The rumors have been flying for about a month now. Illinois prep prospect Tanner Bushue, from tiny Farina South Central High School, is on the rise in the eyes of area scouts.
This came as a great surprise to myself and some other baseball followers in central and southern Illinois.
Not because we didn't think Tanner was talented, not at all. It's just that his exposure to high-level competition has been severely limited.
Bushue was to have played last summer with the Southern Illinois Bullets, which would have cured those exposure ills. But a knee injury ended his summer before it could start.
Prior to that injury, Bushue had jumped into the top 150 of PG's Class of 2009 rankings on the recommendation of San Francisco Giants associate scout Paige Kirkpatrick. He is now ranked No. 300 nationally.
But as I said, there is now a distinct buzz around Bushue, who at 6-foot-4 has a projectable frame. Scouts also like his signability as he is committed to perennial JUCO power John A. Logan. And of course, there's his arm strength, which helps his fastball regularly stay between 88-90 mph.
And the buzz may only get louder. Bushue has gone from a surefire top-10 round pick to perhaps top-3 rounds. As one National League scout told me on Wednesday, "he probably won't last past the first day of the draft."
Stay tuned for more.
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