{"id":8813,"date":"2014-05-06T11:18:05","date_gmt":"2014-05-06T15:18:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=8813"},"modified":"2017-04-21T11:38:24","modified_gmt":"2017-04-21T15:38:24","slug":"local-draft-prospects-mid-spring-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=8813","title":{"rendered":"Local 2014 draft-prospects; mid-spring Update"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_8885\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/BukauskasJacob-StoneBridge-Bill-Kamenjar-InsideNova.com_.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8885\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-8885\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/BukauskasJacob-StoneBridge-Bill-Kamenjar-InsideNova.com_-300x247.jpg\" alt=\"Bukauskas is rocketing up the draft boards. Photo Bill Kamenjar\/InsideNova.com\" width=\"300\" height=\"247\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/BukauskasJacob-StoneBridge-Bill-Kamenjar-InsideNova.com_-300x247.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/BukauskasJacob-StoneBridge-Bill-Kamenjar-InsideNova.com_.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-8885\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bukauskas is rocketing up the draft boards. Photo Bill Kamenjar\/InsideNova.com<\/p><\/div>\n<p>This is the 2nd post in a periodic spring-long series looking at DC\/MD\/VA draft prospects for the 2014 season.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=7983\">pre-season review is here<\/a>, going mostly on far-too-early lists of prospects from various sources. \u00a0Now that we&#8217;re a good way through high school and college seasons, its a great time to re-visit some names. \u00a0UVA remains <a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseballamerica.com\/college\/college-top-25-may-5\/\">ranked #1 in the BaseballAmerica college poll<\/a>\u00a0(ranking as of 5\/5\/14) on the backs of two guys we&#8217;ll talk about here. \u00a0But the big local baseball prospect news is all about one name in particular.<\/p>\n<p>Lets talk about the three leading names that seem to be potential top-3 round picks in the coming amateur\/Rule-4 draft.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Jacob Bukauskus<\/strong>, RHP from Stone Bridge HS in Ashburn has just shot up draft boards and gathered a ton of local attention. \u00a0He&#8217;s reportedly up to 98 on the gun and has given up just one RUN so far this season. \u00a0\u00a0ESPN&#8217;s\u00a0<strong>Keith Law<\/strong> drove to NoVa to see him a couple of weeks ago and <a href=\"http:\/\/insider.espn.go.com\/blog\/mlb-draft\/post\/_\/id\/1601\/bukauskus-popping-up-into-first-round\">filed this report<\/a> (insider only), predicting he&#8217;ll be picked at the end of the first round. \u00a0 The blog <a href=\"http:\/\/baseballdraftreport.com\/2014\/05\/01\/jacob-bukauskas\/\">BaseballDraftReport<\/a> wrote 1,000 words on Bukauskas here. \u00a0 And the Washington Post&#8217;s\u00a0<strong>Tariq Lee<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/sports\/highschools\/blistering-fastball-has-stone-bridge-rhp-jb-bukauskas-rocketing-up-mlb-draft-boards\/2014\/04\/15\/3920d128-bbb1-11e3-9a05-c739f29ccb08_story.html\">wrote a nice feature<\/a> for WP&#8217;s AllMetSports.com and the paper a few weeks back on the prospect. \u00a0If you want to see Bukauskas, your time is running out for the regular season. \u00a0He&#8217;s throwing Stone Bridge&#8217;s mid-week games and goes tonight (5\/6\/14). \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/wiki.allmetsports.com\/all-met\/schools\/loudoun\/stone-bridge\/baseball\/\">Stone Bridge&#8217;s schedule is here<\/a>; they play at Tuscarora HS in Leesburg tonight, then are home to Broad Run on 5\/13, and then play away to Freedom-South Riding on monday 5\/19 before the post-season tournaments start. \u00a0Law has him <a href=\"http:\/\/insider.espn.go.com\/mlb\/draft\/mock\/?season=2014&amp;version=2&amp;source=Keith-Law-Big-Board\">ranked #29<\/a> in his early May Draft-preview, but <a href=\"http:\/\/espn.go.com\/sportsnation\/chat\/_\/id\/50555\/mlb-insider-keith-law\">broke a story<\/a> this past week that has Bukauskas telling sources he wants to go to college (he&#8217;s committed to UNC). \u00a0I said it before; you don&#8217;t generally graduate a year early so you can turn down $1.5M and go to college; I still firmly believe someone is drafting him early and paying him well. \u00a0\u00a0<em><strong>Likely Drafted<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>at the end of the first round by all reports.