Keith Law on Taillon

[napbow]

From today's insider chat:

jim (pittsburgh)

Please tell me my pirates will step up and take taillon #2 and pay what it takes instead of going cheap with their 1st pick like they did last year. Is it true that taillons stuff is better than Becketts was when he was in high school?

Klaw (12:33 PM)

Taillon < Beckett. He's not the slam-dunk number-two in this draft. I am consistently hearing from scouts and directors that they see Taillon up to 98 ... and hitters are squaring up his fastball. If you're taking a HS RHP in the top 5 picks, you want him to be pretty close to perfect, and he's not that.

Matt P (Maryland)

If you think that Taillon isn't worthy of being a top 5 pick, then why do you think the Orioles will draft him? Is this your way of explaining why they're 1-161?

Klaw (12:51 PM)

I think he's not the slam-dunk number two in this draft. I don't think he'd be a bad selection at 3 any more than I thought Hobgood was a bad selection at 6 even though I had him around 18 on my board. But this idea that Taillon is some automatic star who should be in consideration for number-one overall is incorrect.

[Moose Milligan]

Wow. Pretty strong feelings there from Keith Law.

[Greg Pappas]

I respect Keith's views, and he would likely be privy to inside information... but without knowing what he knows (or thinks he knows), I disagree.

Taillon, by all accounts, is fairly rated as among the best prep arms in recent years, and has the ability to be a strong ace starter. That is certainly worthy of the #2 pick, or #3. Were Harper not in this draft, few would scoff at Taillon's consideration at #1.