Draft Discussion - Maybin? Maybe so.

All my peeps are saying that the Rockies are keen on Luke Hochevar and Mike Pelfrey (yes they'd like both, but no, actually they feel one or the other will be selected by Milwaukee or Toronto) first and then Jeff Clement as the fallback, but that they haven't made up their mind for certain and are in fact secretly hoping that Cameron Maybin slips past Seattle which could very likely drop him to the Rockies' seven spot. They like Clement a lot but feel the two college arms are about equal in potential to him and all things being level would prefer the pitching. But that's where the trickiness comes in: things might not actually be that level. Everybody says it makes no difference that Boras is advising the two pitchers but I seriously am beginning to wonder about that as I try to read between the lines of what I'm hearing.

Boras has pushed the Angels to the brink with Jered Weaver (this is the negotiation I hear brought up more than the Drew/D-backs thing because there seems to be an underlying assumption that the D-backs front office is as much at fault as Boras in the hold-up there) and even if Weaver signs in the next week, the Rockies are hesitant to get into a long protracted contract negotiation ala the Matt Harrington debacle of a few years ago. So despite hearing "Hochevar, Hochevar, Pelfrey," my gut still says Clement unless Maybin drops. I did hear the Jay Bruce name this last time talking, and also to my chagrin Troy Tulowitzky was brought up as an interest, but the Rockies feel that he will go to the Brewers, the Jays will take one of the pitchers (or vice versa) and Seattle will take Maybin.

One thing is that nobody knows for sure what the Mariners are thinking although my sources think they are probably keying in on Tulo or Maybin and according to BA, Zimmerman also. The Brewers and Jays are both supposedly prioritizing in the folowing order: shortstop - pitcher - outfield, and you can fill in the names yourself (although with the Jays, make sure you add Ricky Romero to the pitcher group). So here is my updated top ten picks of round one:

1. Arizona - Justin Upton
   
2. Kansas City - Alex Gordon
   
3. Seattle - Troy Tulowitzky
   
4. Washington - Ryan Zimmerman
   
5. Milwaukee - Luke Hochevar
   
6. Toronto - Stephen Drew
   
7. Colorado - Cameron Maybin
   
8. Tampa Bay - Wade Townsend
   
9. New York Mets - Jeff Clement
   
10. Detroit - Craig Hansen

I really think Maybin's going to drop from everything I'm hearing. KC is going to bite a bitter pill and sign Gordon for above slot to placate their fans despite the rumors otherwise because they've kind of backed themselves into a corner with their protests. Seattle then chooses a shortstop, Washington's pick -typical of their homecity- is one of the worst kept secrets in baseball, and then I uncertainly have Milwaukee drawing the first Boras client since Tulo's off the board, I think the Jays will then go SS anyway and take last year's best player available (they've had scouts at several Camden games already), and that's how Maybin falls to our spot.

I'm told that if the Rockies do go with another position player at the top that they will then take the best pitchers available with their next two and maybe three picks - probably at least one lefthander, before dipping back into the position player pool, which goes against what their stated draft position is, but that's what I'm hearing.