As we inch closer to a mid-July draft, the baseball world has understandably been focused on Spring Training and an Opening Day that now is only a week away. A quick reminder, the Twins are currently scheduled to make the 8th and 48th picks. 

The trio of high schoolers who appear at nearly the top of every draft list - Druw Jones, Termarr Johnson and Elijah Green - are all proving they belong. As we get deeper into their seasons, and closer to the draft, there are a few things that are going to generate headlines: perceived preference for the teams at the top of the draft (how are the team's boards set and who are their big wigs seeing most frequently?) and bonus demands/team preference for these three players.

Georgia Tech catcher Kevin Parada, who ranks as my number eight prospect currently, hit two more bombs on Tuesday and now has 10 on the year. He hadn’t homered since March 13 and struck out four times in the weekend series against North Carolina State, but Parada still has an awfully impressive 378/473/703 slash line with more walks (16) than strikeouts (12) on the year.

Dylan Lesko is going to be an interesting follow. Lesko is strongly considered the best pitching prospect available, but he also comes from the group with the highest failure rate: right-handed prep pitchers. It seems like, in the recent past, nearly every team has had a no-doubt top-of-the-rotation prospect completely fail to live up to expectations. But the ceiling - and in this case the fastball/changeup combination - is going to be impossible for one team at the top of the draft to pass on. 

Full disclosure: No one is a bigger sucker for drafting this demographic than me. I was a big Kohl Stewart fan. I'm still a believer that Nick Bitsko, drafted 24th by the Rays in the 2020 draft, is going to be the real deal. As impressive as the three prep hitters are, I believe there's a chance that Lesko ends up the best player in the draft and as the draft gets closer, my rankings will probably reflect that.

Jeremy's Top 10 MLB Draft Prospects 
My Top 10 remains unchanged from last week.

1.) Druw Jones, OF, Georgia prep (Vanderbilt commit)

2.) Termarr Johnson, 2B, Georgia prep

3.) Elijah Green, OF, Florida prep (Miami commit) (Baseball America breaks down his game.)

4.) Brooks Lee, SS, Cal Poly

5.) Jacob Berry, 3B, LSU

6.) Jace Jung, 3B, Texas Tech

7.) Dylan Lesko, SP, Georgia prep (Vanderbilt commit) (Baseball America breaks down his game.)

8.) Kevin Parada, C, Georgia Tech

9.) Chase DeLauter, cOF, James Madison

10.) Robert Moore, 2B, Arkansas

MOCK DRAFTS / PROSPECT BOARDS

• Baseball America - v1.0 (2/10/22) / Top 200 (3/14/22)
• MLB.com - Callis - Top 10 (12/15/21), Mayo - Top 20 (7/20/21) / Top 100
• The Athletic - Law Top 30 (3/10/22)
• ESPN - Early Draft Rankings (7/26/21) ($$$ - ESPN+) / McDaniel’s Draft Rankings (2/24/22)
• Fangraphs - The Board / 2022 MLB Draft Rankings and Offseason List Primer (11/30/21) 
• Just Baseball v1.0 (2/10/22)
• My MLB Draft (1/18/22)
• Prospects Live v1.0 (1/4/22)

 

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And with the 8th pick the MN Twins pick a slugging college hitter below average fielding 1B.

 

6 hours ago, 21bdp21 said:

And with the 8th pick the MN Twins pick a slugging college hitter below average fielding 1B.

Yeah if I had to guess as things stand I could see Jace Jung being the player falling to the Twins.  Hopefully more players move up into those top 8 spots so the Twins can get someone who is not a plodding bat first player.

I completely agree. If Lesko is at 8, the Twins have to draft him. At that point he also becomes BPA. I'm really high on Cam Collier. Youngest draft eligible player (only 17) with loads of talents, pedigree, smooth LH swing and mid-90's FB. One season at Chipola College: .308/.427/.500, 6 HR, 23 BB , 22 K.

His name will gain some helium the closer we get to draft day.

54 minutes ago, 21bdp21 said:

And with the 8th pick the MN Twins pick a slugging college hitter below average fielding 1B.

Let's hope they don't keep taking bat first corner players in round 1.....

Love the draft updates, thanks.   Jeremy, what are you hearing about some of the upper Midwest players like Adam Mazur and Drew Gilbert, and some of the high school kids?  

19 hours ago, NapoleonComplex said:

I completely agree. If Lesko is at 8, the Twins have to draft him. At that point he also becomes BPA. I'm really high on Cam Collier. Youngest draft eligible player (only 17) with loads of talents, pedigree, smooth LH swing and mid-90's FB. One season at Chipola College: .308/.427/.500, 6 HR, 23 BB , 22 K.

His name will gain some helium the closer we get to draft day.

If my last-updated list went to 11, Collier would have been listed.

15 hours ago, RJA said:

Love the draft updates, thanks.   Jeremy, what are you hearing about some of the upper Midwest players like Adam Mazur and Drew Gilbert, and some of the high school kids?  

Haven't tried to go in-depth anywhere but on the guys at the top of the draft. 

2 hours ago, Jeremy Nygaard said:

Haven't tried to go in-depth anywhere but on the guys at the top of the draft. 

Thanks for the response.  I have heard that Mazur's heater is getting better with some scouts predicting that he could hit triple digits as a pro.