We Need to Draft Stephen Drew

[Red Heeler]

Originally Posted by BigREDSfaninKY

not trying to sound ignorant, but who is Nelson? Drew, I've heard of, but Nelson, not.

Nelson is a stud SS prospect from a HS in Florida. He had surgery on his arm over the winter, so he has only DH'ed most of the season. I believe that the injury was a result of him also pitching. Barring the injury, I don't think that there is any way he makes it to the 7th pick.

[docm3]

Answers: Drew is a good pick despite his recent injuries. Jeremy is signable to all 30 teams. He signed a waiver in '01 so he could be redrafted by the Reds. As far as the 3 Rice pitchers, you can't go wrong with any of them. I know them all, But I like Wade and Jeff the best. One thing I can tell you is that at the #7 pick there will be no shortage of good players left. And www.teamonebaseball.rivals.com also is an excellent source for the upcoming draft with a dedicated message board just on that subject. There is currently a mock draft going on. See what you think of it. BTW, Nelson is a SS/RHP from Stone Mt., GA who had TJ surgery and is a great prospect but doubt he'll see #7 because of his recent surgery. Stiil have Adenhart and Bailey as higher HS picks I think.

[princeton]

if available, I see us taking Sowers again. The Reds have a lefty-fetish right now, and taking the most polished player worked out fine in '03

we took Larkin twice, and that worked out fine, too

[15fan]

See this thread from a week ago regarding metro-Atlanta's very own Chris Nelson.

[REDREAD]

Originally Posted by BigREDSfaninKY

not trying to sound ignorant, but who is Nelson? Drew, .

Drew Nelson Was a poster that got banned from here

Oh, you didn't mean that

The Reds would be stupid to pass on any of these pitchers. Here are 8 worthy of the 7th pick. Jared Weaver is the younger brother of Jeff Weaver. He is hands down the best college pitcher out there. Many believe he is better than Mark Prior at this stage. 106 strikeouts to 11 BB? TheReds could get a solid shortstop with their second round pick. They cant get one of these pitchers with it though. BTW..Jeremy Sowers is good but I really believe he is the 8th best pitcher right now in college.


W L ERA IP SO BB

Jared Weaver 10 0 1.13 71.2 106 11
RHP Long Beach Sate

Wade Townsend 7 0 1.60 67.2 86 29
RHP Rice

Philip Humber 7 1 1.61 61.2 85 16
RHP Rice

J.P. Howell 7 1 1.89 66.2 83 27
LHP Texas

Justin Verlander 4 3 3.00 63.0 90 31
RHP Old Dominian


Jeff Neiman 5 2 2.59 55.2 63 18
RHP Rice

Matt Campbell 5 1 2.50 50.1 65 7
LHP South Carolina

Jeremy Sowers 6 1 3.07 55.2 62 6
LHP Vanderbilt

[docm3]

No scouting director or GM I know thinks Weaver is better than Prior. Don't use stats to evaluate projectability. Many think Verlander has the highest ceiling in the draft but his ERA wouldn't lead you to believe that. JP Howell and Matt Campbell are both great pitchers. I know both of them but they don't belong in the group you've listed. I would suggest rather you look at the scouting directors and GM reports from the Cape Cod and Team USA reports to compare the pitchers above in relation to their respective tools. To help you out:
Wade Townsend was voted top pro prospect on the Cape by the Scouts
Jeremy Sowers was named MVP pitcher 2 years in a row for the Gatemen, (the last year having Townsend and JP Howell as teamates), never gave up more than 2 earned runs in a game in 18 starts in his career at Wareham (only the second player in modern Cape history to do so), was named the top pro prospect of the Cape Cod All-Star game and was the only one of the pitchers we've discussed (Townsend, Humber, Nieman, Howell,etc.) to be named to the All-League team at the end of the year (Top 14 players in the League).
Jered Weaver had a phenomenal year with Team USA and was named as Baseball America's summer player of the year, and rightly so. In my opinion he will be the top pick in the draft in most SD's and GMs minds (but not all). It's hard for you all to really gauge these guys true skills without having seen them pitch RECENTLY. I've been lucky enough to see them all pitch and I'm pretty objective about it.

[M2]

Howell and Campbell are both interesting guys, but BA has them ranked 36th and 27th among the current crop of college draft prospects. It's entirely possible the Reds could get one of them in the second round (in fact I'd love to see them land Howell on that pick).

doc, it's actually Nelson's surgery which might make him available to a team like the Reds. He's a flat out better player (with the bat, on the bases, in the field) than Matt Bush (3rd ranked HS prospect according to BA). There's no doubt in my mind if he were in the field, ranging far and wide and gunning the ball to 1B like he did last year, he'd be the first position player off the board. Yet TJ surgery has teams playing cautious with him despite the fact that he's killing the ball at the plate. He's going to drop a bit and, IMO, the team that gets him will have pulled off a major heist. As good as the pitching crop is, Jeremy included, I think Nelson could be a star in MLB for a good 10-15 years. I'm giddy over the notion that the Reds might be able to land a kid like that.

[docm3]

Agree. If Nelson had not had TJ he may have been a top 10 pick. I'd take JP over Matt, also. He pitches well in high pressure games. Beat Rice last night.
My list:
Pitchability
1. Weaver
2. Sowers
3. Humber
4. Townsend
5. Nieman
6. Verlander
Projectability (ceiling)
1. Nieman
1. Verlander
2. Townsend
3. Humber
3. Sowers
4. Weaver

My concern with Jered is that he is a clone of Jeff. The Dodgers are now working to change his mechanics.

[Red Heeler]

I'd be interested to see what your guys' draft board would look like if you were the Reds' GM. Not a mock draft, but your list, in order, on how you would rank the prospects in order of preference for the Reds.

My take is:

Neiman
Humber
Nelson
Sowers
Verlander
Townsend
Drew

Gut feeling, somebody gets hosed on Jared Weaver. Of course, I thought that Prior was WAAAAYYYY over-rated after watching him throw a turd of a game in the CWS where he had absolutely nothing working. Ooooppps.

[VR]

I'd love to see an update from docm3 on the draft, Jeremy's expectation etc.

[docm3]

Things are heating up. Latest news about Drew jumping Weaver possibly (see BA Online today) and Tigers not so sure about Jered are interesting. I think Nieman may be first pitcher taken then Weaver then who knows. Jeremy threw well against Georgia last week, a CG 3 hitter with 10 K's 0 BB @ 90-92 mph even in the 9th in mid 90 degree weather with alot of front office people from MLB there. He met with the Reds last week. Things are great, never been any hard feelings from either side. He will sign with whomever drafts him. Take care. Doc.

[VR]

thanks for the insight doc!

[jmcclain19]

Originally Posted by docm3

My concern with Jered is that he is a clone of Jeff. The Dodgers are now working to change his mechanics.

Seeing that it looks like he could be the third player taken, instead of the most certain No. 1 pick he did a few months back, you're not the only one apparently who believes this theory.

But you don't want to judge a player by what his brother did. Think of how different you are from your siblings.

For every Eli/Peyton Manning similarity, there is a Mike/Greg Maddux difference out there.