Player to watch Georgia 1B Rich Poythress

[DocJJ]

Last year, the 6'4 245 lb sophomore first baseman hit .375 15 HR.

This year he's been hitting out of the cleanup spot and helping the Bulldogs achieve the #1 NCAA ranking. In 48 at-bats, he's hitting .438 with 5 HR 24 RBI. His OPS is 1.375. He's a solid fielder, winning the SEC defensive player of the year award last year at his position. He's committed 1 error this year. He has 10 walks to 5 strikeouts.

[DocJJ]

4-4 against Tennessee today with 2 HR and 4 RBI.

Gives him 11 HR on the year with a .455 average and good 19-9 BB- K ratio.

[DocJJ]

a 3 run shot giving him #12 and 3 more RBI.

His BB:K ratio is stellar. I'm shocked we haven't been hearing more draft buzz about this guy. Could he sneak into the top 10?

[CharmCityHokie]

Can he be drfted as a sophomore?

[mcpd]

Can he be drfted as a sophomore?

* High school players, if they have graduated from high school and have not yet attended college or junior college;

* College players, from four-year colleges who have either completed their junior or senior years or are at least 21 years old; and

* Junior college players, regardless of how many years of school they have completed

This is from mlb.com so unless he is 21 i don't think he can be drafted . Somebody else might know more.

[DocJJ]

this year.

[oriolesfanatic9]

I really hope that Jordan is keeping a tab on this guy. It would be nice to have him in the system.

[DocJJ]

We could use a BIG power-hitting righty. The only problem is he plays first base and we have Brandon Snyder tabbed to play there.

[DocJJ]

Well, this guy will be shooting up the draft boards soon! He now has taken over the NCAA lead in HR with 15, tied with Kent Matthes. He has 23 walks to 9 strikeouts on the year to go with his .468 average.

Wow.

[oriolesfanatic9]

Well, this guy will be shooting up the draft boards soon! He now has taken over the NCAA lead in HR with 15, tied with Kent Matthes. He has 23 walks to 9 strikeouts on the year to go with his .468 average.

Wow.

I really hope the scouting department is paying attention to him. Where do you see him projecting out at in the draft?

[DocJJ]

Before this year, he was a late first rounder to second rounder.

With the numbers he's putting up this year, he'll definitely move up. The only thing that tempers my enthusiasm a bit is that he is a fair bit older than a lot of the competition he's been playing against.

If he continues at his torrid pace, he'll likely make the top 15, and possibly top 10. He's starting to gain a lot of recognition. Baseball America had a full page blurb on him recently. Last year, Buster Posey used a sizzling campaign to vault himself up into the top 10 and Polythress may do the same.

[DocJJ]

"Polythress has batted .420/.525/.778 with eight homers, 35 RBIs and nearly twice as many walks as strikeouts (17 to 9) while leading No. 6 Georgia to a 19-2 start. Ranked No. 21 on our preseason Top 100 College Prospects list Premium, he has hit his way into the first round of the draft. He has a very good approach at the plate and power to all fields."

[DocJJ]

not Polythress.

His name was improperly spelled in the source materials I was reading...

[JTrea81]

We could use a BIG power-hitting righty. The only problem is he plays first base and we have Brandon Snyder tabbed to play there.

If he's better than Snyder, there's not a problem there. Snyder can move to DH quite easily...

[Big Mac]

If he's better than Snyder, there's not a problem there. Snyder can move to DH quite easily...

Very true, you should never not draft a guy because you have another prospect at that position. However, I think Poythress would be quite a stretch at #5.