re: Mainieri said Jake Latz won't pitch this season. It's official

Wow

Second question.

Do you know who "rates" high school players before the draft?

Fourth question.

Do you know what percentage of the MLB draftees were high school players?

What exactly are you trying to argue and/or refute? Serious question.

It began with these two arguing Lange was a higher rated prospect coming out of high school than either Latz or Marshall. When I pointed out that Latz was drafted in the 11th round and Marshall in the 21st round and Lange went undrafted, it was then explained to me that the scouts still rated Lange higher, though no reason was offered. I found that line of thinking amazingly stupid, even for the Rant.

I'm not saying Lange was more highly rated or regarded but the draft, especially for a high school player, is a terrible way to judge who was more highly thought of when you get out of the top 10 rounds.

Under the current CBA "signability" doesn't mean what it used to, it's all a numbers game. Slot values and pool limits play a bigger part than they ever have before.

If I'm not mistaken Katz went undrafted after his junior year and went in the 4th round after his senior year. Do you think his junior year was so bad that he wasn't worth taking a late flier on? Do you think he did enough his senior year to improve his stock by 36 rounds?

I can't know exactly what scouts are thinking. But I can make a reasonable judgment that, if I have two pitchers who both committed to the same college team, and one was drafted in the 11th round, and one went undrafted after 40 rounds, the one who was drafted in the 11th round was more highly thought of. Its not like one went in the 33rd round and the other went undrafted. There were several hundred pitchers taken after Latz went in the 11th. Lange wasn't one of them. Doesn't mean Lange won't turn out to be better, or even that the scouts weren't dead wrong, but its kind of ridiculous to argue who was more highly rated.

If I remember correctly after Katz junior year he said don't even bother wasting a pick on him because he was coming back to LSU for his senior year

Lange was always highly thought of in his class.

Mac Marshall was a circuit rat, his name was out there early and often (many times than not getting your name out at a young age snowballs by your senior year). Was a 1-3 round prospect. Drafted Rd 20

Jake Latz was an above average lefty who's velocity blossomed and gained a ton of attention around his junior year. He was a 6-10 round prospect. Drafted Rd 11

Alex Lange was always a solid arm in showcases, didn't have the plus plus velocity or throw from the left side so his commodity wasn't thought of as cream of the crop. As a senior was anywhere from 8-15 round prospect. Undrafted

Jake Godfrey was a rising sophomore who had a phenomenal junior season where his fastball was mid nineties. After a subpar senior season his stock dropped but was still a 4-12 round prospect. Drafted Rd 21

I think people forget that ALL 4 of these arms were extremely high potential draft risks a year ago, all took different paths to end up at LSU last August. You can't exactly look at what round a prospect is taken above all else when evaluating how they grade out as a whole. With Dunn and LSU's reputation for getting pitchers into large singing bonuses that played a major role on "how signable" these kids were and is why they ALL were selected lower than their grade.