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Inbox: Are Phils leaning towards Puk with top Draft pick?
- Updated: May 5, 2016
When the calendar turns to May, the focus at MLBPipeline.com definitely turns to the Draft.
As Jim Callis wrote in last week’s Inbox, our coverage really ratcheted up a few notches with the release of our Top 100 Draft Prospects list. We’ve had a number of Draft-related stories to go along with it, including our first crack this spring of mock draft.
It was only a top 10 from both Jim and I, but we know how much people love the prognosticating, and we promise there will be many more to come. The interest in the top 10 was quite impressive, so I decided to begin this week’s Inbox with a pair of Draft-related — specifically the very top of the Draft — questions, followed by two more standard prospect queries.
@JonathanMayo @MLBPipeline sounds like #Phillies would lean towards Puk cause he could get here quick, instead of being best correct?
— Jay Izzo (@JPhils90) May 3, 2016
@JonathanMayo @MLBPipeline sounds like #Phillies would lean towards Puk cause he could get here quick, instead of being best correct?
Obviously, based on our Top 100 rankings, A.J. Puk is not the best, going strictly on talent. That honor currently belongs to high school lefty Jason Groome. So your assertion that Puk would be the choice because he could move faster isn’t entirely off base, especially if you’re only comparing him to Groome (the college bats being considered could also move a bit faster).
But don’t think that Puk is some kind of finesse lefty, one of those pitchability guys who will move fast because of pinpoint command without plus stuff. His stuff is very much legit, and the fact is the Phillies were likely hoping Puk would have separated himself by now to be the slam-dunk No. 1 pick. That hadn’t happened for most of this spring, but it might be happening now. Over Puk’s past two starts spanning 12 2/3 innings, he’s struck out 20, walked just four and allowed only seven hits and two runs, with reports of him consistently touching the upper-90s to go along with a nasty slider. He might be No. 5 now on our Top 100, but that might not …
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