Now that I’ve gone through seven of the college arms and college bats, I’m moving onto high school arms. According to industry experts, 2007 is a banner year for high school pitching. Five of PGCrosschecker.com’s top fifteen preseason draft prospects are high school arms (including three of the top nine). If the Nationals are to continue their draft strategy from 2006 with young projectable high ceiling high schoolers, there are certain to be some strong pitching candidates at the top of the list.
Beginning with …
Seton Hall Prep (HS) RHSP Rick Porcello
| Class | DOB | Ht | Wt | B | T |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Senior | 12/27/88 | 6′5″ | 195 | R | R |
Repertoire: mid-90s fastball, developing slider, developing curveball, developing changeup
Perfect Game scouting report: Body - long, lean, lanky, plus pitcher frame; Pitching - over the top slot, clean and loose, quick and easy arm action, fluid and easy delivery, on line and balanced, pours FB downhill, plus FB, threw a lot of strikes with FB, hard CB, showed good spin in warm-ups, rarely used in game, good feel of CU, can turn CU over, easy projection type pitcher
Aflac All-American baseball profile: “projectable frame as well as above-average pitches, and has drawn comparisons to Tigers right-hander Justin Verlander. His fastball has been clocked between 91-95 mph with good life and action”
Porcello has committed to North Carolina and is very likely to be available when the Nationals select at #6. If the Nationals maintain a similar strategy to 2006 and look for young high ceiling players, Porcello would be a solid choice.
JayB | 07-Feb-07 at 3:08 pm | Permalink
Is this another Black draft? Are the Nats willing to over pay at the entry draft level so insure not wasting another high pick on a pitcher who is all set to go to college. Nats are saving a ton of cash by not paying for major league pitching so why not put just a fraction of that savings into getting the job done with high draft picks. As noted other places on this site….they can not afford to say at the bottom of talent in the minor league and the major leagues. I have no problem with the strategy of building through the draft, it just seems they have too much at risk to be cheap at this level too……