The Louisville Slugger 2010 Pre-Season High School All-America Team was announced on Friday.  Twelve outfielders were selected to the first team.  The two biggest names on the list are Austin Wilson and Josh Sale.

Wilson is describe as an "uncommon five-tool player" because he's got all the skills you'd need on a baseball field as well as a passion for getting a quality education.  Playing for Harvard-Westlake High School in California, Wilson is a big, physical corner outfielder with a high ceiling.  Sale is a strong and compact 6'0", 203 lb left handed hitting outfielder from Bishop Blanchet High School, Washington.  He has some of the most impressive bat speed and hitting ability of any player in the 2010 class and the natural lift in his swing gives him top level home run potential.

Other noteable outfield selections include Reggie Golden, Cody Hahn and Michael Lorenzen.

Austin Wilson adds pre-season All-America to his impressive resume

The Louisville Slugger 2010 Pre-Season High School All-America Team was announced on Friday.  Twenty-three infielders were selected to the first team.  The two biggest names on the list were Garin Cecchini and Zach Alvord.

Cecchini is a 6'2", 200 lb shortstop who plays for Barbe High School in Louisiana.  He has a strong athletic build, classic lefthanded swing, creates excellent bat speed, serious home run juice, to go with a good arm that has carry.  Alvord is another shortstop who at 6'0" and 180 lbs is a bit smaller than Ceccini.  Playing at South Forsyth High School in Georgia, Alvord has very good compact strength for a middle infielder.  Alvord's best tool is his bat and offensive potential as a middle of the field player.

Other noteable infielders selected include Marcus Littlewood, Nick Delmonico and Johnny Field.

Garin Cecchini was one of twenty-three infielders selected to the High School All-America team

The Louisville Slugger 2010 Pre-Season High School All-America Team was announced on Friday.  Thirteen catchers were selected to the first team.  The biggest name on the list was Stefan Sabol. 

Sabol is a very strong and athletic 6-2, 205 lb catcher that plays for Aliso Niquel High School in California.  Sabol is a right handed hitter with a strong line drive swing and very good bat speed. He's primarily a gap to gap hitter at present and can overpower pitches with his strength. Because he hasn't caught as much as many of his peers, Sabol's catching mechanics are still developing but his athleticism is a big plus on his defensive projection.

Other noteable catchers on the list include Jacob Felts and Alex Ramsay.

Stefan Sabol was named one of the top high school catchers in the country

The Louisville Slugger 2010 Pre-Season High School All-America Team was announced on Friday.  Thirty-seven pitchers were selected to the first team.  The two biggest names on the list were Jameson Taillon and AJ Vanegas. 

Taillon is a 6'7" classic Texas hard throwing right handed pitcher expected to be the #2 pick behind Bryce Harper in the upcoming 2010 MLB draft.  Vanegas was Taillon's teammate on the Team USA 18-U team that won the gold medal this fall and is also expected to be a first round pick in this year's draft.

Other pitchers selected to the team who are expected to be first round picks include: Dylan Covey, Cameron Bedrosian, Robbie Aviles, Peter Tago and Cody Buckel.

AJ Vanegas was named to the 2010 Pre-Season High School All-America team.

James Paxton's attorneys have filed an appeal of the Kentucky Circuit Court's denial of an injunction against the University of Kentucky.  The request for an injunction was filed as a result of Kentucky's threat to not allow Paxton to play in team games unless he submits to the NCAA's request for an unsupervised interview.  The NCAA is hoping to speak with Paxton after comments by Blue Jays interim president Paul Beeston commented that after drafting Paxton in the 2009 draft, he was unable to speak with him, presumably dealing with Paxton's advisor, Scott Boras, instead. 

James Paxton is looking to play for Kentucky in 2010, not just ride the pine.

Paxton's attorneys are arguing that he should not be forced to testify against himself in a case that could threaten his amateur eligibility.  In a statement issued to the media, Paxton's attorneys said "Make no mistake about it: The Circuit Court found, based upon UK's admissions, that James IS eligible to compete in intercollegiate athletics," Johnson wrote in an e-mail to media on Wednesday afternoon. "However, that court erroneously found that, because the student code of conduct did not apply, James had no due process rights, and therefore that UK could withhold him from competition, in order to extort him to submit to an NCAA interview that it admits it cannot compel him to attend, without any consequence to itself."

This case does not figure to end soon.

In our Prospect Preview series, Baseball Rumor Mill will take a look at a number of prospects for the upcoming 2010 MLB draft who figure to be selected in the early rounds.  Today's preview: Kevin Gausman.

Gausman is a long limbed and projectable 6-4, 180 lb right hander from Colorado. He has an easy, athletic delivery and a lightning quick arm action that finishes smooth out front.  He throws plus MLB velocity fastballs with minimal effort and has topped out at 94-95 mph this summer with reports that he's touched 97.  Gausman has heavy sinking action on his fastball when its down and has shown the ability to work the outside corner to right hand hitters. Kevin throws two different types of curveballs, a low 70's version that has big depth and a sharp bite and a harder upper 70's breaking ball that has a flatter shape. His change up is still developing. Gausmann is an early draft pick candidate and he will be scouted accordingly.

Kevin Gausman at the Under Armour All-Star game in Chicago

Gausman is committed to attend LSU in the fall and selected LSU because of its rich baseball tradition and vastly different environment from where he grew up in Colorado.  He is ranked as one of the Top 10 high school pitchers in the country by man talent evaluators and notes that the attention has altered his life a bit and has taken some getting used to.  Heading into his senior season at Grandview High School, Gausman hopes to improve his consistency and improve his leg strength which will hopefully improve his pitching overall. 

