1 Jackson Holliday, SS, Stillwater HS (OK): Holliday is one of the few top prospects whose major league bloodlines work in his favor. His father, Matt, made seven All-Star games over a 15-year career, and his uncle, Josh, is the head coach at Oklahoma State (where he has committed to play in the unlikely event he attends college). Holliday wasn’t limited by his name or connections; he spent the last year getting into better shape and improving his offensive game. He doesn’t make pitches as often as he has in the past and is more open to using the entire field. His explosiveness allows him to smoke almost anything thrown over the plate, and he can also run and throw well.2
Druw Jones, CF, Wesleyan HS (GA): Jones, whose father Andruw is a borderline Hall of Famer, was competing for the top spot entering the spring. Since then, it has emerged as the preferred choice in the industry. It’s not hard to see why. He’s a good-to-great leadoff hitter who can finish his developmental arc with five-plus tools or better, including both components of his bat. Indeed, he has the kind of projectable frame and arm speed that should allow him to add muscle and strength as he matures. Jones may end up losing some speed as a result, but he’s believed to have the instincts and innate feel for the position that should allow his game to remain wild with secondary value. There is legitimate All-Star potential here.
3
Kumar Rocker, RHP, Tri-City Valleycats: Rocker, previously suffering from overexposure, has been out for most of this year’s cycle after the Mets failed to sign him following his No. 10 overall pick in last year’s draft. He re-emerged recently in the Frontier League, moving his fastball up to 99 mph and overwhelming indie league hitters with a 70-grade slider. Heraclitus said that no one steps into the same river twice because neither he nor the river is the same. Even if Rocker was the same—and he isn’t, if only in age—the river has changed. The industry was already skeptical of it due to its lagging shift and potential handling and durability concerns posed by its mechanical shortcomings; now there’s also the matter of last summer’s post-draft physical that prompted the Mets to release him. We have to write that it really feels silly to obsess over what could go wrong with Rocker’s arm in a draft where almost every other top pitcher already has a zipper on the elbow.
4
Termar Johnson, 2B, Mays HS (GA): Johnson was the top player on CBS Sports’ board entering the spring, and several evaluators argued he should have stayed there. He still has a hit tool that one veteran scout rated as an 80 — which is, in layman’s terms, as good as it gets — and surprising power. The downfall for Johnson is (and always will be) his defensive value. It’s probably just a second baseman, and there’s always a reluctance to take a high school second baseman for obvious reasons; they have less margin for error than shortstops or other players up the middle when it comes to moving down the defensive spectrum. Oh, good. Johnson will hit, and a lot of it, and he’ll do so while displaying one of the best feel for the game in the class.
5
Elijah Green, OF, IMG Academy (FL): Green is a fascinating and polarizing prospect, a moving example of a bimodal distribution who seems to inspire predictions based only on his left and right tail results. To hear most scouts tell it, he’ll either make a few All-Star Games or wash out before he’s eligible for arbitration. His boosters point to his near-elite combination of power and speed, as well as his potential to play center field, despite being listed at 6-foot-3 and 225 pounds. (We note here, to little surprise, that his father, Eric, played in the NFL.) Conversely, Green’s critics say his game needs a lot of refinement to make the most of his tools, and that his extreme swing and proclivities lack will cause him to veer, from being a hot pepper to not, more often than John Frusciante.
6
Jacob Berry, 3B/OF, LSU: Berry has switched locations twice this past year. First, he followed coach Jay Johnson from Arizona to LSU; he then began playing outfield to ease concerns about his defensive value. It didn’t work. Scouts say he lacks the arms and legs to be a passable defender anywhere on the diamond. (One even compared Berry to Seth Beer, who was held as a conscientious objector when he was drafted 28th overall in 2018 by Clemson.) This wouldn’t matter much if Berry’s offense was considered ironclad , but multiple evaluators cautioned that his baseline exit velocity figures suggest his power potential is overstated.
7 Cade Horton, RHP, Oklahoma: Horton, a draft-eligible sophomore who missed the 2021 season due to Tommy John surgery, put himself in the first round with a phenomenal performance during the College World Series that ended with a career-high 13 strikeouts. the finals. His arsenal is all about power, including a high-spin fastball that can reach the upper 90s and a slider that was clocked in the 90s during the aforementioned start. Horton has limited experience (he pitched just over 50 regular-season innings for the Sooners), and scouts still have doubts about whether he’ll be a long-term starter.8
Brooks Lee, SS, Cal Poly: Lee might have the best feel for the game of any prospect in the draft. (If not, then that honor goes to Termar Johnson.) He’s the son of a coach and a hitter who should be good on both sides (especially left). He has scored in less than 10 percent of his appearances this season, all the while showing a good feel for the zone and making quality contact. Defensively, he’s not the most athletic individual and his arm is in the mid-to-tic-top range. That combination usually leads scouts to question someone’s ability to stick in the top six, though Lee’s aforementioned assets and recent defensive positional optimization have them leaning toward the idea that he at least begins his big league career as a shortstop. stop
9 Gavin Cross, OF, Virginia Tech: The Hokies haven’t had a first-round pick since Joe Saunders in 2002. Cross, who is projected to be an above-average hitter and good right fielder, ended a decades-long drought. This season he was moving in the right direction in all the right areas. At the plate, he improved his strikeout and walk rates while increasing his power; infield, he slid to center and tackled…
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