Mike Belifore Rumors

Keith Law of espn.com provided a reaction to the draft picks from Day 1 of the 2009 MLB Draft. For Day 2 analysis, click here.

Best picks of the first round

• Tyler Matzek, Colorado Rockies, #11 overall: He slid because of signability concerns and the Rockies benefited.
• Shelby Miller, St. Louis Cardinals, #19 overall: Like Matzek, he fell because of contract demands.
• Kyle Gibson, Minnesota Twins, #20 overall: The stress fracture in Gibson's throwing arm scared many teams off, but so long as it heals, the Twins got a steal.

Worst picks of the first round

• Tony Sanchez, Pittsburgh Pirates, #4 overall: It's not that Sanchez is not a first round player, but the Pirates reached too high at #4. The reason was a pre-draft deal that saved the Pirates some money, but they passed on too much talent.
• Randal Grichuk, Los Angeles Angles, #24 overall: Not even in Law's Top 100
• Nick Franklin, Seattle Mariners, #27 overall: Franklin does not have much upside along with below average power and mediocre defense at best.

More Thoughts

• Law liked the Diamondbacks draft of Bobby Borchering and AJ Pollock in the first round and Matt Davidson, Chris Owings and Mike Belifore in the second and third rounds.
• The Cubs took low stat, high upside athletic guys Brett Jackson and DJ LeMahieu.
• Rex Brothers was a steal for the Rockies at #34.

If you haven't heard, Texas defeated Boston College 3-2 in 25 innings the other night in the longest game in NCAA tournament history.  Among the many astonishing stats from the game (seven hour and three minute game time, NCAA record 12 at-bats for a player) were the use/abuse of pitchers Austin Wood and prospect Mike Belifore.  Wood threw 169 pitches over 13 innings while Belifore threw 9.2 innings of relief in 129 pitches. 

Some will argue that the use of these pitchers is gross negligence and could seriously damage their professional prospects not to mention actually cause injury. Both pitchers threw in the game before and neither had thrown more than 60 pitches in a game before.

Unfortunately, more concern is being expressed for Belifore at this point because he was likely a first day pick before the marathon game.  Keith Law sums it up best by saying "If Belfiore suffers any major injury as a result of his overuse this weekend, he would stand to lose out on much or all of his potential signing bonus in next week's draft, which in his case would mean several hundred thousand dollars."  He even heard from one scout that "he's probably damaged goods" after the outing. 

Jason Churchill of espn.com obtained some more interesting quotes from talent evaluators about the abuse.  One personnel executive added, "When I was with the Pirates, we would have called that a deal breaker. It's one thing to stretch a starter out 30 or 40 pitches longer than normal, but to double or triple the work for any arm is not something you want to see, especially in a kid you may draft one day. Now, clubs could certainly see both arms as ticking time bombs. Pitching when your arm is tired, overworked or hurt is how you tear labrums and rotator cuffs and end up in the deep south seeing Dr. Andrews.

"We're not going to assume he's hurt," he said. "But now we're less likely to assume he's not. We're going to have to talk about it internally. Our GM and team officials will have to get together on it. Belfiore's stock dropped for us, though."

During the NCAA Regionals this past weekend, there were a number of prospects who's performance helped their draft stock and a number who hurt their selection status.

Rising

• Kyle Gibson (Mizzouri) threw eight shutout innings vs. Monmouth. While his velocity was only 83-87, he struck out eight and yielded only six hits and a walk.
• Mike Leake (Arizona State) had a complete game, 1ER performance vs. Oral Roberts while striking out 15 and giving up just five hits
• Dustin Ackley (UNC) continued to prove he's the #2 pick in the 2009 MLB Draft with four more hits to raise his numbers to 414/517/768
• Rich Poythress (Georgia) launched his 25th home run of the season in an 8-2 loss to Florida State.
• Arguably the top reliever of 2009, Billy Bullock of Florida closed the door on Miami with a perfect ninth, including two strikeouts.
• Andrew Oliver (Oklahoma State) started out the season as a possible first round draft picked, slipped dramatically with a poor season, but rebounded this weekend giving up just 2ER in 7.1IP with six strikeouts.
• Oliver allowed eight hits in his outing, two of them to Clemson first baseman Ben Paulson.
• Boston College "closer" Mike Belifore threw 9.2 innings of scoreless relief during the record breaking 25 inning loss to Texas. Belifore struck out 11 batters and surrendered just three hits.
• Jason Kipnis (Arizona State) appears to have moved into the first round with another solid performance this weekend. Kipnis went 3-for-4 with two doubles and a stolen base.

