2022 early look top prospects

[Just Regular]

10 hours ago, Hazmat said:

https://news.yahoo.com/smartest-guy-room-cal-polys-050100172.html

Sounds like a cerebral player.

This part made me think "true Oriole":

Larry Lee said Brooks has even given him advice on how to pitch to opposing hitters.

"I take it at face value," Larry Lee said of Brooks' input. "In our series against Washington, he was out at shortstop and he gave me a sign of how to pitch to this guy. I called that pitch and I called it the rest of the game to that hitter and, sure enough, we have success. He's definitely another coach on the field.

[Just Regular]

https://www.espn.com/mlb/insider/story/_/id/33447494/why-druw-jones-best-mlb-draft-prospect-bryce-harper

ESPN Kiley McDaniel with a sky-high report on Druw Jones, saying significant gap over Termarr Johnson, and that ~25% scouts venturing best since Bryce.

[Sports Guy]

He has to be the pick.

[Sports Guy]

There isn't a perfect comp, but the question I have drilled scouts on since they declared Jones the top player on their board by a good margin is: "How far back you have to go to find a player clearly better than him?" This is where things get a little tricky.

The today version of Jones would go first in most, if not all, recent drafts for most scouts. The players most mentioned as peers come from the 2019 draft (Adley Rutschman and Bobby Witt Jr., though some mentioned Riley Greene and C.J. Abrams), 2012 (Byron Buxton) and 2011 (Gerrit Cole), with some stray mentions of other players also on this tier.

[Sports Guy]

I'd say about a quarter of the scouts called Jones the best draft prospect since Harper was drafted in 2010; the other three-fourths either took one of those other players or thought there was a multiway tie. There are three other former No. 1 picks -- Stephen Strasburg in 2009, David Price in 2007 and Justin Upton in 2005 -- who join Harper as the only four prospects in recent memory to clearly top Jones.

I'm still in the majority in that I think Jones is on that secondary tier with Rutschman, Buxton & Co., but we've still got the rest of the spring for that to shake out. If Jones turned pro right now and needed to be slotted on my Top 100 MLB prospects list, I'd rank him in the 60 FV tier, in the 10-to-21 range overall.

[Yossarian]

There's no way we pass on Jones, right?

[Frobby]

That’s pretty high praise for Jones.   My early inclination was to prefer Johnson, but I’ve always said we shouldn’t judge it until the season was played.   I still regard it premature to make a definitive choice.   

[Paul in Virginia]

"The entire package is incredibly advanced. The last frontier for evaluators is seeing Jones sync up his upper and lower half with more consistency in-game, something he’s shown remarkable improvement on since last summer. He’s reasonably comfortably the best prospect in this class right now."

 

2022 MLB Draft - Top 400 Prospects — Prospects Live

Edited March 10, 2022 by Paul in Virginia

[LookinUp]

I know he's a high school guy, but you like that we have the #1 pick in a year where there's in theory some separation between him and the next guy, and you also like that he plays a premium position.

[Can_of_corn]

3 minutes ago, LookinUp said:

I know he's a high school guy, but you like that we have the #1 pick in a year where there's in theory some separation between him and the next guy, and you also like that he plays a premium position.

At this point I wouldn't say you have some separation.  This last report indicated that but we've seen a number of different top 5 lists.

[Frobby]

10 hours ago, Can_of_corn said:

At this point I wouldn't say you have some separation.  This last report indicated that but we've seen a number of different top 5 lists.

Well, it’s too early to say anything definitive, but from the McDaniels article it does seem like Jones’ stock has risen signficantly since 2022 play began.   

[calsmanystances]

Keith Law Top 30

1. Druw Jones, OF, Wesleyan School

Yes, that’s Andruw Jones’ son, one of four sons of former major leaguers in this top 30 – they don’t get extra credit for it, but it turns out that genetic inheritance is a thing. Druw Jones has huge power and could play plus defense in center in the majors right now, with some questions about how good his hit tool will be in pro ball but none about his ability to hit right now. He has elite tools, and is taller and more athletic than his father was at the same age, although at 18, Andruw was hitting 25 homers in a year in A-ball. Druw is the best prospect in the class right now, although not so overwhelmingly so that he is a lock to be the first pick.

2. Termarr Johnson, SS, Mays HS, Atlanta

If Johnson were 6-foot-1, he’d be the consensus top guy in the draft class; and even though he’s 5-foot-8, he’s still going to go around the top five picks. A left-handed hitter, he has a fantastic swing and incredible hand-eye coordination. With a 70 hit tool and above-average power, he is probably moving to second base in pro ball but with All-Star upside and the potential to lead the league in batting average.

https://theathletic.com/3172139/2022/03/10/mlb-draft-ranking-2022-keith-laws-top-prospects-and-a-rare-question-where-are-the-college-pitchers/

[Just Regular]

MASN Orioles hunted down JMU's coach for a segment.    B-Ref has his OPS 1.350 after 10 games so I guess he's feasted after that tough Florida State season-opening series.    Brooks Lee also 1.350-ish entering this weekend; Jace Jung and Jacob Berry a couple hundred OPS points behind among the other top NCAA bats.

 

[waroriole]

13 hours ago, Just Regular said:

MASN Orioles hunted down JMU's coach for a segment.    B-Ref has his OPS 1.350 after 10 games so I guess he's feasted after that tough Florida State season-opening series.    Brooks Lee also 1.350-ish entering this weekend; Jace Jung and Jacob Berry a couple hundred OPS points behind among the other top NCAA bats.

 

3/14 against the only good competition he’ll face is concerning. What’s more concerning is MASN trying to highlight this specific guy. Hope they do the same with the HS guys. 

[Frobby]

1 minute ago, waroriole said:

3/14 against the only good competition he’ll face is concerning. What’s more concerning is MASN trying to highlight this specific guy. Hope they do the same with the HS guys. 

Are you suggesting that MASN is highlighting him because he’s a front-runner in the eyes of the O’s front office?   I doubt there’s any connection.