A few 2011 draft prospect notes heading in to the weekend:
-Earlier in the week, I noted that there was good news and bad news for Anthony Rendon. The good news is that he could return to third base this weekend. The bad news is that he is losing protection in the lineup.
-A note on that protection. College Splits points out that Rendon has seen 28 plate appearances with runners in scoring position this year, and has walked eight times, with seven of those walks being intentional. It’s only going to be easier for pitchers to pitch around him with Jeremy Rathjen out.
-Walter Villa has a great article on Rendon at ESPN.
-As for Rendon’s competition, I looked at Gerrit Cole this week, specifically looking at the history of Top College Hitters vs Top College Pitchers in the draft.
-Keith Law mentioned that Cole looks like the new Stephen Strasburg.
-I’ll still be updating the Matt Purke tracker, and keeping track of him in the weekly rundowns, but honestly there’s no way I see that he will be a Pirate. Right now it looks like a two man race for the number one pick, between Rendon and Cole.
The schedule for Rendon and Cole this weekend:
FRIDAY
7:00 PM EST – UCLA (Cole) at Cal Poly
7:30 PM EST – Rice (Rendon) vs Louisiana Tech
SATURDAY
3:00 PM EST – Rice (Rendon) vs Louisiana Tech
SUNDAY
2:00 PM EST – Rice (Rendon) vs Louisiana Tech
People to follow on Twitter for updates:
Rendon: @Chronicle_Owls @FSH_Owls
Cole: @DBSports @RyeUCLAbaseball
And of course you can follow me @pirateprospects.
