10. Colorado Rockies: C Ryder Helfrick, Arkansas<\/p>\n
The Rockies have been tied almost exclusively to college players, and if they’re high on Cameron Flukey or Liam Peterson, their perennial need for quality pitching could drive the decision.<\/p>\n
Helfrick is as close to an MLB-ready catcher as you’ll find coming out of the draft thanks to his polished defensive game and experience calling pitches. A standout defensive backstop could have a far-reaching impact on the pitching staff as a whole.<\/p>\n
11. Washington Nationals: 3B Ace Reese, Mississippi State<\/p>\n
Reese has some serious late helium as teams seem less and less concerned with his hit tool, and more focused on his huge raw power, track record and batted-ball metrics.<\/p>\n
With a 6’4″ frame and 30-homer upside, the best-case scenario here is what the Nationals hoped Brady House would one day become. His .993 OPS and 12 home runs in 30 games during SEC play helped solidify Reese’s status as a top-tier college bat.<\/p>\n
12. Los Angeles Angels: RHP Cameron Flukey, Coastal Carolina<\/p>\n
High-floor college bats such as Chris Hacopian and AJ Gracia are worth mentioning here given the Angels’ recent history of prioritizing MLB readiness, but interim general manager John Mozeliak might not be as tethered to that philosophy.<\/p>\n
Flukey has all the traits to be a frontline starter and the best pitcher in this draft class, with four quality pitches, premium velocity, good command and projection remaining in his 6’6″, 210-pound frame. A stress fracture in his rib cost him significant time this spring, but the arm talent is still elite.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"10. Colorado Rockies: C Ryder Helfrick, Arkansas The Rockies have been tied almost exclusively to college players, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":791518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-791517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=791517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/791518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}