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Derek Fisher<\/strong>&#8216;s lofty pre-season status took a huge hit when he broke his hamate bone this season; he&#8217;s only played in 21 games this year. \u00a0But he seems to have returned from the injury and teams have a pretty good knowledge of how players react to this injury (they&#8217;re generally hampered for a year or so and their power numbers diminish badly). \u00a0Bad timing for Fisher; he could have made himself some money thanks to a thin crop of college bats this year. \u00a0Stats for the year: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.virginiasports.com\/sports\/m-basebl\/stats\/2013-2014\/teamcume.html\">.325\/.372\/.513<\/a> with 2 homers, 12\/4 K\/BB in 21 games\/80 at-bats. \u00a0Not a ton of walks but also not a ton of strike-outs considering his slugging. \u00a0Law has him <a href=\"http:\/\/insider.espn.go.com\/mlb\/draft\/mock\/?season=2014&amp;version=2&amp;source=Keith-Law-Big-Board\">ranked #17<\/a> in his early May draft-preview. \u00a0<em><strong>Likely<\/strong><strong> Drafted<\/strong><\/em><strong>\u00a0<\/strong>later in the first round if teams aren&#8217;t scared off by his hand injury.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Mike Papi<\/strong> has rocketed up draft boards this spring; going from being considered the 3rd or 4th best draft prospect on his own team to being talked about as an early 2nd round pick. \u00a0His slash line: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.virginiasports.com\/sports\/m-basebl\/stats\/2013-2014\/teamcume.html\">.289\/.446\/.493<\/a> with 8 homers, 32\/40 K\/BB ratio in 46 games and 152 ABs. \u00a0That&#8217;s nearly a 1.000 OPS using the BB-Core bats. \u00a0Law has him <a href=\"http:\/\/insider.espn.go.com\/mlb\/draft\/mock\/?season=2014&amp;version=2&amp;source=Keith-Law-Big-Board\">ranked #38<\/a> in his early May draft preview. \u00a0<em><strong>Likely Drafted<\/strong><\/em><strong>\u00a0<\/strong>in the early to middle second round.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A note on UVA: they were pre-season #1 and have maintained that high ranking using a weekend rotation of three SOPHOMORES. \u00a0They might be matriculating a bunch of hitters this spring, but they&#8217;re going to be a major force on the mound. \u00a0Add to their rotation two big-name freshman that we talked about in draft-posts last year (namely,\u00a0<strong>Alec Bettinger<\/strong> and\u00a0<strong>Connor Jones<\/strong>) and the Cavaliers look like they&#8217;ll have a historic pitching corps in 2015.<\/p>\n<p>Other names on Keith Law&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/insider.espn.go.com\/mlb\/draft\/mock\/?season=2014&amp;version=2&amp;source=Keith-Law-Big-Board\">top 100 early may draft-preview<\/a>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Nick Howard<\/strong>, RHP from UVA. \u00a0(#59)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Jake Stinnett<\/strong>, RHP from Maryland (#89)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Mock Draft links<\/span> for several sites\/blogs that do such things. \u00a0Most draft pundits are now off of NC State&#8217;s <strong>Carlos Rodon<\/strong> as 1-1 thanks to his diminished velocity and over-use this season (he&#8217;s had several outings that had him at 130+ pitches to the abject horror of some scouting personnel). \u00a0Most experts now have San Diego LHP prep pitcher\u00a0<strong>Brady Aiken<\/strong> as the likely #1 overall pick, meaning that baseball will go another year without ever having a prep RHP selected 1-1 overall.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/baseballdraftreport.com\/2014\/04\/23\/2014-mlb-draft-top-125-high-school-pitching-prospects\/\"><strong>BaseballDraftReport.com&#8217;s<\/strong> top HS pitchers<\/a> list Bukauskas as the 5th best HS pitching prospect in the land. \u00a0That&#8217;s pretty heady praise considering that the guys listed ahead of him are all top-10 draft pick talents or close to it.<\/li>\n<li>MLBDraftInsider.com does Mock First round drafts: this <a href=\"http:\/\/mlbdraftinsider.com\/2014\/04\/the-board-2014-volume-iii\/\">4\/15\/14 link<\/a> has Bukauskas and Papi in the top 50. \u00a0By this <a href=\"http:\/\/mlbdraftinsider.com\/2014\/05\/the-board-2014-volume-iv\/\">5\/5\/14 version<\/a>, Fisher is back, Bukauskas is rising and Papi is holding steady as an early 2nd rounder.