Falling

• Matt Bashore of Indiana was shelled by Vanderbilt. He gave up seven runs on eight hits while striking out seven. Bashore still has a good chance to be selected on Day 1, however.
• Once considered a Top 10 pick, Alex White (UNC) continues to struggle allowing five earned runs on four hits and four walks over 4.2 IP.
• Ryan Berry from Rice and AJ Morris from Kansas State pitched against each other and neither threw well. Morris wound up with a complete game win, but yielded five runs on 13 hits and two walks in the process. Berry gave up eleven hits over eight innings, but only three earned runs, yet still took the loss. Both figure to be possibilities for the first day.

Jonathan Mayo of mlb.com teased out which 2009 MLB Draft prospects to watch for on the various teams which have made the NCAA college baseball tournament. 

Boston College: Tony Sanchez, C; Mike Belifore, LHP
Texas A&M: Brooks Raley, LHP; Alex Wilson, RHP
Miami: Ryan Jackson, SS
Arizona State: Mike Leake, RHP; Jason Kipnis, OF
Clemson: Chris Dwyer, LHP; Ben Paulson, 1B
Oklahoma State: Andy Oliver, LHP
South Carolina: Sam Dyson, RHP
North Carolina: Dustin Ackley, OF/1B; Alex White, RHP; Kyle Seager, 2B/3B
Vanderbilt: Mike Minor, LHP
Indiana: Eric Arnett, RHP; Matt Bashore, LHP; Josh Phegley, C
Georgia: Rich Poythress, 1B
UC Irvine: Joe Kelly, RHP
San Diego State: Stephen Strasburg, RHP
Fresno State: Tommy Mendonca, 3B
Mississippi: Jordan Henry, OF
Missouri: Kyle Gibson, RHP
Rice: Ryan Berry, RHP
Kansas State: AJ Morris, RHP
LSU: Jared Mitchell, OF; DJ LeMahieu, 2B
Baylor: Kendal Volz, RHP; Aaron Miller OF/LHP

Jason Churchill of espn.com gaves us two preview today. Click here for his one earlier today. Click here for the most recent one.

• Giants general manager Brian Sabean, Pittsburgh's general manager Neal Huntington, Mariners general manager Jack Zdurencik and Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo were all in attendance for Alex White's latest start.
• Mike Belifore had a 3 inning save on Thursday and was throwing 93 mph. He won't go further than the middle of the 3rd round and could even slip into the second round.
• Mike Rizzo told Churchill that they are not targeting a "more signable player" with their second first round pick at 10 despite the rumors of how Stephen Strasburg could be a difficult sign after he is likely taken at #1 by the Nats.
• Who the Padres will take at #3 continues to be up for debate. General manager Kevin Towers likes Donovan Tate. The scouting director, Chief Gayton likes Grant Green. The VP of scouting and player development, Grady Fuson, likes Kyle Gibson.
• Zach Wheeler seems to be the concensus selection for the Braves at 7, but Churchill points out that there were a large number of Braves brass at his most recent and most disappointing start of the spring. If not Wheeler, they figure to take Tyler Matzek or Shelby Miller but are not interested in Tate.
• James Paxton's draft stock took another hit recently when he selected Scott Boras to be his advisor.
• The Giants are rumored to be interested in Matzek and Wheeler with the sixith pick. That could certainly impact who Atlanta takes as they are interested in both.
• Matt Purke is looking for a $2-$3M signing bonus and that has caused him to fall below Matzek, Wheeler, Miller and Chad James.