18. KC – RHP Cole Wilcox, Heritage HS
Drake detailed some big names that could fall in the draft.
Nander De Sedas – SS/3B – The Puerto Rico native and Florida State commit had plenty of heat attached to his name after a big summer on the showcase cirtcuit. A switch-hitter with legitimate power from both sides of the plate, he’s a solid defender with a big arm that may someday have to move to third. His slide stems from problems at the plate in his senior season. I’ve read various chats and seen threads on social media that mention he may have slid out of the first round completely. Odds: Very likely to be available at 18, perhaps there as late as the second round.
Nicky Lopez is destroying the baseball.
One other thing to mention is that Lopez is hitting over .300 against both RHPs and LHPs this season. Of course with him hitting over .400 recently he is going to have an elevated BABIP. Over the last five games it is .524. Over the last 16 games it is .475. On the season it is .365. The BABIP has been fairly consistent from his slump to current which suggests to me that it isn’t luck that he is getting on base so much but that he is actually coming up with clean hits.
Should Jake Junis be throwing his changeup more?
Jakob Junis’ changeup is a solid major league offering. It’s a good pitch that gets good movement and is a decent change of speed from his fastball. He’s getting more whiffs on his changeup than even his slider. Throwing changeups 20% of the time all of a sudden wouldn’t make a ton of sense for Junis, given that he’s dominantly a fastball/sinker/slider guy, but there is a specific time that I’d like to see him throw quite a few more changeups.
Try identifying current Royals by their amateur scouting reports.
“highly regarded out of high school, remained a dud as a college hitter, batting a career .275 and just .278 this spring with a team-high six homers.”
