The baseball draft means nothing to a lot of people, but it is one of my favorite days of the year.  The draft will take place on June 9-10 this year.

In case you have not heard by now, Stephen Strasburg is hands down the no. 1 talent and odds are incredibly high that he goes to the Nationals with the first pick.  Strasburg is a RHP out of San Diego State.  Some people are saying he may be the best pitching prospect ever to come out of the draft (certainly the best since Mark Prior).  He sits at 97-99 with the fastball (regularly touching 100) and his main off-speed pitch is what he calls a slider, but is really more of a curve with 2-plane break (not traditional 12-6, however).  He is the hardest thrower and has the best off-speed pitch in the draft, but perhaps the most impressive thing is his ability to locate those pitches.  Strasburg has walked a mere 13 hitters in 70.1 IP this season, while striking out 135!  This gives him just over a 10/1 K/BB.  He is also on pace to break Ryan Wagner's collegiate K/9 record of 16.8.

Some are paranoid about his mechanics, and I understand the concerns, but there is no way you pass up on this kind of a talent.  The only way the Nationals might is if they are scared off by the $50 mil price tag Scott Boras has thrown out there.  He will not end up getting that much, I would envision closer to $25 mil, which will still shatter the previous record. 

Ok, so Strasburg is really good, but who can the Cubs get....

The Cubs pick late in the first round this year, 31st overall (Angels, Nationals and Diamondbacks pick in front of the Cubs 2 times for losing type A free agents, or, in the Nationals case, not signing last years 1st rd pick, Aaron Crow).

This will be Tim Wilken's 4th year as Cubs Scouting Director.  In the previous 3, he has taken a college position player (Tyler Colvin), a prep position player (Josh Vitters) and a college pitcher (Andrew Cashner).  Dating back to his days with the Blue Jays, Wilken has shown a mix of college and high school players, though he tends to lean towards position players in the first round. 

This is not a good draft for college bats, but there are some decent options that could be around when the Cubs pick.

The best realistic option, in my opinion, would be A.J. Pollock, an outfielder out of Notre Dame.  He is hitting .364/.457/.578 on the season as the Irish lead-off hitter.  Pollock has the ability to play a decent center-field, and though he is not a burner, runs decent enough and is supposed to have excellent instincts, allowing him to get good jumps.  The first thing I noticed with Pollock, was the impressive K/BB.  Pollock has walked only 17 times this season (in 154 AB's) while walking 24 times.  It is great to see a guy walking more than he is striking out.  Players who can do this are capable of hitting .300 with solid OBP's.  Pollock doesn't have a ton of upside, but is very polished and could be a very solid producer in a couple short years. 

Kendal Volz, a RHP from Baylor, was a guy who was originally expected to go in the top 10 or 15, but may have pitched himself down to the bottom, or even supplemental first rd. He used to sit at 94-95 with the fastball, but has lost a decent amount of velocity this season.  A friend of mine saw him pitch a couple weeks back, and he was not pitching above 91 mph.  Volz does have a really good slider as well.  He has had difficulty throwing strikes and I wonder if he is having some arm problems that we have not been made aware of yet.  The upside is there, but this is a guy who I would like to see the Cubs stay away from.

After those 2, there appear to be a lot of intruiging HS players that I do not know a ton about, except for what I see at Baseball America.  Matt Hobgood, a RHP out of a HS in California is ranked #33 on BA's mid-season list.  Hobgood is a big boy, at 245 lb. and has a fastball in the low-mid 90's along a solid curve. 

As I mentioned before, this is not a good year for hitters, but I like some of the college OF's and there appear to be some decent HS pitchers.  As the draft gets closer, I will write more about who the Cubs could be taking and how they are playing.