Top three Major League Baseball draft picks for 2011: the future of the game - Part 1
With the biggest event of the baseball season, the draft pick, finally approaching in a day, all the draft predictions are on their prime. Here is a list of few of the draft picks who have a long way to go in the world of baseball and if picked by the right
teams at the right time, might end up becoming the future of which ever franchise they end up going to. The talent that has been scouted this year is more than what Major League Baseball requires.
Anthony Rendon, plays for Rice University and is the top talent to look out for in this year’s draft. If he gets picked up then Rendon will become the first non-pitcher to be drafted with a top overall pick since the Philadelphia Phillies drafted Pat Burrell
out of University of Miami in 1998. Rendon is a star in the truest sense of the word and even though the last year hasn’t been one of his best ones, Rendon still has a lot to offer.
When he was fresh out of high school, the Atlanta Braves expressed their interest in him as Rendon was drafted in the 27th round of the MLB Draft by them but he declined their signing bonus and went on to play for the Rice University Owls.
Rendon posses all the qualities that make him the best Draft Pick and a future baseball player with raw power, discipline on the plate and quick wrists. The only thing that can be a hindrance is his frequent brushes with injuries. Since teams will be spending
millions and beyond on their picks, they wouldn’t want to take a risk with a player who’s bound to go to the Disabled List very often.
Statistically, Rendon is as secure as can be. In his freshman year with the Owls he batted .396 and had 26 home-runs along with 22 strike-outs. Injuries plagued him but at the end of the day he was still leading his team in batting average at .327, 12 stolen
bases, 20 doubles, six homers along with 57 scored runs. Rendon is up for the Golden Spikes Award once again.
Baseball analysts have predicted him to average at .300 as a hitter in the Majors with twenty plus home-runs per year and a high on-base percentage. Rendon has the potential to become a Gold Glove type of baseman but his slight deterioration since an ankle
and shoulder injury has drafters worried.
Gerrit Cole from University of California, Los Angeles is another one of the top prospects this season. After being drafted 28th overall by the New York Yankees in 2008 when he was fresh out high school, Cole made a decision very few young prospects
would make. He chose to attend UCLA and left more than $4-million on the table that the Yankees were willing to offer him as a signing bonus. The young star did not even negotiate with the Bronx Bombers who were already paying him a lot more than the recommended
amount for draft picks, as he was fixed on attending college.
Looks like it was the right decision to attend college, as Cole’s time with UCLA has made him a much better player than when he left high school. If the Yankees were going to all lengths to sign him on then, one could only imagine how bad they’d want him
this time around when Cole is double the player he was back then.
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