In the weeks leading
up to the draft, Perfect Game will be providing a detailed overview
of each state in the U.S., including the District of Columbia, as
well as Canada and Puerto Rico. These overviews will list the
state's strengths, weaknesses and the players with the best tools, as
well as providing mini-scouting reports on all Group 1 and 2 players.
Maryland State-by-State List
Maryland
Overview:
Slim
Draft Pickings in State; Where Have You Gone Mark Teixeira, Gavin
Floyd?
Maryland had no players
drafted in the first 10 rounds in 2010, and that scenario will likely
repeat itself in 2011.
With such spotty
production, Maryland has become one of the nation’s most depressed
states in terms of churning out meaningful baseball talent. It ranks
alongside mid-range states like Kansas, Oregon and Connecticut in
terms of the total number of players that have been drafted in the
last several years that attended high schools in those states, and
yet those three states, in particular, will all make an enormous
impact on this year’s draft.
Connecticut should
produce two early first-round picks and another in the second round.
Kansas and Oregon are both expected to contribute at least six
players in the top three rounds. Maryland will be noticeably quiet.
By almost every
standard, the 2010 and 2011 baseball seasons in Maryland have been
downers—from the downtrodden and beleaguered Baltimore Orioles, on
down.
Of the seven Division I
college teams in the state, Navy (30-21 in 2010, 33-23 in 2011) is
the only one that has had a winning record in either of the last two
seasons. The collective record of the state’s D-I teams was 117-242
in 2010, 119-238 in 2011. Four of the seven teams finished at the
bottom of the standings in their respective leagues, namely Maryland
in the Atlantic Coast Conference, Maryland-Baltimore County in the
America East Conference, Mt. St. Mary’s in the Northeast Conference
and Coppin State in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.
Though Maryland, the
state’s signature school, brought up the rear in the ACC with 5-25
records in both 2010 and 2011, the Terrapins should make the biggest
impact in this year’s draft, with righthander Chuck Ghysels and
lefthander Eric Potter both expected to be middle-round picks.
Ghysels (3-4, 5.47, 51
IP/59 SO) can run his fastball up to 94 mph, but that velocity is
neutralized because of his compact, 5-foot-10 frame and
maximum-effort delivery. The 6-foot-4, 210-pound Potter (3-7, 4.80,
66 IP/48 BB/68 SO) can reach the low 90s, but he struggles to throws
strikes consistently.
Led by Ghysels and
Potter, the top eight college players in Maryland are pitchers.
While it hasn’t yet
been reflected in the standings, there is actually a groundswell of
cautious enthusiasm developing at Maryland under second-year head
coach Erik Bakich, who has recruited the top five high-school
prospects in the state and aggressively opened new recruiting
channels in several other states. But it’s still going to take
Bakich time to reverse an ingrained culture of losing at Maryland and
general ambivalence towards baseball in the area.
Though the Terrapins
have a monopoly on the best talent in this year’s in-state prep
crop, none of those players is even assured of being drafted. Kenwood
High lefthander Shane Campbell, the state’s top-ranked prospect,
showed promise in the fall with a fastball in the mid- to high-90s,
but his fastball was mostly in the 82-84 mph range this spring,
raising questions if he might be injured.
John Carroll High third
baseman K.J. Hockaday, No. 2 on the prep list, shows promise with his
6-foot-3, 215-pound frame, raw power potential and natural
athleticism, but he hasn’t stepped up this spring, as hoped.
Montgomery High won the
state 4-A high-school championship over perennial Maryland prep power
Severna Park, going undefeated at 23-0 in the process, but it has no
prospects of any consequence for the 2011 draft. Long gone is the day
when Baltimore’s Mt. St. Joseph High produced the fourth and fifth
overall picks in the 2001 draft, current big leaguers Mark Teixeira
and Gavin Floyd.
As gloomy as the
amateur baseball picture in Maryland has become in recent years, the
state can at least take solace that University of Virginia lefthander
Danny Hultzen, who is squarely in the running to be the first overall
pick this year, is a Maryland resident—even though he attended a
private school in Washington, D.C., before moving on to college at
Virginia. In that regard, Maryland can’t seem to win, for losing.
Maryland in a
Nutshell:
STRENGTH:
College pitchers.
WEAKNESS:
College hitters.
OVERALL RATING
(1-to-5 scale): 1.
BEST COLLEGE TEAM:
Navy.
BEST JUNIOR-COLLEGE
TEAM: Cecil.
BEST HIGH SCHOOL
TEAM: Westminster HS.
BEST OUT-OF-STATE
PROSPECT, Maryland Connection: Danny Hultzen, lhp, U. of Virginia
(lives in Bethesda).
TOP 2012 PROSPECT:
Ryan Ripken, lhp/1b, Gilman HS, Hunt Valley.
TOP 2011 PROSPECT:
Tim Kiene, 1b/of, University of Maryland.
HIGHEST DRAFT PICKS
Draft History:
Harold Baines, of, St. Michaels HS (1977, White Sox/1st round, 1st pick).
2006 Draft: Matt
Sweeney, c, Magruder HS, Rockville (Angels, 8th round).
2007 Draft: Brett
Cecil, lhp, U. of Maryland (Blue Jays/1st round, 38th pick).
2008 Draft: L.J.
Hoes, of, St. John’s College Prep (Orioles/3rd round).
2009 Draft: Branden
Kline, rhp, Johnson HS, Frederick (Red Sox/6th round).
2010 Draft: Adam
Kolarek, lhp, U. of Maryland (Mets/11th round).
TOP PROSPECTS,
GROUPS ONE and TWO
NONE