Kiley McDaniel over at Scout.com has posted his first mock draft, plus put out his own personal rankings. The two things differ in that he tries to do a mock draft based on how he thinks things will play out, then he lists his personal choices in the rankings.
For the mock draft, he has the Pittsburgh Pirates taking Stanford third baseman Alex Blandino. That’s a name that has been mentioned for the Pirates early in the year, but more recent rankings and mock drafts have him as an early second round pick. Blandino has hit well lately and McDaniel seems to really like him judging by his rankings.
The rankings article has a lot of work put into it, so it’s really worth checking out and saving for draft day when you start getting into the lower round picks. The reason you want to save it is because he goes 288 players deep with the rankings. McDaniel has Blandino ranked 19th overall in these rankings and Virginia outfielder Derek Fisher is ranked 24th, which is where the Pirates make their first selection. Fisher has been rated in this area all season, except when he briefly fell back after missing time with a hamate injury that required surgery. When he returned and didn’t miss a beat at the plate, his prospect rankings were quickly restored.
