Would you ever take a High School Catcher in the first round?

[jamalshw]

He wasn't facing High School level competition, and he was in a wood bat league.

Sorry but I think that is more then just a minor distinction.

I completely agree. I think what JDubs fails to realize is that the reason high school catchers are hard to project is not because of their age as much as the skill level they are playing against. While academically some may believe that junior colleges are not much more advanced than high school, on the baseball field, there can be a much larger difference.

[Stotle]

I completely agree. I think what JDubs fails to realize is that the reason high school catchers are hard to project is not because of their age as much as the skill level they are playing against. While academically some may believe that junior colleges are not much more advanced than high school, on the baseball field, there can be a much larger difference.

This is true to a cetain extent, but probably irrelevant to what I assume JDubs is pointing out. Had Harper not gone the JuCo route, would he not be every bit the #1 overall pick as a HS catcher this year? Of course he would.

There are instances where you can use some general guidelines in targeting draft eligibles, but you have to do so realizing that there will often be exceptions to your guidelines.

[Can_of_corn]

This is true to a cetain extent, but probably irrelevant to what I assume JDubs is pointing out. Had Harper not gone the JuCo route, would he not be every bit the #1 overall pick as a HS catcher this year? Of course he would.

There are instances where you can use some general guidelines in targeting draft eligibles, but you have to do so realizing that there will often be exceptions to your guidelines.

Did being a Catcher put him over the top tho? If he had gone to high school and been a CF would it have hurt his draft position?

[Stotle]

Did being a Catcher put him over the top tho? If he had gone to high school and been a CF would it have hurt his draft position?

Catcher absolutely helped his hype. He wasn't exclusively a catcher by the time he was at CSN, but of course being a catcher made him more valuable than being an outfielder. By the time he was breaking JuCo homerun records, though, his drafting team decided they wanted the bat as quickly as possible, and for as many games a year as possible.

In any event, it's a sidebar from the discussion, which was not selecting a draft eligible player because he is a catcher in high school.

[86this]

Joe Mauer was drafted out of HS.