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/mlb.mlb.com\/mlb\/prospects\/watch\/y2014\/#list=draft\">MLB.com has a top 100 list of draft prospects<\/a> in some rough order put together by their staff (presumably including\u00a0<strong>Jim Callis<\/strong> and\u00a0<strong>Jonathan Mayo<\/strong>) and they&#8217;ve got nice little write-ups on the prospects.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Fyi: here&#8217;s links to the latest <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Nationwide High School Polls<\/span>; not a lot of love for DC\/MD\/VA high-schools here.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseballamerica.com\/draft\/high-school-top-25-april-22\/\">Baseball America<\/a> top 25 high schools: only Western Branch HS in Chesapeake is mentioned for local schools. \u00a0That link was dated 4\/22\/14; the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseballamerica.com\/high-school\/high-school-top-25-may-6-2\/\">new rankings due out 5\/6\/14<\/a>\u00a0show Cosby replacing Western Branch in the top 25 behind their top player\u00a0<strong>Hunter Williams<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.usatodayhss.com\/super25\/rankings\/2013\/boys\/varsity\/baseball\/\">USA Today<\/a> top 50 high schools: Western Branch #23. \u00a0Rankings are as of 4\/30\/14; new rankings due out 5\/7.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.maxpreps.com\/polls\/baseball\/xcellent25.htm\">MaxPreps\/Freeman top 25<\/a>. \u00a0Interestingly Freeman has Midlothian&#8217;s Cosby HS as #3 in the land. \u00a0 Max Preps has FOUR VA schools ranked in the mid-30s right now: Freeman, Cosby, Woodside and Western Branch (in that order). \u00a0Rankings as of 5\/4\/14.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.perfectgame.org\/rankings\/HSTeams\/teams.aspx\">PerfectGame.org<\/a> top 50: only Western Branch listed, at #43 (as of 5\/5\/14)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So, no national love for Bukauskus&#8217; Stone Bridge right now; I&#8217;m guessing they&#8217;ll have to make some regional noise before getting any notice. \u00a0They also play in a pretty weak baseball district (playing a bunch of newer Loudoun County schools) and don&#8217;t have to face NoVa powerhouse programs like Lake Braddock and Robinson on a regular basis. \u00a0Local <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-srv\/sports\/highschools\/all-met\/statistics\/baseball-rankings.html\">All-Met rankings<\/a> have Stone Bridge (13-1) at #1 and Madison #2, fitting in that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.insidenova.com\/multimedia\/stone-bridge-baseball-wins-opener\/collection_c17b47fc-b1c4-11e3-b48c-001a4bcf887a.html\">Madison&#8217;s sole local loss was to Stone Bridge in the season opener<\/a>. \u00a0Local baseball factories St. Johns and Riverdale Baptist are in the top 5, along with a slew of Maryland schools. \u00a0I&#8217;m hoping these two teams get a chance to meet in the regional tournament; I have no idea if Stone Bridge has a strong enough #2 to make it there. \u00a0It could make waiting to see Bukauskas risky; would you throw \u00a0him in the first district\/regional game or try to save him for a tougher match up?<\/p>\n<p>Can&#8217;t wait for regionals and I can&#8217;t wait for a shot to see Bukauskas live.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is the 2nd post in a periodic spring-long series looking at DC\/MD\/VA draft prospects for the 2014 season. The pre-season review is here, going mostly on far-too-early lists of prospects from various sources. \u00a0Now that we&#8217;re a good way through high school and college seasons, its a great time to re-visit some names. \u00a0UVA [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,2411],"tags":[1768,2406,1835,2346,2342,2354,2338,440,475,110,2347,2405],"class_list":["post-8813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-draft","category-local-baseball","tag-alec-bettinger","tag-brady-aiken","tag-carlos-rodon","tag-connor-jones","tag-derek-fisher","tag-hunter-williams","tag-jacob-bukauskas","tag-jim-callis","tag-jonathan-mayo","tag-keith-law","tag-mike-papi","tag-tariq-lee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8813"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13732,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8813\/revisions\/13732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}