Jon Dutton who was drafted at the age of 17 in 2005 went to HS at Rancho Bernardo in San Diego, which was one of the towns who suffered severe fire damage. Here's hoping his parents house is still standing and that everything is okay with his family. He came on strong at the end of the year in the GCL and is one of my sleeper picks headed into 2008.
Baseball America finished the team report cards on the 2007 draft. It is a premium site but if you have access here is the link. Since it is premium content I won't provide the comments that went with the category winners.
LOS ANGELES DODGERS
Best Pro Debut: OF/1B Andrew Lambo (4), SS Jaime Pedroza (9), and OF Erik Kanaby (10).
Best Athlete: RHP Chris Withrow (1).
Best Pure Hitter: Lambo.
Best Power Hitter: Usable power is Lambo, raw power is 1B Chris Jacobs (17), a massive 6-foot-5, 260-pounder or Austin Gallagher (3).
Fastest Runner: Kanaby, 3.8 seconds or OF Joris Bert (19).
Best Defensive Player: C Jessie Mier (12).
Best Fastball: Withrow (92-98) or RHP Justin Miller (6) (low 90's)
Best Secondary Pitch:LHP James Adkins (1S)
Closest To The Majors: Adkins and Timothy Sexton (25) went straight to low Class A and succeeded.
Best Late-Round Pick: Sexton came out of nowhere, then suddenly scared teams off with a $500,000 asking price, but the Dodgers landed him for $123,000. He has a solid four-pitch repertoire, a deceptive delivery and a nice feel for pitching.
BA also did it's all-star team for the draft.
College Draft Positional AllStars -Jamie Pedroza was the best SS on the list.
HS Draft Positional AllStars - Lambo made it at 1st even though he only played the outfield in the GCL.
Tim Sexson was picked as the 5th best JC debut.
Andrew Lambo was the 4th best HS debut
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Okay so that was the report card on the 2007 draft. How did the kids do in 2006 that BA singled out.
LOS ANGELES DODGERS
Best Pro Debut: LHP Clayton Kershaw (1), and Morris(1) - Kershaw is now the number one LHP prospect in baseball if not simply the best pitching prospect. Morris underwent TJ surgery and the last word is that he was throwing again in Sept and is expected to be ready this spring.
Best Athlete: Preston Mattingly (1) - His athletic skills translated to crappy production. After an error a game at SS, he was moved to 2nd base and the errors continued.
Best Pure Hitter: Mattingly - Couldn't hit a lick in Single A. OF Bridger Hunt (9) started out in low A, moved to high A and if these guys are the two best pure hitters in the 2006 draft, then it is a good thing we got Kershaw and Morris as pitchers. Luckily Jamie Ortiz was in this draft and he is now the best hitter from the 2006 draft.
Best Raw Power: 1B Kyle Orr (4) - spent time in Florida and then joined the GCL rookie league. Still young but didn't show much of his vaunted power. Appears to be behind Ortiz and Lambo as a 1st baseman.
Fastest Runner: Mattingly - for a guy who made this list over and over he sure had a lousy year.
Best Defensive Player: SS Justin Fuller (11) - still can't hit
Best Fastball: Kershaw - already covered.
Best Breaking Ball: Morris- already covered.
Closest To The Majors: Kershaw -they hit that on the head. Jumped all the way to AA this year and is expected to be pitching for the Dodgers sometime in 2008.
Without Kershaw this looks like a terrible draft so far. Morris needs to bounce back from the TJ surgery, and Ortiz shows promise but not much is here if Mattingly and Orr don't start displaying some skills. Of course Kershaw alone might make this one of Logans best drafts if he continues on the same pace he's been on. He's that good.