Blue Jays Discussion: Jays draft IF/OF Austin Martin at #5 overall. Time to celebrate

[phillipmike]

Bichette’s tool grades at the beginning of the 2019 as a finished prospect;

Austin Martin’s current tools;

Hit, Power, Run and Arm are all within 5 points from each other. 3-1 in Bichette’s favor. Martin’s Field is 10 points better than Bichette’s.

Both have 60 overall grades.

 

[TheMadHatTrick]

I wonder if we should just stick him in center or 3B and allow him to move around the diamond.

He can competently play 3rd, 2nd, all three outfield positions, and maybe shortstop, which could be extremely valuable.

I think his best position is 3B, where I think he has similarities to a Justin Turner, but with better base stealing. I had been comparing him to a poor man's Mookie, but I don't think he can be that kind of defender in CF. I think he can be an average defender in CF and a plus or better hitter.

 

[Canada4Gold]

The absolutely without a doubt 100% correct all of the time Mason McRae says...

 

[phillipmike]

Delete

 

[stickty111]

The absolutely without a doubt 100% correct all of the time Mason McRae says...

Tweet deleted

 

[horner]

I expect Martin to sign at around or slightly above slot even if he was hoping for #2 type money. Going back for another year of college delays your future free agency and potentially costs you at least one year of 20-30 million dollars. With the uncertainty of college baseball next year and the potential of injuries to factor in there really isn’t any upside to returning to vanderbilt.

What are his options if he doesn't sign.
Going back into the draft 2021
Playing for Vanderbilt again
Then slipping in the draft
With covid nothing is etched in stone

He would be very dumb not to sign
Especially playing with all the young talent we have

 

[Canada4Gold]

The absolutely without a doubt 100% correct all of the time Mason McRae has deleted that tweet less than 20 minutes after tweeting it.

Maybes that's why he's right 100% of the time

He also can't do math FWIW. The 5% extra amounts to about 485k

 

[Canada4Gold]

Tweet deleted

Just noticed that myself. He said that Martin was asking for 7.5, though he's heard 7.2, and it should be done shortly. Perhaps he jumped the gun on that one. He didn't seem shy about making 1000 guesses before the draft and not deleting the ones that were wrong then

 

[phillipmike]

The absolutely without a doubt 100% correct all of the time Mason McRae says...

That was quick and potentially good news if it gets done right now. Passan reported it could go down to August. McRae proving to be a legit source.

If we take Caissie tomorrow and Martin gets signed for 7.2-7.5M within the next few days then McRae is legit in my eyes.

Edit: Looks like he deleted the tweet. Probably thought “crap, everyone will know I’m Shapiro if I disclose such detail”.

This was the tweet;

FYI

 

[Canada4Gold]

IfWhen Austin Martin becomes a star in Toronto I predict a lot of people are going to misspell either his or Auston Matthews' name, and it's only going to annoy me slightly. I've found myself going to type Auston a couple times before correcting myself but I'm getting there.

 

[TheMadHatTrick]

Imo Martin's best defensive positions in order would be:

3B - LF - 2B - CF - SS

 

[theaub]

Cripes the idea of a Guerrero, Bichette, Biggio, Groshans, Martin, Jansen lineup core is something.

 

[TheMadHatTrick]

Cripes the idea of a Guerrero, Bichette, Biggio, Groshans, Martin, Jansen lineup core is something.

Now we just need one of our young left handed hitters outside of Biggio to take a step forward, we're too right handed dominant.

So it's up to one of the following to step up:

Fisher
Tellez
McKinney
McGuire
Conine
Robertson
Morris
Clarke

 

[metafour]

It’s worth noting that Conine and Caissie have the exact same tool grades on MLB.com;

45 Hit, 55 Power, 60 Arm and 50 Field.

Difference is Caissie has a 55 Run to Conine’s 40. Other difference is Caissie is 5 years younger.

Conine was taken in the 2nd round in 2018. If Caissie is taken 42, I don’t want anyone thinking it’s a reach. He has more upside than Conine at a younger age and if we can get him at a 3rd round price then he is a better value than Conine.

You are reaching here. Those MLB.com tool grades are all over the place and are completely non-comparable among prospects for the most part. You'll even see situations where Player A has higher tools than Player B, yet Player B somehow has a higher overall grade.

Conine was a Top 15 talent at one point in his own draft and was showing those tools against premier NCAA talent. That isn't a knock on Cassie, but you can't compare a Canadian HS kid with limited at-bats to that.

 

[metafour]

That was quick and potentially good news if it gets done right now. Passan reported it could go down to August. McRae proving to be a legit source.

Has a top Boras client ever signed quickly? I feel like this will drag out to the end regardless of what happens. I don't see Boras making this easy.

 

[Cor]

 

[Cor]

If you are Steph and I’m Draymond and @Kurtz is Klay, does that mean Mason is Durant?

Just did some reading on Caissie. Seems interesting. A power bat OF?

Also crazy young and someone who has risen over the course of the year and may have risen even more if not for the shut down.

Im totally on board with him at 42. Let’s us go underslot and make up some money we’ll need for Martin’s deal

 

[phillipmike]

You are reaching here. Those MLB.com tool grades are all over the place and are completely non-comparable among prospects for the most part. You'll even see situations where Player A has higher tools than Player B, yet Player B somehow has a higher overall grade.

Conine was a Top 15 talent at one point in his own draft and was showing those tools against premier NCAA talent. That isn't a knock on Cassie, but you can't compare a Canadian HS kid with limited at-bats to that.

Reaching? MLB.com just came out with an article doing the exact same thing I did. That is were I got the idea. And it was the purpose of having the grades, so you can quantify the player’s upside and compare them to others.

Tool Twins: Comps for the top Draft prospects

 

[Cor]

 

[Maplebeasts]

Let's hope they get either Kelley, Wilcox or Ginn if Beeter is unavailable.

 

[thehockeysong]

I have to imagine Wilcox told teams that if he's not picked relatively high (or paid like it) then he's headed back to school. He's a pretty big drop for a guy with big tools.

Edit: hard throwing big college arms sounds like the guy that rises in a question mark draft like this. So that's what I'd expected.

 

[SDig14]

At least if we have time to get in touch with agents last night and today we should be able to know who will sign and for what amount. I doubt they take anyone at 42 that they don't think they can sign.

 

[LeafsOHLRangers98]

Any chance Blaze Jordan would sign if taken? Kid could be a star.

 

[Canada4Gold]

So McRae tweeted out the exact same tweet he did last night word for word again. Weird, maybe he deleted it by accident?

 

[Cor]

Hopefully he’s signed quickly.

Our scouting director said they did their homework on all the top guys just in case. I imagine they had an idea of what he’d be looking for if he fell to us and whether he’d be signable before the pick was made