Draft season is almost here. Unfortunately, I won’t be near an internet connection for all of next week. Luckily, Eric knows his draft stuff much better than I do. He has some cool things planned. Stay tuned.
Keith Law’s newest mock draft has Tanner Scheppers falling out of the 1st round, only weeks after speculation had him as high as 2nd overall. Scheppers is a Fresno alumni who was drafted by the Pirates with the 48th overall pick in 2008, but did not sign. He opted to pitch in the independent leagues. He had only been converted to pitching as a freshman for Fresno, and only put all the pitching pieces together as a junior. He threw 93-95 with a nasty slider in college. Now in independent ball, he is topping out at 98 mph.
I always thought that Scheppers was a major overreach with a high first round pick. He is much more inexperienced than most big program college pitchers. He hasn’t shown much control and is still working on a third pitch. But what about the Yankees, at #29 overall? He would be a high-ceiling, not entirely risky pick. He also has little leverage as a post-college independent leaguer, and therefore would come relatively cheap. The Yankees are picking with Gerrit Cole’s compensation pick from last year, so they must sign their first round pick or lose the slot entirely. Additional leverage is important.
I’m not crazy about Scheppers. I wouldn’t be unhappy with the pick if it were made, but he seems a bit risky to me.
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I wouldn’t really have a problem with them taking either Scheppers or Purke for that matter with this pick. I don’t think Purke is the player that Porcello or Brackman (or Cole for that matter) were so he might fall into the fourth round for us. If we could take both Heathcott and Scheppers, this draft would be studly for the Yanks
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