Machado to Orioles, Harper to Nationals

The Baltimore Orioles appear to have helped greatly in solving their organizational need for middle infielders of quality all-around talent by drafting Manny Machado, and the Washington Nationals selected phenom Bryce Harper with the No. 1 overall selection in the draft.

Machado and Harper are both only 17 years old and both are advised by Scott Boras. Machado attended Brito Private High and put up gaudy numbers in his senior year, batting .639 and recorded 27 doubles, 12 home runs, and 17 stolen bases. Harper dropped out of high school after his sophomore year, earned a GED, and enrolled in the College of Southern Nevada (a junior college). Harper hit .442 with 29 homers in his lone season in a wooden bat league at the College of Southern Nevada, while earning full marks by scouts regarding anything and everything having to do with hitting. Harper’s story, both in baseball and his life in general, is very well chronicled by Jerry Crasnick of ESPN here.

The Orioles could really use some high-end talent around the diamond in the organization, and not just on the pitching mound. Machado is a magnificent start to the draft in that regard. At the shortstop position, the Orioles had a Grand Canyon-sized hole at the position organizationally, and assuming he signs, Machado will help in filling that organizational void. Machado is often compared to Alex Rodriguez because both are Latin-born shortstops with power potential from Miami-area high schools, and I’ll be honest, he does physically look like Rodriguez and his swing, too, looks similar on video.

Machado was universally considered the top talent left for the Orioles at No. 3. After Harper at No. 1, the two top talents available were generally considered to be prep flamethrower Jameson Taillon and Machado. The Pirates took Taillon at No. 2, so the Orioles took Machado. The talent drop-off from No. 3 to subsequent picks was considered to be wider than usual.

Machado, as Keith Law states in his scouting report on ESPN Insider (link for Insiders only) on Machado, he’s a “plus defender” with a good arm and power potential at the plate. Law also says Machado is “A-Rod Lite.” Law is a talent evaluator for ESPN and Scouts, Inc. on the amateur, minor league and major league levels. He was a special assistant to the general manager for the Toronto Blue Jays for 4.5 years before his work with ESPN and Scouts, Inc. I really like Law’s work because he really knows what he’s talking about and is not ever afraid to share his opinion. I posted Law’s scouting report in my last post, but I’ll post it again:

“Machado is going to get the Alex Rodriguez comparison — tall, athletic, right-handed-hitting Latino shortstop from a Miami-area high school — but A-Rod Lite is more apt, since he’s not preternaturally gifted as a hitter as A-Rod was.

Machado can hit, though, with strong, quick wrists, good rotation, and excellent extension through his swing; he does wrap his bat briefly but clears it as he loads, making it something of a red herring. He has line drive power now, but he’s going to have more power down the road as he gets stronger.

Machado has a 70 arm and good hands at shortstop; there’s some sentiment that he’ll outgrow the position, as he’s going to fill out significantly over the next ten years, but he has the tools to be a plus defender there and I imagine it’ll take a lot to convince the team that drafts him to move him to third base. He will need help with his footwork and needs to quiet down his game, as he has the habit of many talented teenagers of trying to make the flashy play. He’s committed to Florida International but is very unlikely to attend school.”

Here’s a Baseball America video of Machado:

It would have been nice to actually have a second round selection to be able to further build off of the Machado pick, but instead we are subjected to this. Also tempering enthusiasm is the fact that the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays are apparently on their way to having yet more great drafts.

Moving onto the Nationals. When Bud Selig announced Harper, a “natural” catcher, as an outfielder, I thought Selig had slipped up by mistake. Harper is mostly a catcher by trade, and there was a lot of speculation that Harper, who played multiple positions at the junior college level, would eventually become an an right fielder to reduce the wear and tear, and maximize his offensive potential. I just didn’t think the Nationals would be so quick to officially move Harper from catcher to right field.

Here’s part of Law’s scouting report on Harper:

“Harper’s calling card is his enormous raw power, a product of both tremendous bat speed and huge leverage in his swing. He’s always had the hand-eye coordination to be a good hitter for average, but the length of his swing and his own eagerness to hit every pitch 800 feet led to problems making contact last summer and fall.

CSN coach Tim Chambers and his staff worked with Harper on getting him to stand more upright at the plate and to work on hitting the ball to left, both of which contributed to his Scenic West Conference-best .417 average to go with his school record 21 home runs (breaking the old record of 12). He’s also shown improvement over the course of the spring, so while he’ll still chase a fastball up, he’s less vulnerable away today than he was in February.”

Here’s Harper hitting his second homer of his college season:

Here’s a Baseball America video of both Harper and Machado:

What’s incredible to me is that Harper seems like a relatively skinny player — he just looks like a regular 17-year-old. If he was hitting 500+ foot homers in high school, then what is he going to do when he gets bigger, stronger, and fills out?

Scary.

If I had to venture a guess about the future of Harper and Machado, I’d say that both will sign late in the signing process. Both will go to instructional league after they sign, and Harper will mash. I’d guess that each player will begin in the low levels of their organization’s minor league system next year, with Harper having the significantly earlier time of arrival at the big leagues. But I don’t think Harper is with the Nationals until mid-2012, at the very earliest. Purely speculation on my part, though.

(As an aside, this from my floormate from freshman year at the University of Maryland, Juan Cervantes:

“[Harper] has a very stark lookalike in the former WWF (now known as WWE) wrestler, the Ultimate Warrior. Although the Ultimate Warrior only won the WWF Championship once, he is still one of the more memorable wrestlers in history. The main reason for this is his excitement and his face paint, face paint that was in the exact pattern as Harper does his before games.”

Take a look at the Ultimate Warrior here and Harper here. Despite the eye black and face paint, I just don’t see it).