A couple of days ago, the surest thing in the draft seemed to be a group of five high school pitchers who have all thrown extremely well this spring, building on their stuff as the spring progressed and remaining spotlessly healthy.

LHP’s Tyler Matzek and Matthew Purke and RHP’s Jacob Turner, Zack Wheeler and Shelby Miller provided an ironic scenario for scouting directors. Everyone knows that high school pitchers are a high risk demographic come draft time, yet this quintet were the prospects they could bank on among dinged up college arms and questionable bats.

A few hours before the draft that seems to have all changed and it’s not because any one of the five has all of a sudden developed talent or health problems. The talk now all seems to be of teams running away because of signability concerns.

At places in the draft that were formally slotted for one or a couple of the “High School 5”, I’m now hearing players such as Tennessee LHP Mike Minor, USC SS Grant Green, Lipscomb LHP Rex Brothers, Boston College C Tony Sanchez or Stanford RHP Drew Storen.

Those players represent sure things as far as scouting directors are concerned. Per my previous post on risk, I would not be at all surprised if some players and their advisors have oversold themselves in this climate.

Baseball America is reporting that Pittsburgh is firmly on Sanchez and I’m sure that Jim Callis has this from a good source. I had heard both Aaron Crow and Grant Green in that slot earlier today. If Pittsburgh does indeed pick Sanchez, they could, and should, be in for another public relations storm in a week where Hurricane McLouth Trade already hit the city. Sanchez is a fine player but I don’t think you will find him at #4 or anywhere close on most team’s draft boards.