2008 Season

Mock Draft Roundup

19 Comments

Given the Tigers recent performance, draft day may be the highlight of the season so far. The draft kicks off tomorrow at 2pm. Below is a roundup of some of the mock drafts and who the Tigers might be taking:

Baseball Prospectus | Articles | Future Shock: Mock Draft 2008

21. Detroit Tigers

The Tigers have established a track record for taking players that slip due to signability concerns, especially power pitchers. Once again, one should be available to them: California high school star Gerrit Cole has a violent delivery, some major questions about his maturity, and Scott Boras as an agent. At the same time, Cole also has the best arm strength of any high school pitcher in the draft, having touched triple digits on the radar gun in a late-season playoff start. If there is one thing scouting director David Chadd loves, it’s big guys who throw hard, and Cole fits that description, giving the Tigers yet again another talent far superior to the time he’s selected.
Selection: Gerrit Cole, RHP, Orange Lutheran HS (CA)

BaseballAmerica.com: Draft: Mock Draft: Taking A Stab At The First Round

21. TIGERS. After spending $12.6 million on 2004-06 first-rounders Justin Verlander, Cameron Maybin and Andrew Miller, Detroit didn’t plan on busting slot last year. Then Rick Porcello fell all the way to Tigers at No. 28, and they invested another $7 million. They could be willing to spend heavily on Hosmer, but less likely to do so on Cole, who’s not nearly as polished as Porcello. Detroit could address its beleaguered bullpen with a quick fix like Cashner, or take one of the top high school arms.

Projected Pick: ANDREW CASHNER.

John’s Mock Draft – Minor League Ball

21) Tigers: Shooter Hunt, RHP, Tulane: Tigers feel they receive a steal here.

ESPN – Posey projected to go No. 1 to Rays – MLB

21. Detroit — Josh Fields, RHP, Georgia

This is the first potential landing spot for Gerrit Cole, a Boras advisee and probably the best pure arm in the high school crop this year, but Detroit also is looking for bullpen help, and Fields has now stuff, is a year or two older than the other relievers in the class and is a Boras advisee as well.

The Official Site of Major League Baseball: News: Crystal ball: Projecting first 30 picks

21. Detroit Tigers: Ethan Martin, RHP, Stephens County HS, Toccoa, Ga.
The Tigers have been willing and able to do just about anything with their top picks and it’s automatically assumed that any “signability issue” types could slide to them. Barring that, they would have interest in high school talents like Collier or Lawrie, or strong college arms like Perry or even Rice’s Bryan Price. Instead, they’ll go with a prep arm with a ton of upside in Martin.
Last week’s projection: Casey Kelly

I’m hoping that the team doesn’t go with a reliever. Drafting for need in baseball is pretty ill advised given the development time typically involved. Unless one of the relievers is far and away the best player on their board I’d hope they’d go in a different direction.

Gerrit Cole has the signability/Boras factor. But he doesn’t appear to have the same type of mechanics and composure that Rick Porcello had and I don’t know that he’s as gamble-worthy.

Several of the mock’s had catcher Jason Castro available when the Tigers would be picking at 21 and would be happy to see them go that route.

UPDATE: BA’s latest mock has the Tigers going with Cole. Interestingly Kelley slides down to 29.

19 thoughts on “Mock Draft Roundup”

  1. Not to nit-pick Bill, but would you be happy that they go with Jason Castro at 21 if available because he’s a catcher? Wouldn’t that be drafting out of need?

    I share the sentiments that going with a reliever at 21 — over someone like Cole, Martin, or my personal top prep pitcher in the draft Jake Odorizzi — because they need bullpen help would just be dumb.

    Honestly, it’s a real weak draft class though. I wouldn’t be heartbroken if they drafted a tough sign, failed to sign them by August 15th and collected the 22nd pick next year (well, really 21 B).

  3. Also, Saber Scouting had a mock draft of the top 15 and will be doing their back half of the first round and possibly a supplemental round mock draft. I posted a comment and one of the writers said the Tigers have been openly courting Casey Kelly for more than a year but Kiley, the writer at Saber Scouting, said he thinks the cubs should take Kelly before he gets to the Tigers. He doesn’t know if the Cubs will or not.

    Edit: Link.

  4. I guess I view it a little differently. With catcher being a tough position to fill I always view it as a position of need. I’m not viewing Castro as someone who can take over for Pudge. Just another piece for the organization.

    And I guess I mean drafting for immediate need. The idea that the person you draft will be helping within a year or two is wildly optimistic in most cases anyways. If it’s filling a huge void for the organization, I view that a little differently.

  5. Oh, and I like Kelley too. But in the mock’s I’ve looked at, pretty much every single one has him going to the Cubs.

  6. I can’t help but wonder if Skipworth falls all the way to 21 if he gets passed Florida.

    I’ve heard enough detractors when it comes to Castro’s bat that it makes sense to go in another direction with that pick.

  7. Did anybody else notice the extreme contrast between Morosi and Henning’s draft previews?

    Henning starts by talking about how they have made no secret about their desire for Castro or Cashner, but when he actually mentions what Chadd has talked about, it’s a high ceiling prep.

    Morosi barely even talks about college players.

    I suspect and hope Morosi is more on track with his story.

    I feel bad for Henning sometimes. I feel like he’s being to step way outside his comfort zone with the stuff he is asked to provide the paper.

    Like he was hired in a time when the paper could go with a guy who just reported on the major league team, but now he has to try to adapt to a time where the baseball guy has to report, analyze and cover the minors to at least some extent.

  8. Here’s a question. I could look up part of it rather easily, but I’m sure there are more than a few people here who can answer it off the top of their head or nearly so. Actually, 2 questions.

    How many current Detroit Tigers were drafted by the Tigers?

    How many notable MLB players playing for other teams now were drafted by the Tigers?

  9. Inge, Granderson, Larish, Joyce, Thomas, Verlander and Dolsi (not drafted, but homegrown). Then you have Zumaya and Rodney (again, not drafted) on the DL. Santiago was a homegrown guy, too.

    Those are all current or near future Tigers.

    Around the league is obviously much tougher, but Florida and Atlanta would seem to be good places to start.

  13. “Shooter Hunt, better than drafting his brother Mike”

    Believe it or not, that is Hunt’s given name. Hence the nickname. Better still, he has a brother named York. I see more potential there.

    One boring afternoon at a different job a few years ago, we went on a silly name tear. One of the safer ones to mention here would be Herb Oobs. A second baseman, I think.

  14. Thanks for the answer, Matt. That looks pretty good. Higher than average self-drafted/homegrown for MLB?

  15. Sean: If you want to see some good names, you simply have to check this out. The rest of your day is now hencetoforth ruined…

    http://nameoftheyear.blogspot.com/

    (P.S. Sorry about the non-Tigers related nature of this post. I’m trying to become a more well-rounded individual)

  16. Sean: If you’re interested in wacky names you have to check out this site. You will get nothing done for the rest of the day, however. The link won’t go through billfer’s filter, but Google “Name of the Year Blog” and it will be the first thing that pops up. Sorry for the non-Tigers related nature of this post. I’m trying to become a more well-rounded individual. And not well-rounded in the way that Gil Cabrera is well-rounded, either.

  17. Chris is Dallas

    First we ruin Mark’s life with baseball-reference, and now you want to ruin mine with this. OK, I’ll have a look. But I really should be looking over the mock drafts and pretending I can understand any of it.

  19. Wow that post that I didn’t think made it through actually did. Now I can’t delete the double post. I’m going for the prestigious A-Hole of the Day Award.

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