Southern Baseball Leads the Way Again

Posted: Jun 08, 2009

On the eve of the College World Series and Major League Draft, we thought we should take a look at some of the top baseball prospects in our Swampland footprint. It’s a great time of year to see the athletes from our area move on to the next level, as well as compete in Omaha (six of the eight teams are footprint schools). Many dreams will come true on Tuesday, and our region will be well represented. It looks to be a strong draft for pitchers, and good hitting will be harder to find.

We have to start out with some North Carolina flavor. After the well-publicized Steven Strasburg goes with the top pick, the most likely player to go second is UNC first baseman/outfielder Dustin Ackley. The draft’s best hitter (ACC POY hitting over .400), Ackley and pitcher Alex White, another likely top pick, will lead the Tar Heels in the CWS later this week. Cartersville (GA) outfielder Donovan Tate, who committed to play football for Butch Davis at North Carolina, is also very likely to go in the Top 10 and head to the professional diamond instead of the ACC gridiron.

We next move to a couple of Missouri Tigers pitchers whose names will be called early in Round 1. Aaron Crow, who reenters the Draft after not signing when he was chosen 9th overall by the Nationals in 2008, should once again hear his name in the Top 10 after a season of independent ball. This year’s Mizzou ace was Kyle Gibson, and he will ride his 11-3 season to the top half of the Draft.

The SEC should be in the spotlight in the middle of the first round with pitchers Mike Minor of Vanderbilt, James Paxton of Kentucky, Sam Dyson of South Carolina, and Billy Bullock of Florida. The two most likely hitters from the conference to go early are slugging first baseman Rich Poythress of Georgia and speedy outfielder Jared Mitchell of LSU. In looking at the smaller schools in our region, three Atlantic Sun pitchers have a great shot to go in the first round in Kennesaw State’s Chad Jenkins and Kyle Heckathorn, as well as Lipscomb’s Rex Brothers.

High school prospects are always harder to project, but here is a look the prep players from our footprint likely to go in Round 1:

Pitchers
Zach Wheeler - East Paulding HS (GA)
Shelby Miller - Brownwood HS (TX)
Jacob Turner - Westminster Christian Academy (Mo.)
Chad James - Yukon HS (OK)
Matt Purke - Klein HS (TX)
Jordan Cooper - Shelbyville Central HS (TN)

Hitters
Bobby Borchering - Bishop Verot HS (FL)
Wil Myers - Wesleyan Christian Academy (NC)
Everett Williams McCallum HS (TX)