Palehosefan

Its gonna be even tougher this year because the ACC is even stronger. I'm not sure how UNC was overrated last year but ok. None of their players had every been in the NCAA tourney and they gave Texas a great ballgame.

Not a whole lot out there on Acosta, but apparently is 5'11 170 pounds and is 21 years old, hits and throws right handed. From the box scores I've seen, he apparently hit cleanup for his team.

Illini fans are gonna HATE seeing DJ White play, he's gonna be one amazing freshmen. He along with Marvin Williams at UNC, and Rudy Gay at UConn will be the best freshmen in the nation. Illini have a very solid team too though, as a UNC fan, I've enjoyed watching the matchup of Dee Brown and Raymond Felton, been a blast to watch.

I'll give you BA's take on some players, for Notre Dame, UC Irvine, Arizona, and Kent State they don't have any projected to be in the first round players. But, here are the highest ranked players that seewill likely be drafted in the first 5 rounds. Hope this helps. Brett Smith, rhp Smith was the cornerstone of John Savage's first recruiting class at UC Irvine when the school reinstated baseball in 2002. He led the upstart program to a national ranking this year by going 8-4, 2.19 with nine-inning averages of 2.1 walks and 9.0 strikeouts. He has first-round stuff with a four-pitch assortment that includes a sharp, late 86-88 mph slider. He also has a 90-92 mph tailing fastball and curveball, but his changeup is straight and soft. At 6-foot-5 and 215 pounds, he has a good downhill plane on his pitches. He performed like a first-rounder this season, with a knack for making big pitches in key situations. His delivery is a little rough, as the ball doesn't come easy out of his hand and he leaves too many pitches up in the zone. But he gives hitters a deceptive look with a mid-stride hesitation in his delivery. Smith projects as a sandwich pick or second-rounder. He also is one of the many players in this year's draft being advised by Scott Boras. Grant Johnson, rhp Of the six players who formed the core of Notre Dame's 2001 recruiting class, the 6-foot-5, 220-pound Johnson was the only one who wasn't drafted out of high school. He immediately asserted himself as the marquee player in the group with a big freshman season (9-5, 3.46) and a strong summer with Team USA. His fastball was clocked at 95 mph--and it wasn't even as good as his slider. Then Johnson had labrum surgery, missed 2003 and came back slowly this season. He had worked just46 innings this spring, though he was 5-0, 1.58. He's had no major lingering problems from the surgery, other than his velocity has ranged from 89-93 mph. He's been on a strict pitch count--50 to start, 85 in a mid-May complete-game win against Rutgers--and was limited to 10 sliders per start. Even though he's at about 80 percent, he has flashed his freshman stuff. Johnson remains the top prospect in Indiana and should go no higher than the third round. He's a real risk/reward pick, and he could be a steal if he's healthy and returns to his freshman form. John Hardy, 2b Hardy is the cousin of shortstop J.J. Hardy, one of the top prospects in the Brewers organization. They're the same age and intended to enroll at Arizona before J.J., an Arizona high school product, went in the second round of the 2001 draft and signed, while John, an Idaho high school product, slipped to the 10th round. Both players' fathers played tennis professionally. Hardy started at shortstop for Arizona his first two years and moved to second base this year, where he adapted nicely. He was Arizona's leading hitter most of the spring before a late slump dropped his average to .330. Hardy's tools are a tad short across the board. He doesn't possess his cousin's speed, power or arm strength, though their hands are about the same. Scouts disagree on John's future value. Some see him going in the first four or five rounds; others don't see him going in the first 10. Andrew Sonnanstine, rhp Sonnanstine has improved significantly since redshirting his freshman year at Kent State because he wasn't considered strong enough to compete in Division I. He dominated the New England Collegiate last summer, giving up just 28 hits in 58 innings, and was the league's No. 8 prospect. Now solidly built at 6-foot-3 and 190 pounds, Sonnanstine was 7-4, 2.69 this year with averages of 8.4 strikeouts and 1.7 walks per nine innings. He throws four pitches consistently for strikes, including an 88-92 mph fastball with sink and boring action, and an 83-86 mph slider. He adds deception to his delivery by varying his arm slot. Opinions are mixed on Sonnanstine, though some teams see him as a fifth- to eighth-round pick. His detractors say he has a below-average fastball and limited projection.

That wouldn't suprise me at all to see Chandler, #3, and something else traded for the 1st pick and Howard going to play beside Curry. So many different options in this draft, who knows whats gonna take place. I'm not a big fan of Chad Ford, he does an awesome job with the foreigners, I will give him credit for that. But his American stuff is severely lacking. He posts mainly rumors from other sites and got in trouble because he posted a false rumor about JR Smith signing with an agent way before it actually happened.

Some of those sites are no more knowledgable than me or you. If there's any I would trust it would be Draft City, NBAdraft.net was pretty good last year but supposedly Draft City has better sources now. With all the foreigners though like I have been saying, its still a big crap shoot. Nobody knows who's staying in the draft or who's not, and who's given who a guarantee at spots. Its gonna be a crazy draft.

