2013 MLB Draft Thoughts

The 2013 MLB Draft is tomorrow.  Being a Twins fan, and given the fact that the Twins will have the fourth overall pick in the draft, I have been paying quite a bit of attention to this years draft.  There seems to be a consensus top 3 guys this year, then another group of about 6-7 guys who could land anywhere from 4-10, it may not be the best year to have pick number 4.  Anyways, the following appear to be the consensus Top 10 players available:

1. Jonathan Gray - RHP - Oklahoma
2. Mark Appel - RHP - Stanford
3. Kris Bryant - 3B - San Diego
4. Kohl Stewart - RHP - St Pious X HS (TX)
5. Colin Moran - 3B - North Carolina
6. Bradon Shipley - RHP - Nevada 
7. Clint Frazier - OF - Loganville HS (GA)
8. Trey Ball - LHP - New Castle Chrysler HS (IN) 
9. Austin Meadows - OF - Grayson HS (GA) 
10. Reese McGuire - C - Kentwood HS (WA)

As for who the Twins will be selecting with the number 4 overall pick, I really think it's down to four guys, Jonathan Gray, Mark Appel, Kris Bryant & Kohl Stewart.  I fully expect that Gray, Appel & Bryant will go 1-2-3, as mentioned above they are clearly the class of this draft.  In that scenario I'm pretty sure that the Twins will then select Kohl Stewart with their pick.  Now there has been some speculation that the Astros may select Colin Moran number 1 overall and then sign him to an under slot deal so that they can spend more later in the draft, but I think that would be foolhardy.  The Astros followed a similar plan last year and it cost them Byron Buxton and I can't help but think they'd like a do-over on that one.  If the Astros do inexplicably take Moran number 1 overall, that would push either Gray, Appel or Bryant down a slot and if that were to happen, I have to believe that the Twins would quickly snatch up whichever one fell into their laps (I'm guessing they rate them Gray, Appel, then Bryant) over Kohl Stewart.  Reese McGuire is the other name I've been hearing associated with the Twins pick but I doubt they pull the trigger on him at number 4 overall, that would just be too much of a reach IMO.

As for the Diamondbacks, they will be selecting number 15 overall.  I'm not quite sure who they are looking at, I suspect they will use the BPA approach.  My guess is that they hope someone like Austin Meadows, Hunter Renfroe or Ryan Stanek fall to them, I'm guessing none of them do though.  That leaves guys like J.P. Crawford, Chris Anderson, Dominic Smith, Ian Clarkin, Trey Ball and Alex Gonzalez.  I will go out on a limb and predict that they end up with SS J.P. Crawford, he's the clear best SS in the draft and I'm thinking the BPA, of course that could change if someone falls into their laps (which in the baseball draft is not out of the realm of possibility). 

For the record, I wasn't too far off on my predictions last year, you can find them here.