pick up his son and take him to the driving range. They hit bucket after bucket before driving over to RIPS for Sale's hitting lesson. "We've had a lot of quality time just in that transition to wherever we're going," said Jesse, a former drug-free power lifter who designs his son's weightlifting program. After a lifetime of daily drives, Sale can be considered a morning person. But when he tells people he wakes up every morning to go hit, it catches them by surprise, including scouts, who have to see it before they believe it. The hunter's eye On a cold, early-April evening, Josh Sale steps into the box looking for a fastball. He is hunting. Redmond starter Zach Abbruzza gives him a couple, but they aren't where Sale wants them. He works three walks and scores two runs. "I'm not going to swing at something I'm not looking for or else my chances of getting out go up enormously," Sale said. In Sport Illustrated's baseball preview issue, columnist Joe Posnanski called plate discipline the sixth tool. Blanchet coach George Monica tosses out the traditional five-tool-player reference while talking about Sale, but it is Sale's mastery of that sixth tool that makes the senior a more polished prospect than many high-school hitters. Of course, it doesn't hurt to be a left-handed power hitter. "We just can't find guys that have enough juice to get the ball out of the ballpark," one professional scout said. "There are a lot of guys who hit for power, but they don't have the discipline at the plate to grind out at-bats. I think Josh has a chance to hit for a pretty good batting average and hit some bombs and doubles. That's what really separates him." For Sale, picking pitches is as much of a science as physics or astronomy. "People were wondering why I don't swing at curveballs or breaking pitches," Sale said. "To be perfectly honest, the more the ball moves, it's harder to hit. That's common knowledge. It's changing planes. You've got to adjust your hands, adjust your eye level." ESPN's Keith Law has Sale in his top 10 of top draft-eligible prospects, and he seems like a safe bet to be taken in the first round. Sale already owns the Blanchet career RBI and home-run record and is currently hitting .560. "He's worked really hard to get where he's at," Monica said. "He's got some ability, because you can't not have ability and be this good a player. But I think there are a lot of people with a lot of ability, but they don't work as hard as he has. He's really put in the time, devoted himself in a lot of different ways to becoming a great player, and it's paid off for him." Sale is just 18, but he has found his passion — the perfect pitch. Thwack. Swoosh. The hunt continues
From a Q and A: http://yankees.scout.com/2/964455.html Kevin Levine-Flandrup: You’re known as a guy who built great power through working out. With the stereotype of broadness and power, we’ve seen athletes with Samoan backgrounds make an impact in the NFL, but not the other major sports. What have you done to find success in baseball? Josh Sale: Yeah, it's definitely something associated with Samoans, to be big, strong, thick, and pretty quick for their size, so I understand that. My dad was actually a drug-free power-lifter, getting into the top 5% when he was at his peak at ages 27 to 33. He really became interested in training and how to get stronger, outside of getting better as a competitive lifter. He wasn’t trained – he did everything by feel and how his body reacted. Over the years he experimented with himself, trying out different routines, different exercises and workouts, noting how his muscles felt and how his body recovered, so he has an incredible understanding of the body and athletic training. He has worked with me to build my strength, power, and quickness to suit what baseball requires – we do lots of quick, explosive movements, tons of core work because that’s what baseball is all about, and we don’t go for one rep maxes, instead focusing on two and three rep sets when pushing a maximum weight. The goal is not to be that big, thick, and strong stereotype you were talking about, and the work we’ve done it one of the main reasons I’ve been able to succeed as much as I have. Kevin Levine-Flandrup: How long have you been a gym rat? Josh Sale: Since I was about 8. I started body-resistance training then and when I was twelve I started lifting weights. I’ve always loved the gym because it gives me a sense of accomplishment, but it’s also a good getaway. Say you’re having a bad day or something, and things aren’t going your way, it’s just a way to release some anger or tension you may have due to a big paper you wrote
Is it weird to anyone else that they have to insert the words "drug-free" before power lifter when describing this kid's dad?
... I didn't mean to accuse the kid of being on steroids. It's just bizzare to me to see people describe his dad as "drug-free" so often. Almost every article I've seen on him has said this, and now even posters are!
Well they probably threw that in there because bodybuilding and strongman competitors ALL use supplements. I'm not talking about multi-vitamins, whey protein, glutamine (the more over the counter vitamins, amino acids, etc..) but pro-hormones (you can get them over the counter at places like GNC) and steroids. Supplementation is HUGE in those sports and without them you aren't really competing at a level playing field as your body can only get so big and strong naturally. Saying he competed drug-free in such a sport is probably more of a pride statement
Frankie Piliere is reporting Josh Sale looks to be the pick at 8 barring Pomeranz or Chris Sale falling. http://mlb.fanhouse.com/2010/06/05/draft-buzz-top-15-clearing-up/ UPDATE (6/6 - 8:05 PM) - As it has long been believed, Josh Sale appears to be the Astros man at 8th overall, barring a slide by one of the top two college southpaws. Sale's signability doesn't appear to be a big issue and Houston is not enamored with the remaining pitching options that figure to be available for them. Look for Michael Kvasnicka, Chad Bettis, and possibly Brandon Workman to be options with their later picks.
Please pardon me, but what time is the draft tomorrow? I assume it is on the MLB Network? And lastly, how many rounds do they do per day or what rounds are tomorrow? Thanks in advance.
As the previous poster said, they are drafting the first round starting at 6 central. You can catch the rest of the draft online I believe. http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/events/draft/y2010/ Edit: [rquoter]Prior to the start of the Draft, MLB Network will air a preview show, also simulcast on MLB.com, with Greg Amsinger, Harold Reynolds, John Hart, Gammons, MLB.com senior writer Jonathan Mayo and Baseball America executive editor Jim Callis, at 6 p.m. ET.[/rquoter] [rquoter]Continuing coverage at the start of Day 2, MLB.com will deliver exclusive live programming of the final two days on MLB.com/Live, featuring a live pick-by-pick stream, expert commentary and a searchable database of over 1,500 Draft-eligible players, supplemented by statistics, scouting reports and video highlights.[/rquoter] http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp..._id=10897462&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb Day 2 & 3 start at Noon Eastern.
