Who Will Be the #1 Overall Draft Pick?

Does Bryant get a boost at home with his numbers? Also, 33 homers in a season would put him in the top ten for most in a single season. I also saw where he has 54 walks on the year, but it doesn't supply the information for how many were intentional... I am torn on who I would pick, but it would be hard to imagine it being someone outside of Bryant, Appel , and Gray.

 

Have you seen any updated projections of him in next year's draft? He's had a significant performance drop off this year at NC State...

 

Rodon is still right up there in the mix for 1-1 in 2014 along with Tyler Beede, Aaron Nola, Michael Cederoth, and Trea Turner. On the high school side, there is Alex Jackson and Touki Toussaint. Rodon has 114 strikeouts in 74 innings with just a 209 batting average against. There was an article not too long ago where the coach explained some of his struggles earlier in the year. I recall him saying that Rodon pitched for Team USA last summer because they were playing in Cuba and he is of Cuban descent. Due to this, they let him take off a bunch of time in the months he had off. When he started throwing again, he was rusty and was not very ready when the season began.

 

He's going #1 barring injury, or drop off next season. His ERA is bad, but his K-rate is up to 13.9k/9.

 

http://sbb.scout.com/2/1289798.html

Pick 1-Mark Appel

ANALYSIS: This decision hasn't been made yet and likely won't for another few weeks. Last year, there was a large top group of talent with varying price tags that allowed the Astros to be creative. This year there's a top group of two players: Appel & Gray. Appel has a better frame, arm action, delivery, track record and projectability along with a wider base of skills. Right now they may be comparable prospects, but scouts prefer Appel going forward especially after the adjustments he's made this spring after being disappointed going 8th in last year's draft. With a weaker crop to spend savings later from this pick, Gray will need to come in well below Appel's price tag to get serious consideration here, but he doesn't have the motivation to do that as he'll get paid just fine going second.

 

Appel has pretty much been the consensus #1 pick for two years running now and has also been one of the most scrutinized prospects in recent history. Appel answered some questions this season and has shown the dominance that his detractors were saying was missing. The one big question mark has been his representation --- Scott Boras.

Boras does his job... get his client the most money, but he has also said some crazy things that tend to throw teams off. He is vehemently against the current draft system and rightfully so since it takes away a large part of the control that he and his clients had before. The big question is will Appel sign for less than the slotted amount for the first overall pick? Will he sign quickly to begin his career immediately? Will he sign quickly enough to allow the Astros to begin getting their later round picks into the fold?

There is no doubt that the talent is there with Appel, he would project to the the front-line starter we've been missing since Oswalt was traded off (no offense to Norris, Wandy or Harrell). While I like Gray, Bryant and even Stewart, Appel is the top player in the draft and I'd really like to see him picked by the Astros. Hopefully he wants to be an Astro bad enough and is willing to work with the Astros to be the first overall pick.

 

Scott Boras Likely To Advise Kris Bryant
By Zach Links [May 8 at 7:09pm CST]

http://www.mlbtraderumors

Agent Scott Boras is likely to advise top prospect Kris Bryant as the 2013 draft approaches, according to Jack Magruder of FOXSportsArizona.com (on Twitter). With right-hander Mark Appel and left-hander Sean Manaea also in tow, Boras has three clients likely to come off of the board within the first ten picks.

All three are said to be in the mix for the Astros' No. 1 pick along with Oklahoma right-hander Jonathan Gray and Georgia high school outfielders Clint Frazier and Austin Meadows. However, the Georgia products might be at a disadvantage as Houston is said to be leaning more towards college players.

Bryant, a third baseman/outfielder out of the University of San Diego, currently leads the nation in homers and has turned heads with his power. Manaea has impressed scouts as well, but a hip issue has caused trouble for him as of late. Appel, meanwhile, is entering the draft yet again after being unable to reach agreement with the Pirates, who nabbed him with the No. 8 pick last year.

 

Where is the poll for who the Astros will pick as the top overall choice in the 2014 draft?

 

No poll necessary, Carlos Rodon is pretty much a lock to be number 1 next year.

 

Love his stuff and the K's, but can a guy with a 4.14 ERA be a lock to go #1?

 

Absolutely.

 

Idk, to me his K/BB rate is a better indicator of him as a prospect. His freshman year he did have like a 1.47 era if i remember right. So I have an easier time keeping him as number 1 on my astros wish list for next year haha.

 

http://ht.ly/kSANL

For the second straight draft, Stanford righthander Mark Appel entered the spring as the consensus best player available. Another college righthander, Oklahoma’s Jonathan Gray, quickly joined him after a string of dominant starts.

With a month remaining before the 2013 draft, Appel and Gray remain alone on the first tier of prospects. “There’s a severe difference between those two and everyone else,” an American League scouting director said.

Scouts rate the overall crop of talent as mediocre, just as they did coming into the season. Several of the best college arms, most notably Indiana State lefthander Sean Manaea, have taken a step backward. That’s bad news for clubs at the top of the draft who covet advanced pitching.

High school hurlers such as righthanders Kohl Stewart (Texas) and Phil Bickford (California) and lefty Trey Ball (Indiana) are flying up draft boards. Yet it remains to be seen how early teams will be willing to take players from what’s considered the draft’s riskiest demographic.

San Diego third baseman Kris Bryant, college baseball’s runaway home run leader, is the top bat available. Outfielders Clint Frazier and Austin Meadows, who play for different high schools in Loganville, Ga., have lived up to their billing as the best high school position players, but there’s a growing sense that one or both of them could slide out of the first 10 selections.

Last year, a new Collective Bargaining Agreement brought major changes with assigned bonus pools for the first 10 rounds and severe draft-pick penalties for exceeding them by more than 5 percent. As was the case in 2012, many clubs will seek discounts in the first round, saving money versus the CBA pick values and allocating that cash for later selections. Between teams looking to cut deals and little agreement as to how the talent lines up after the first 10-15 players, the bottom half of the first round is more unsettled than usual.

Here’s our best guess as to how things will play out on June 6:

1. ASTROS: Houston, which has the top selection for the second straight year, says it’s still evaluating seven players. Most industry sources believe Houston’s decision will come down to Appel, whom it strongly considered a year ago before taking Carlos Correa, and Gray. While Appel has less leverage this time around because he’s now a college senior, Houston won’t be able to take as much of a discount as it did with Correa, who signed for $4.8 million. The Astros’ pick is valued at $7.8 million, and whichever arm they pass on likely will be snapped up by the Cubs ($6.7 million) or the Rockies ($5.6 million).

PROJECTED PICK: MARK APPEL.

 

Gray will be pitching today at 2pm.

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gray wasnt that impressive