Here's more info on another kid we will likely try to draft. From BA. Mark Reed, c Reed is the younger brother of White Sox outfield prospect Jeremy Reed, who led the minor leagues with a .373 average last year. Both are lefthanded hitters and have similar approaches at the plate. Mark, at 5-foot-10 and 170 pounds, may have more power than his brother, who was a singles hitter in college and has become a gap hitter in pro ball. Both play the game hard. Mark's arm and receiving skills are a little short for an everyday catcher. He has the versatility and speed to play almost anywhere but prefers to catch. Like his brother, Reed has committed to Long Beach State, and it may take at least the same $650,000 bonus Jeremy received from the White Sox in 2002 to entice him to sign. Reed is projected to be a third- or fourth-round pick, but the White Sox or Angels, who have made the signing of local high school players a priority, could overdraft him.

Homer won't last past the top 10 picks, and maybe not past the top 5. He's gonna be a good one though.

That would be awesome, with one young stud catcher that doesn't get enough time as it is, lets call up another catcher again. Why would we want to bring up another OF'er, Rowand has been tearing it up. End Sarcasm...

Hell, thats alot better then one of my past autographs I received. I got "The Ultimate Warrior" to sign a shirt of mine. My name is Chris, so what did he put? "To Chirs" of course. Never seen anyone spell Chris like that, but anyways.

Aaron Rowand hasn't helped us AT ALL today either. He's been miserable defensively and offensively.

Thanks for the info, thats unfortunate that it hasn't come together for him at all.

As much as nobody wants to give the Pistons a chance. I have to disagree. Sure the Pistons aren't going to average 95 ppg in the Finals, but if they can hold the Lakers to low 80's scoring then they can make a series of it. Who is going to be chasing Hamilton around every play for the Lakers? You know its not going to be Kobe because it would tire him out for the offensive end. The Pistons also create matchup problems at SF and can throw several 7 footers at Shaq for 20 fouls or so with Okur, Campbell, Wallace, and even Darko can contribute some harm. The fun matchup to watch will be Ben Wallace vs. Karl Malone. Should be interesting to see if any squabbles break out with those two. Richard Hamilton vs. Kobe will be another interesting matchup, especially to see if they actually guard each other. With all this said, I still think the Evil ones will win in 6, Lakers in 6 :-(.

Hey Rex or anyone, do you know what happened to Rylan Reed? He was supposed to be a steal from the draft a few years ago with a very good fastball. Is he still with the organization in extended spring training or something?

According to this he struggle big time in the MAC tourney, but he could be an interesting pick. From BA. "Was a disappointing 4-for-17 as the RedHawks got bounced from the MAC tournament."

I wish him the best of luck, I'm kind of hoping he undergoes surgery to get it fixed now while he's still young. He can come back sometime next year and keep moving on. I don't want him to pitch injured the rest of the season, that wouldn't do anybody anygood really. Just my opinion because I don't know all the specifics.

Wow thats crazy, I agree 100% on who you think should go number 1. Niemann I think is going to be the best pitcher out of any in this draft. At 6'9 260 and with a power arm that throws 95-96 into late innings, I think he has the build, and the length to create alot of problems for hitters. A taller Bartolo Colon, or a right handed Randy Johnson as some have called him. Taking Stephen Drew number 1 would be a big mistake to me. I've seen him play a few times and haven't been real impressed. Sure, he's solid in every aspect, but his power numbers aren't very good and don't seem to project very well. His infield defense was solid, but again not spectacular. I had heard San Diego wanted to draft him to become Khalil Greene's DP partner for the future.

Well I can tell you almost 100% who one of our draft picks is going to be. Kenny Williams is an outfielder in Illinois and has a pretty famous father in our organization, I bet you can't guess who :-P.

Pauly moves his legs real fast, he just doesn't go anywhere. Maybe he fooled em.

Well that answers my question about steroids, he's working out 8 hours a day. Thats crazy, I workout 3 hours a day and thats hard enough.

Aren't steroids allowed in wrestling? He's gonna have to lose some muscle to gain more flexibility, and to help stay off the injured list.

Yep, Arnie does have alot of innings on his arm already. My top 5 is Reed, Sweeney, Anderson, Munoz, and Robert Valido. My list is based alot on potential as you can see :-). I'm also still excited about Morse, putting up very good numbers at 22 years old in AA. Anyone know if his defense has improved enough to play 3B?

Good stuff as usual Jason. In my opinion, which means squat lol, is that Arnie is our best pitching prospect even if Wing and Honel were healthy. I'm not too high on Honel, and Wing doesn't have a dominating pitch that Arnue does with the curveball. Arnie has dominated pretty much everywhere he's been, and doing it at a young age for the leagues. With the exception of his start last year, he's been lights out everywhere.

Well aboz, you now have another Jon Rauch hater right here :-).

Yeah Jason thats a great idea. I just have been wanting to post that info about the catchers somewhere, and thought might as well be on this thread. Its almost a no brainer for Fields to turn down the NFL, nevermind the questions about his size. Normally players that are thought of as highly in baseball as they are in football, turn down football. They know its much less injury plagued and you can have a longer career in baseball than in football with less repercussions later in life. But one thing that could hurt is that next years QB class for the NFL draft is very weak overall. I still think they can draft him and negotiate and take the supplemental pick next year if somehow he demands too much. Another thing we are going to have to think about is money, we are going to have to draft a few players early on that will sign easily.