Hobgood BA All American

[Frobby]

Frobs, it obviously isn't SOLELY stats, or the kid batting .700 in a four team Catholic League in New Hampshire would be on the list.

The All-American honors (as with every other Seasonal Award) are for performance this HS season; rankings for the draft are based upon predicted future performance.

Also, I don't think BA has that many scouts themselves. They get their info by speaking with pro scouts and seeing players in person from time-to-time. The cross-checkers at Perfect Game would probably be a better example of what your suggesting. For example, Callis gets to see a bunch of these kids, but much of what he bases his opinions on is likely info he's getting from all of his various contacts in the industry. That is why their rankings are considered to be authoritative -- they take into account the thoughts of the industry on each player, rather than providing their own evaluative, subjective take.

Fair enough. To be clear, I wasn't intending to imply that BA thinks Hobgood is a better prospect than Matzek. However, I still find it interesting that BA would relegate Matzek to 3rd team status, considering all the hype the kid has received.

[QBsILLEST1]

Fair enough. To be clear, I wasn't intending to imply that BA thinks Hobgood is a better prospect than Matzek. However, I still find it interesting that BA would relegate Matzek to 3rd team status, considering all the hype the kid has received.

What it all comes down to is that Hobgood had a better senior year than Matzek did. Thats why he was 1st team. Matzek had a good year, but nothing honestly spectacular.

And to the poster who mentioned that even if Hobgood and Matzek had similar ranked stuff, youd have to give Matzek the nod due to more projectability in his body. I find this to be true, you also have to look at the intangibles that Hobgood posseses though. For prospect status soley, I think Matzek was at the head of the pack(prep arms), but I think Hobgood isnt too far behind. If Matzek is throwing 97 MPH then I dont expect him to gain any more MPH on his fastball than that, projectable body or not.....Gibson has a "projectable body" that never gained velocity......I wouldnt even say that Matzek has better pure stuff, he just has a more advanced arsenal of quality stuff. Hobgood also has 4 pitches 3 of which are atleast average, the change up needs work though, this is where Matzek trumps Hobgood, but Hobby's intangibles compensate a bit of the lack of polish on the 3rd and 4th pitches....

And even though Hobgood doesnt have a projectable body does not mean he cannot gain more velo....As he gets to pro ball and pro pitching coaches tweak his delivery and he gets into better shape he could pop a few more MPH out....There are so many different reports on all these guys its just too tough to know the truth without seein any of them pitch....This is why I look to Stotle on a lot of this stuff because he actually has seen a lot of these guys pitch....He can answer this stuff much better than I

[Stotle]

Fair enough. To be clear, I wasn't intending to imply that BA thinks Hobgood is a better prospect than Matzek. However, I still find it interesting that BA would relegate Matzek to 3rd team status, considering all the hype the kid has received.

Eh, Bailey could be awarded AL Rookie of the Year honors for his performance this year -- Wieters would still be rated the better future player by everyone. There isn't any real inconsistency here, BA is assigning value based on two different standards.

[Moose Milligan]

His #'s werent all that impressive if I remember right. The biggest thing I remember was when Stotle was doing a mid season report on Matzek that his K's were very low. And that is against HS hitting which isnt all that advanced. Matusz K'd more college hitters than Matzek K'd HS hitters in their senior seasons. That didnt add up to me for a pitcher who is supposed to have a super advanced arsenal. He should be completely abvsolutely dominating HS hitters, moreso than the other guys who did better....

There were 2 players in this list who were not seniors, both were sophomores, one being of course Bryce Harper, but the other was another kid, I believe a SS. He may be someone to look out for in 2 years if he is good enough to be a BA all american as a sophomore....ridiculous.....

B..b...b...b...BUT MATZEK WAS RANKED HIGHER BY ALL THE PUBLICATIONS!!!!!! WE SHOULD HAVE PICKED MATZEK AND PAID OVER SLOT TO SIGN HIM!!!!!!

[McLovin]

Again, given that he made the team in the UTI spot, I wonder if he makes the first team if he wasn't such a good hitter. Personally I have no idea, just wondering where he truly ranks in BA's eyes.

[allstar1579]

B..b...b...b...BUT MATZEK WAS RANKED HIGHER BY ALL THE PUBLICATIONS!!!!!! WE SHOULD HAVE PICKED MATZEK AND PAID OVER SLOT TO SIGN HIM!!!!!!

Sorry Moose, and I know it's just a jab at a certain poster who gets a little carried away, but it's not like this one isn't a valid possibility. Has nothing to do with the publications either because some of them weren't as high on Matzek as Stotle and I were. I know one of them had Turner rated higher.

It's over and done with, like last year, and Hobgood is a good pick who hopefully will have tons of success for us. I really hope every Hobgood thread will stop being a comparison to who else we could have drafted soon.

[LookinUp]

For me, Hobgood will be compared against Matzek when ranking this draft. Green fell down many boards, so he wasn't really an option to most. Other pitchers were options (Wheeler in particular), but were seemingly passed over for Jordan's talent/projectability/makeup projections rather than signability.

Only Matzek SEEMS to have been passed over because of $$$, or more accurately, any difference between he and Hobgood likely wasn't large enough to be worth the money.

[allstar1579]

For me, Hobgood will be compared against Matzek when ranking this draft. Green fell down many boards, so he wasn't really an option to most. Other pitchers were options (Wheeler in particular), but were seemingly passed over for Jordan's talent/projectability/makeup projections rather than signability.

Only Matzek SEEMS to have been passed over because of $$$, or more accurately, any difference between he and Hobgood likely wasn't large enough to be worth the money.

Yeah but if you keep spending your time wondering what if, you'll never really get to enjoy what you have. That and how many years can you stack wondering what if? People don't want to let go of the Matusz-Smoak thing already, now we can add the Hobby-Matzek thing in there. What happens next year? Are we going to spend our days in constant, oh we could have THIS team, instead of enjoying the fact that Bergy is killing it in the majors, Tillman is knocking on the door, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Jake and Matusz both make a play for next year's rotation.

[LookinUp]

I don't think Matusz/Smoak has much if anything to do with Hobgood/Matzek. Matusz was the best pitcher in the draft and Smoak was one of the top hitters. Both were easily defensible based on talent evaluation alone.

I agree about the what if's. I'm not a proponent of them in the draft for the most part. Still, you can't help but notice that the O's took a player who's about the same age, plays the same position, but generally was viewed to have a lesser projection.

For the record, I'm not saying this is a bad thing. Over paying for marginally better value would be a bad thing. This is just a circumstance that I won't be able to help but watch moving forward.