Since Houston has pretty much locked up the No. 1 overall pick in 2012, it's time to start looking at prospect. I mean, we've already been doing that some, and you've heard a lot about one Galveston Ball high schooler named Nick Williams around these parts.
↵Project Prospect provides its usual awesome breakdowns of a couple of other players that may end up in the talk for Houston's top pick. Who are they?
↵The big two are Arizona State shortstop Deven Marrero and Florida high school right-hander Lance McCullers. The former is a Troy Tulowitzki-type with an excellent defensive makeup and projection on the offensive end. Marrero will not hit for the same kind of power as Tulo does, but he can be an offensive asset at that position and could find himself on some all-star games at some point. He also seems to be the safest and closest to the majors of the three guys mentioned so far.
↵McCullers sounds like the next Stephen Strasburg/Jameson Taillon pitcher with unlimited upside and a short trip to the majors. The only thing that will hold McCullers back is his command, as he's struggled with that at times in high school. Of course, having ungodly break on his fastball has a tendency to do that to command, so he'll certainly learn from it.
↵It will largely depend on who is in control of the Astros war room next summer, but I could see both Marrero and Williams being picked by Bobby Heck before McCullers. I know his arm is other-worldly, but Heck has proven time and again that he prefers position players at the top of the draft and then to find hidden gems in later rounds.
↵We also heard the admonishment in that post, guys from PP. No more casually throwing Griffey's name around when Williams is mentioned.
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