MLB Draft: Northern California’s Top 5 high school prospects The 2013 Major League Baseball Amateur Draft is right around the corner so it’s time to take a look at who are Northern California’s top high school prospects. Now, you might be saying, “the draft is in June, that isn’t right around the corner.” You would be correct if only considering the calendar and how many days until the draft. However, a scout’s “pref list” is turned in by May 1, and from here on out it is all about making sure the paperwork is in, getting last looks at the top guys, and more than anything, getting each player’s signability. A “pref list” is an area scout’s preferred order of the prospects. Some scouts have deep lists (up to 75 players) and some have shallow lists (maybe as few as 40). The top ten players won’t be exactly the same for every scout, but in each scout’s top ten there are likely to be at least five common names. The term “signability” refers to what it will take to sign the player to a pro contract. A high school senior with a scholarship to a major college program will tell clubs how much it will take for him to forgo going to college. Signability isn’t
really supposed to affect how high a player gets drafted or IF he gets drafted, but the reality is that signability has trumped talent in some ways. According to one area scout, here are NorCal’s top five high school prospects: LHP/1B Matt Krook of St. Ignatius Prep-S.F., OF Jordan Paroubeck of Serra-San Mateo, RHP Chris Viall of Soquel, RHP Carlos Salazar of Kerman and LHP Jonah Wesley of Tracy. He didn’t put them in order, but you can surmise that more than a few others have the same five listed. That doesn’t mean they are the top five of ALL prospects in NorCal because a full list takes collegiate players into account. Krook has signed with Oregon, Paroubeck and Salazar with Fresno State, Viall with Stanford and Wesley with UCLA. All of those can be considered major college programs, obviously. It is basically a foregone conclusion that kids committed to Stanford will go to school, so Viall likely won’t get serious attention despite his exceptional talent. Krook recently had a
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poor outing in front of a large gathering of draft decision makers and that will affect his draft slot. UCLA isn’t quite as good as Stanford in getting their players to come to school, but they do get their fair share so Wesley’s signability is likely in question, as will be Krook’s. Of those players, Paroubeck and Salazar are likely the most signable, simply because a degree from Fresno State and playing baseball in the Mountain West Conference doesn’t quite
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measure up with a degree form Stanford, UCLA or Oregon while playing Pac-12 baseball. That statement isn’t intended to disrespect a great Fresno State baseball program and a fine university, rather, it just reflects part of what is considered in the draft process. ✪
Blaine Clemmens is the founder and director for the Bay Area World Series. For more information, visit www.bayareaworldseries.com
May 1, 2013
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