SI's Jon Heyman has a piece up today talking a little about the upcoming MLB Draft, which is a little over a month-and-a-half away. He has Rice third baseman Anthony Rendon falling all the way to No. 4 overall, which is almost ludicrous to think about given that Rendon was the consensus No. 1 overall pick coming into the year. Injuries have slowed him, but haven't kept him out of the lineup. Yet, here's what one scouting director said:
4. Anthony Rendon, 3B, Rice. "He's a tremendous defender,'' one scout said. "Big track record,'' said another. The one issue is a shoulder injury that's kept him to DHing all year. While it isn't believed to be serious, one scouting director said it's enough of a concern when you're talking about a player who's going to exceed a $5 million signing bonus to drop him out of the top two, and perhaps even more than that.
If for some reason Rendon makes it to the Astros they should just shout over whoever the next pick is.
"...select Bundy, RHP, Oklaho--"
"ASTROS SELECT ANTHONY RENDON, 3B, RICE."
Rendon, for his part, says he isn't really worried about where he'll get drafted. He did a nice sit-down with MLB Trade Rumors' Ben Nicholson-Smith to discuss the injuries and the hype:
BNS - How are you feeling now?
AR - I feel good. The ankle's fine. I'm still on my throwing program with my arm, so I'm just trying to get it back stronger so I can go back 100% on the field and not have to worry about it down the road.
BNS - Is that the goal - just to be able to go out there and basically relax?
AR - Oh yeah, definitely. That's a whole part of the game. When you play you're supposed to be relaxed, you're not supposed to be tense out there and you're not supposed to be thinking about too many things. If you think about things too much, you're not going to be as great as you can be because you can forget about other aspects of the game and it can hurt you in the long run or you might make an errors.
Texas A&M's John Stilson is also mentioned in Heyman's mock, he has him going 24th, and quotes a scout saying he has one of the best changeups in the class.