Keith Law at ESPN has released a list of the top 50 draft prospects (ESPN Insiders). While this isn’t a mock draft, he has a name at 18th overall that we haven’t covered yet. The Pittsburgh Pirates have the 18th overall pick in the draft this year, which begins on June 3rd and runs for three days.
Law has Texas Tech third baseman Josh Jung rated 18th. He likes his ability to hit for average and his plate approach, but notes that there are questions about his power and whether or not he can handle quality pitchers. He also thinks that he needs work to stick at third base.
Most people believe the raw power will translate to the pros, but he has yet to truly show that part of his game. He gets average or better grades for everything except his speed, with a 60 grade put on his arm.
Jung is hitting .333/.472/.580 in 40 games this season, with 14 doubles, a triple, seven homers and a 39:30 BB/SO ratio. He was just named as the Big 12 Player of the Week.
The reason we haven’t mentioned him yet here is because he has been rated higher recently by others. Baseball America just had him dropping from ninth to 12th in their latest update, though that was before he went on his current hit streak. MLB Pipeline has the 21-year-old right-handed hitting Jung ranked sixth overall, though they are updating their rankings soon.
The players ranked 17th and 19th by Law have both been covered here, in case you want to check out the players he has ranked closest to Jung:
Also of note, Law has Campbell pitcher Seth Johnson ranked 37th, which is where the Pirates make their second pick. As noted this weekend, Johnson has made a lot of progress recently and likely won’t be around when that 37th spot comes up if he continues to pitch well.
I’m also including some videos here of Jung:
Here’s one from Fangraphs that includes batting practice, fielding and game action
Here’s some game action from 2080 Baseball
Finally, BA has fielding, batting practice and game action
