Even More Baseball Prospects!!

Since hundreds of you are clamoring for more, here it is... more baseball draft prospects!!!! woo!!! For those of you new to this series here at Sports Bullies, I believe that I can scout better for the baseball draft than the Rangers front office. I will make my evaluations only studying for a very small amount of time, and spending no money on "insider" information. It is not that I think I'm the smartest baseball mind on earth, but I'm prolly top 25, I just have no faith in the Rangers' front office. So Sports Bullies is here to give you a guide to baseball.

This post won't be as long as the previous one, just scroll down to check out a lot of the college pitchers, what I want to do in this one is touch one a few guys that I really, really want the Rangers to draft. Guys that would be priority targets if I was running the draft, and I'm sure they will have better careers than the guys the Rangers actually get.

Wes Roemer RHP CSF - It really amazes me how one of the greatest pitchers in the history of college baseball has absolutely no buzz at all coming into the draft. Apparently scouts think he's Ty Detmer. Roemer was the Co-National Player of the Year last year, in '06 he started the season going 65.2 innings without issuing a walk. In 155 IP he K'ed 145 while walking 7...that's not a typeo, 7! All he did this year was increase his strikeout rate to 9.6 per 9 innings, but he did lose a lot of his control, he walked 22 in 127 innings this year. Rick Ankiel alert!! I've read that scouts see him as a set up man, not a starter which I really can't understand. He doesn't have ''overpowering stuff'' but he still gets tons of strike outs... he isn't very big (he's listed at 6' , 200 lbs and is probably smaller) but he's still thrown as many innings over the last two years as anyone in college ball, for a top tier team, hell he completed 6 games this year and no major league pitcher is going to do that! I'm sure JD will listen to the scouts who tell him that he can't get big league hitters out and pass on Roemer round after round after round until the A's get him. It really angers up my blood to know that there's a guy right here who will still be there in the 2nd or 3rd round and there is no way the Rangers draft him, but they'll have to deal with him in their own division for years!

Tony Thomas Jr 2B FSU - The 2007 ACC Player of the Year would be the biggest ACC POY draft steal in Dallas since Josh Howard...ok maybe that's a pretty small group, but Thomas is really good! Tony is a great athlete, high school football star, who has really good speed, 30/35 in steal attempts this year. Now not many second basemen get drafted in the first round so position and a bad defensive rep will push him further down the draft boards than his talent would dictate. He really reminds me of Bill Hall, and could very well move to center in the pros. Like Hall, Thomas is a great hitter; .437/.530/.751 and lead D I in doubles with 32. I didn't cover him earlier because when you click on Thomas' name from the Seminole stats page it directs you to another player named Tony Thomas, who is only a freshman. Tony Thomas Jr however is a junior, and thus draft eligible.

Eric Sogard 2B ASU - I have no idea where Sogard is projected to go in the draft, because no one is covering this damn thing and few people that are go with the stock Baseball America list and since I am refusing to buy a BA handbook, not because I don't like their work...they're pretty darned good at what they do but, because I want to see how I draft with a scouting budget of zero dollars. Sogard was the 2007 Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year, which makes one think that he has the glove to slide over to short or at least be an asset up the middle. But this Sun Devil can hit a little too! Sogard had a line of .382/.483/.613. That combination of a really good eye at the plate and some pop in the bad is very appealing for a guy with a top notch glove. Sogard also has some speed, 17/22 on attempted thefts, and great bat control, just 22 K's in 217 AB's. He's small, 5'10'' 180, but the Phoenix area native went to a high school named Thunderbird, which has to get him some brownie points.

So there are few guys that won't be first round picks, but still have a great shot of making it to the pros. I'll be back with more sleepers and such as the draft draws nearer and then have a full draft recap complete with the "Who-they-should-have-drafted" pick by pick analysis.

JD, the balls in your court buddy.