The right handed pitcher recently took a small foray into the journalism world, writing his own introduction for ESPN RISE.  In the blog entry, Gausman mentions that of all the wonderful experiences he had this summer, the opportunity to play for the Team USA 18-and-under team at the COPABE "AAA" Pan American Championships in Venezuela this past summer.  Team USA won gold at the tournament and Gausman got to pitch the 9th inning of the final game.

Fayette County Circuit Judge James Ishmael denied 2009 first round draft pick James Paxton's injunction against the University of Kentucky.  The school is seeking to prevent Paxton from playing in games during his upcoming senior season after Paxton's refusal to meet with NCAA officials to discuss the events that occurred after he was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays in June. 

Paxton's amateur status is in jeopardy after Blue Jays interim president Paul Beeston was quoted in a media report as saying that Toronto never had a chance to negotiate with Paxton.  It is presumed that Paxton's advisor, Scott Boras, was the one doing the negotiations, a clear violation of the advisor vs. agent distinction that the NCAA enforces to ensure amateur status for college and high school baseball players. 

Will James Paxton be able to play for Kentucky in 2010?

Paxton's lawyers filled the injunction seeking to bar Kentucky from preventing Paxton from playing in the team's games.  Since the ruling, one of Paxton's attorneys, Rick Johnson, notified the media saying "Friday evening, the court denied my client's motion for a temporary injunction. We have a right to an immediate and accelerated appeal of the denial of the injunction, and we are considering this and other options at the moment."  It seems clear that Paxton has not given up his right to play in the NCAA in 2010.

Paxton figures to be a high draft pick in the upcoming 2010 MLB draft. 

Baseball's general managers gathered recently to discuss possible changes to the MLB Draft system.  While any suggestions must be ratified by the union and nothing is concrete yet, a number of changes were suggested. Buster Olney of espn.com provides us with the highlights.

1. Installation of a slotting system which would predetermine how much a draft pick gets paid based on what position he is selected in.  The hope here is to allow smaller market teams to draft the best talent without fear of a holdout beyond their means to pay the player.
2. As a product of bonus slotting, all players below a certain round would receive the same bonus, regardless of where they were selected.
3. An alternative to a slotting system would be to have a draft budget for each team that they are not allowed to exceed.  The budget would be inversely proportional to a team's finish the previous season with the worst record being allotted the largest budget and the best team the lowest.
4. Opening up draft picks to be able to be traded.  Currently this is not allowed.  By allowing trading, teams that did not want to pay a high draft pick would at least be able to recover the value of that draft pick in a trade.

The impetus behind the changes is that often some of the top talent is sliding in a draft because the teams with the worst records do not or can not afford to pay the top talent.  This is how Rick Porcello fell to the Tigers in the 2007 draft.  It has already been suggested that a player such as Anthony Ranaudo, widely considered a Top 10 pick for the 2010 draft, may slip because his advisor is Scott Boras. 

Will Anthony Ranaudo slip in the draft because teams can not afford to pay him?

Seemingly a definite first round pick in the 2010 MLB Draft, Oregon State left handed pitcher Josh Osich has undergone Tommy John surgery and will miss the 2010 season, espn.com is reporting.  Osich will redshirt this season and return to Corvallis for the 2011 season and presumably enter the draft for 2011.  Aaron Fitt of Baseball America suggests that a team could take a flier on Osich in the early rounds despite the surgery, but agrees that he's likely to return to Oregon State.

Though Osich has primarily pitched in relief, Keith Law of espn.com noted last spring that "If he shows this kind of stuff as a starter this summer or next spring, he'll be a candidate for the No. 1 overall pick." Since that time Bryce Harper has become eligible for the 2010 MLB draft and will undoubtedly be the first overall pick by the Washington Nationals.  However, Osich's ability and potential were along the lines of pitchers Jameson Taillon and Anthony Ranaudo.

A likely fist round pick, Osich will now miss the entire 2010 season and return to Oregon State for 2011

Osich was expected to join the starting rotation for his junior season and pitch behind fellow first round prospect Kevin Rhoderick.

In our Prospect Preview series, Baseball Rumor Mill will take a look at a number of prospects for the upcoming 2010 MLB draft who figure to be selected in the early rounds.  Today's preview: Dylan Covey.

Covey is a solidly built and athletic 6-2, 200 lb right hander from Southern California. He throws from a full hands over head wind up with a long two-piece arm action in back. Covey has one of the best breaking balls in the 2010 class; a sharp breaker with excellent depth and well above average velocity in the 78-81 mph range. Covey's fastball is consistently above MLB average in velocity as well at 91-94 mph, up to 96 and he's shown the ability to maintain his stuff deep into games. He has a verbal commitment to the University of San Diego. His ability to be a professional workhorse with plus stuff makes him a first round possibility.

Dylan Covey figures to be a high draft pick in the 2010 MLB Draft

After completing his Marantha High School in California last year, Covey was selected to play in the AFLAC All-American game held in San Diego on August 16th, 2009.  Being a couthern California native, San Diego was a very convenient location for the game and is also the location of Covey's collegiate commitment for 2010.  All of Covey's collegiate considerations were in southern California (USC, UCLA, Cal State Fullerton, and Long Beach State), but Covey got a strong, early commitment from San Diego and selected USD.

Another benefit to USD over some of the larger schools is the smaller spotlight at USD.  Despite being one of the top pitchers in the country, Covey hasn't experienced much attention at his small private high school and prefers it that way. 

Heading into his senior seasoin, Covey is looking to improve his consistency.  He notes that, at the next level, throwing strikes and throwing them hard is what allows a pitcher to succeed.  For more of Dylan Covey's interview, click here.