share-square-1972578
Typically, when the calendar flips to May, we turn most of our attention to the Draft. It’s not exactly the same in 2021 given that the Draft is now in July and is still two months-plus away. But we’re still very much tracking what’s going on in the amateur ranks.
A couple of weeks ago, we gave you our first “five-pack,” if you will, a look at five prospects on the rise. We’re back with another party of five … well, this week, we stretched to six. On this week’s Pipeline Podcast, we took a look at Draft prospects with interesting family trees that branch not only to baseball, but other sports as well.
12:38 AM UTC
Share
share-square-67274
The Draft, obviously, is all about projection. All 30 teams’ scouting staffs scour the country evaluating the best amateur talent available each year, trying to decipher who will turn into the game’s next stars.
It is a huge understatement to call it an inexact science. Over the years, we’ve tried to encapsulate what the scouting industry is thinking about each Draft class when we put out our Draft prospect rankings. Just like with the newly minted Draft Top 150 we launched, this isn’t a guess as to who will go where, but as thorough a vetting of the ranking of a class’ talent as we can muster.
Highest-ranked Draft picks of the past decade mlb.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from mlb.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
share-square-92322
Jack Leiter unquestionably has been the most dominant college player in the first two months of the season. If he s not the most famous prospect in the 2021 Draft, then he s a very close second to fellow Vanderbilt right-hander Kumar Rocker.
Will Leiter go No. 1 overall to the Pirates when they make that selection on July 11? As of now, he s the favorite and ranks atop MLB Pipeline s newly released Draft Top 150. But there also are three other strong candidates and nearly three months for others to emerge.
Leiter turned down first-round interest from clubs as a New Jersey high schooler in 2019 in order to attend Vanderbilt, and his decision couldn t have turned out much better. After losing most of last season to the coronavirus pandemic, the son of two-time All-Star and World Series champion Al Leiter has been spectacular.
MLB Pipeline Top 150 Draft prospects mlb.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from mlb.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.