Baseball America announced their 2013 Preseason College All-America Team. BA annually polls major league scouting directors to vote on the team and make their selections based on performance, talent and professional potential.
In the past, the preseason All-America team has been a predictor both of the first round of the draft. For example, nine of the 15 draft-eligible members of last year’s first team became first-round picks last June, two others were supplemental first-rounders, and all 15 were selected in the top three rounds. In other words, pay close attention.
2013 College All-America First Team
Check out the complete College All-America Team here.
Vanderbilt leads all teams with four players, but Stanford has the most first-teamers with three including righthander Mark Appel who was the only unanimous choice among the 30 scouting directors. Appel might be a sore spot for Met fans as he was the player the Pittsburgh Pirates failed to sign that bumped the Mets out of the top ten in the first round.
Jim Callis has been saying it for a while, but this year’s draft class is thin, real thin. Teams remain underwhelmed by the overall talent available.
“It’s not a great class,” a National League scouting director said. “I guess the strength of the draft would be college pitching, especially at the top if you’re fortunate enough to pick up there…I don’t remember a draft with as many high-profile college guys where you were really concerned about their ability to make contact. There aren’t a lot of up-the-middle players either.”
Last year’s draft class wasn’t anything special, but this one could be much weaker. From everything I’m hearing, after the first 4-5 picks the quality drops off significantly and 4-5 picks after that it really falls off the table. In other words, a complete crapshoot.
