With their first round pick, the Yanks selected Gerrit Cole, RHP, Orange Lutheran HS

Scouting Report: Big fastball, 96-97 consistently and touching triple digits, and there’s some projection left. His two seamer comes in a little slower, at 93-94. Sharp breaking ball that’s somewhere between a slider and curve, but it needs improvement. Decent changeup that fades. Not the prettiest delivery, but he’s got time to work on it. Here’s his scouting video, and another clip from ESPN:

My Take: I love the pick. He was the best player on the board, and the Boras factor certainly helped. Best high school righty to come out of SoCal since Phil Hughes said Baseball America. All of the concern about his makeup didn’t pop up until people found out he signed with Boras, so I’m going to reserve judgment on that until I learn more.

Outlook: Signing the kid will probably go right down to the August 15th deadline, so he might not get more than a handful of innings in the Rookie level GCL, if any at all.

The site’s a bit overloaded right now, apparently day games and draft broadcasts don’t mix well. Please be patient if the site loads slow, don’t hit refresh over and over, it only makes it worse. Use this thread until the Yanks pick again.

Less than two days away … are ya ready? Here’s some stuff to hold you over:

• KLaw takes a step back and looks at how the 2003 Draft unfolded. The line about Matt Antonelli & Mark Melancon? Totally stole that from me. Law also explains why teams should be allowed to trade picks. Sorry, but both of those pieces are behind the iron curtain of ESPN Insider.
• Both the NY Times and ESPN take a gander into the life of Pedro Alvarez. Interesting stuff.
• Amy Nelson explains how the Brewers can clean-up this year with all those extra picks.
• Bob Klapisch talks about how the Mets will screw up those three early picks.
• The UBBMD is still going on. I don’t have the time to follow along, so I just submitted a list of players I’d like to take in the second round. Tops on that list was Purdue RHP Josh Lindblom.
• Paul DePodesta talks about life in Padres’ war room.
• Saber Scouting ranks their Top 100 Draft Prospects.
• Jonathan Mayo has a new Mock First Round up. Brett Hunter? Bah! Give me upside or give me death!

Considering his site is the most comprehensive college baseball site on the planet, it only made sense to ask Brian to answer some draft related questions about some of the best collegiate players. He was kind enough to do it last year, and even kinder to do it this year considering I fed him endless “dude, I’ve been really busy, I’ll email you the questions next week” lines the past few weeks.

Make sure you head on over Brian’s site to keep up with all the NCAA postseason action. There’s already been some big upsets and surprising developments, and there’s bound to be more in the coming weeks.

Okay, I’ll shut up now.

There isn’t a clear top talent in this draft class, instead there’s a collection of players that have distinguished themselves as the best of the mediocre. Which of Pedro Alvarez (3B, Vanderbilt), Buster Posey (C, Florida State), Aaron Crow (RHP, Missouri) and Brian Matusz (LHP, San Diego) do you like best, and why?

I think the CAN’T miss player of out that bunch is Buster Posey but he will never be a perennial All-Star. Pedro Alvarez needs to find a solid position at the next level as he struggles in the field. Crow has a hitch in his motion which might cause some injury issues in the coming years; the kid can throw over 95 MPH but needs to get coached on his motion. Matusz just doesn’t dominate the game with his fastball, which scares me as he lives off his breaking ball and changeup.

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