I’m not sure if this is a question for Luhnow, so I’ll just post it, and a blog without comments always seems sad. Derrick is the Baseball America guy, after all. Your call, DG: here or in PCQ. Or, maybe the draft nuts out there would like to weigh in.

What makes Zach Collier (Baseball America’s mock draft first-round choice for the Cardinals) special? The description on the linked page doesn’t excite me. He sounds like a nice, above-average high school outfielder, but a 17-year-old, first-round pick in the amateur draft? Can’t they say something outlandish and blindly speculative, like he looks like another tall, lean Californian, Daryl Strawberry? Or he’s the next Coco Crisp?

In particular, Collier’s below-average arm (in HS?) and sort of equivocally OK speed sound less that overwhelming.

What does the injury to Tanner Scheppers do to your draft board? Do the Cardinals still consider players who come into the draft injured in the first round?

What are the needs for the Cardinals going into the draft? I’m sure pitching is always a must, but anything else that the organization is thin on right now?

Fuhrig,

Here are some other takes on Collier. From John Sickels at Minor League Ball, ranking him as the seventh high-school hitter to watch:

7) Zach Collier, OF, California HS: Another tools outfielder, excellent tools but has less experience than Hicks or Galloway and less polish. Stock has been rising as scouts want to see a guy who was not well-known before the last few months. 6-2, 185, hits left.

And, from a recent MLB.com update:

The ball really got rolling with Collier’s performance at the Urban Youth Academy showcase back in February and it’s continued to roll upward for the Chino Hills High School standout. He put on quite a show at the high-profile Anaheim Lyons tournament and while he’s still raw, he’s been showing improvement by leaps and bounds. … So has his Draft status.

dg
-30-

This could just be me, but I’m OK with the draft drifting away from scouting reports that proclaim a prep player as The Next Such-and-Such, or a college player as Just Like This All-Star. Is it really fair that a speedy outfielder coming out of High School X in Moss Point, Miss., gets tagged as The Next Rickey Henderson or, the worst, some finesse pitcher who gets hit with the Just Like Greg Maddux label. Yeah, Maddux. Sure. OK.

…

Fine question, FGC. Checking the track record, the Cardinals have looked at injured players in the past and gathered as much medical info as available. They’ve taken guys who are dinged-up based on talent and the likelihood that the injury won’t linger. They also took Kenny Maiques a few years ago and paid for his Tommy John surgery. In fact, it’s why they were able to get Maiques late in the draft — his elbow popped shortly before the draft and he was unsure if he would get picked at all.

…

“Need” is not often a factor in the draft until way, way late when the team is looking to fill out its rosters at the lowest minor-league level. “Need” is an NFL Draft term. Best player available — At The Right Price … now that governs the MLB draft, with “Best Player Available” being defined differently from team to team, scout to scout, and metric to metric.

If there’s a position where the Cardinals are lacking it’s clearly middle infield. They took a shortstop last year, but otherwise there isn’t the wow prospect in the middle in the minors. There are a few in this draft.

dg
-30-

i believe you should take the best player available, but if a pitcher is within a couple of places on the chart, he should get preference. you can never have too much pitching and fielders are much easier to obtain through trades etc. successful teams, i.e. oakland, develop lots of pitching which either they keep or trade according to supply and pitching brings the premium price.

I know it is just a mock draft,but do we really need another potential starting outfielder? Zach Collier doesn’t seem like a wise pick.

Take the MLB mock drafts with a grain of salt. There is a lot of good reporting that goes into these mock drafts — and there isn’t the whiff of deception that exists in the NFL — but it is a fruitless endeavor to put together a MLB mock draft.

Future Redbirds, of course, has a collection of mock drafts for your perusal. Some names that the Cardinals have been tied to:

– OF Zach Collier
– RHP Tanner Scheppers
– RHP Tim Melville
– RHP Ethan Martin
– RHP Shooter Hunt (Tulane kid, and there is a Cardinals-Tulane tie that doesn’t get mentioned all that much as Wave coach Rick Jones is friends with a few influential folks on the Cardinals major-league staff.)
– LHP Christian Friedrich
– and, a name that has come up in a few places that would be difficult to pass on if he’s still around … the other Georgia Beckham — Bulldogs shortstop Gordon Beckham.

I could go on.

dg
-30-

Jeff, how much do you guys look into walks when looking at a college pitcher? It seems like the Cardinals have taken a lot of guys in recent years that have had significant control problems in college, and none of them have really been able to improve that once they turned pro. I think the guy I am mostly referring to with this question is Shooter Hunt. Obviously he has great stuff, but if he isn’t able to figure out the strike zone he won’t amount to much. How much does a guy’s lack of control knock him down on your board?

Mr. Luhnow was featured on an interview before yesterday’s game broadcast by Ch 5. Unfortunately the station botched the background sound effects to the point that we could not hear what Mr. Luhnow had to say. Any chance he knows whether channel 5 plans to re-air that interview?

Also, we read about the work done by a someone associated with the organization regarding some shared qualities of mechanics by a number of the all-time great pitchers. (I know that description is vague - perhaps Derrick can clarify if my explanation was good enough to trigger his recollection.) This evaluation was being considered as part of the Cardinals evaluation of pitching talent. Mr. Luhnow, can you say whether the analysis I am speaking of will impact your draft this year (without naming names)?