Which players stood out at the MLB Draft Combine?
Yahoo Sports senior MLB analyst Jordan Shusterman names the players who shined during this week's event in Phoenix.
Video Transcript
Jordan Schusterman here in Phoenix, Arizona.
The L will be draft combine.
I want to talk about a few of the standouts from this week.
The players that stood out to me either in conversation or in what they did on the field.
I have to start with West Virginia shortstop.
JJ Weatherholt had the opportunity to interview him for baseball baric casts and this is someone who is a very important figure coming into this week as one of the few players at the very top of this class in attendance here and a lot of the other guys who are projected to go in the first five or so picks.
They are not here in Phoenix, but JJ Weatherill was here to kind of remind people both in conversation and just in the way that he kind of talks about his game and his confidence, why he could very well be the number one overall pick by the Cleveland Guardians.
And there's some buzz about that does seem like that is a very real possibility.
The kind of possibility we thought was very realistic at the start of the season, had some injuries this year, but he finished strong and now when he could be here and kind of impress teams in person and people like us, he feels like a very strong candidate to go first.
Either way, any team that gets JJ Weatherholt in that top 10 is going to be very, very happy.
As for on field players, I think we have to start with what we saw in batting practice on that first day, Jared Jones, a first baseman from LSU was absolutely blasting balls.
Now, we knew that Jared Jones had ridiculous raw power, but I think it was also a way to remind us of how good of a hitter he is not necessarily here in the batting practice session when you pull up the season that he had at LSU.
This is a hitter, even if he is a first baseman, they got a lot better as a sophomore.
And even though in two seasons, you know, sophomore eligible player, this is someone that I do think maybe he is gonna go a little bit better on draft day than people think this is not just a, a batting practice show, but we know here in Phoenix, he absolutely delivered that some of the farthest home runs, some of the highest sex velocities.
I think Jared Jones was extremely impressive.
Uh, from that perspective.