They have the No. 1 pick in this year's Major League Baseball amateur draft, and as a rising club that expects to keep getting better, there's an added sense of urgency to make the right call today at Disney World.
In our minds and in our planning, hopefully this is the last time we're picking this high for a while, so we put a little more pressure on ourselves to add another impact player before hopefully we start picking in the 20s," Rays executive vice president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said.
On the local front, Georgetown pitcher and former Rogers star Taylor Jungmann is expected to be an early-round selection today.
Jungmann has been ranked the nation's No. 19 high school prospect by Sports Illustrated's Web site, and Baseball America's draft projection has him going with the 124th pick.
A hard-throwing, 6-6 right-hander who led Rogers to the Class 2A state championship last year, Jungmann recently completed a 14-0 season at 5A Georgetown. A Texas signee, he shut out top-ranked Plano West in Game 1 of the Region II title series last week before the Eagles lost the next two games.
Jungmann finished his four-year varsity career with a 49-3 pitching record.
Tampa Bay also had the No. 1 pick a year ago, selecting David Price, a pitcher from Vanderbilt whom the Rays had targeted for months. The hard-throwing left-hander got off to a great start as a pro; he opened with 18 scoreless innings for Class A Vero Beach.
There's no consensus best player this summer, so the Rays are considering five prospects for the top spot:
- Tim Beckham, a five-tool high school shortstop from Griffin, Ga., who's viewed as one of the best pure athletes in the draft.
- Florida State's Buster Posey, one of the nation's top offensive and defensive catchers.
- Brian Matusz, a big college lefty who led the country in strikeouts at San Diego.
- Pedro Alvarez, a big-hitting third baseman from Vanderbilt.
- Kyle Skipworth, of Rubidoux, Calif., the top-rated high school catcher and possibly the best prep prospect at the position since Joe Mauer was the No. 1 pick seven years ago.
"Last year, we had a pretty good idea who we were taking in the fall. It was just a matter of something weird not happening to him," director of scouting R.J. Harrison said. "This group is pretty even. I could make a case for any one of those five guys."
The Pittsburgh Pirates have the second pick, with the Kansas City Royals, Baltimore Orioles, San Francisco Giants, Florida Marlins, Cincinnati Reds, Chicago White Sox, Washington Nationals and Houston Astros rounding out the top 10.
This is the fourth time the Rays have had the No. 1 selection. They picked high school outfielders Josh Hamilton in 1999 and Delmon Young in 2003 before using last year's top choice on Price.
Tampa Bay never won more than 70 games in a season during its first 10 years. But this season, young talent helped the Rays lead the AL East for most of the first two months.
Beckham is considered a legitimate five-tool player. Skipworth, the other prep prospect among the options the Rays are pondering, is an outstanding hitter who Harrison feels has chance to develop a "middle of the lineup" bat.
Posey is a versatile player who began his college career as a shortstop. He switched to catcher as a sophomore and entered this week's NCAA super regionals batting a Division I-best .468.
Matusz was 12-2 with a 1.71 ERA this season for San Diego. Vandy's Alvarez hit .317 with nine homers and 30 RBI despite missing 23 games with a broken right hand.
"I have spent time with all five of them, and our staff has spent a lot of time with them. They're all top-notch kids' you would be proud to have any of them," Harrison said.
Others who could be drafted early include Georgia shortstop Gordon Beckham (no relation to Tim), Tulane pitcher Shooter Hunt, South Carolina first baseman Justin Smoak, Missouri pitcher Aaron Crow and Florida high school first baseman Eric Hosmer.
