Also see: 2014 Top 50 Preseason Junior College Teams
Three
Pitchers Stand Atop List
Of
Nation’s Top JC Prospects
It
is safe to say on the eve of the 2014 season that there are no
players of Bryce Harper’s unparalleled stature in this year’s
junior college prospect ranks, nor any players with realistic
expectations of even climbing into the first round of the this year’s
draft—unlike a year ago when fast-rising East Central (Miss.)
outfielder Tim Anderson was taken by the Chicago White Sox with the
17th pick overall.
Harper,
then a catcher out of the College of Southern Nevada, is the
most-acclaimed junior college player of all-time after being taken by
the Washington Nationals with the first overall pick in the 2010
draft.
Perfect
Game has unveiled an updated ranking of the Top
200 Prospects in this year’s junior college draft class, and
it is headed up by three pitchers whose appearance on the list is
noteworthy because they were all relative unknowns at the conclusion
of the 2013 college season.
Blinn
(Texas) Junior College righthander Robbie Dickey has the distinction
of being the nation’s top-ranked JC talent, though his hold on that
spot is tenuous as Seminole State (Fla.) righthander Jake Cosart and
Oxnard (Calif.) righthander Patrick Weigel both throw harder and may
have better overall raw stuff, though lack Dickey’s command and his
more-advanced feel for pitching.
A
relative unknown in 2013 after posting a modest 6-6, 3.82 record with
63 strikeouts in 73 innings as a freshman at Blinn, the 6-foot-3,
205-pound Dickey became a marked man among Texas-based scouts last
fall when the velocity on his fastball, typically in the 89-91 mph
range last spring, spiked to the mid-90s. With greater arm speed in a
loose, easy delivery, his secondary pitches also became much sharper.
Dickey,
Cosart and Weigel are all projected second- or third-round picks in
this year’s draft. Unlike Dickey, Cosart and Weigel are transfers
from four-year programs. Cosart, a red-shirt freshman, is a transfer
from Duke, Weigel from Pacific.
Initially
recruited to Duke as an athletic, two-way player with significant arm
strength, the 6-foot-1, 180-pound Cosart (younger brother of Houston
Astros righthander Jarred Cosart) left that program without even
playing a game as a freshman. He has since focused on pitching only
in junior college, and his fastball velocity saw a steady climb to
93-96 mph last fall, topping at 98, though his secondary stuff needs
refining.
Weigel
went 0-2, 8.02 while pitching in a variety of roles as a freshman at
Pacific, but made significant strides with both his stuff and command
during the summer for the California Collegiate League’s Santa
Barbara Foresters, working mostly as a closer. He soon began throwing
strikes with a 93-97 mph fastball and 80-83 mph slider, and his
overnight transformation into a coveted prospect prompted him to
transfer to a nearby junior college to become draft eligible a year
ahead of schedule. The 6-foot-6, 210-pound righthander still has
plenty of work to do in refining an inconsistent delivery, but his
size and impressive stuff should make him a hot commodity for
California scouts this spring.
While
righthanded pitchers appear most in demand at the junior college
level with the 2014 draft still more than four months away, two
athletic outfielders from Nevada—Southern Nevada’s Grant Heyman,
a transfer from Miami, and Western Nevada’s Conor Harber—rank as
the top position players.
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