2012 5th-Round Pick: SS Chris Taylor
While listening to the talking heads on MLB.com (actually, I was listening to the other Talking Heads earlier… “Whoooo… who is it, whoooo… who is it, whooooo…”) they suggested Taylor as a kind of poor man’s Deven Marrero. This is intriguing to me in that in the pre-season, before Marrero turned out to be bad at hitting, I thought of linking him to the M’s.
The reason for this comparison? Well, Taylor has great defensive tools, good speed, and that’s the main way he generates value as a player. He’s not really a great bat, since he’s only recorded seven home runs in his college career. He’s reliable for doubles though, with thirty-four of those for the career (thirteen this season) and he’s ranked second on the team in walks right now with thirty-five. He’s been a leadoff guy for the Cavaliers, and one might expect him at either the top or bottom of the order as a pro.
This is a pick that I feel a little bit more confident about in context because the Mariners presumably saw a lot of him last season when they were tracking Hultzen/Hicks/Proscia.
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We need players like this. We have a lot of the good power/middling defense/crappy OBP types in the system.
This is MLB.com’s scouting report on Taylor (it is free don’t worry):
Most of Taylor’s value comes from his defense. Taylor has good range and instincts with a plus arm. Offensively, he has shown off his plus speed on the basepaths . Right now, he mostly just has gap power, and he is not likely to hit many home runs at the next level. If a team thinks that he can hit, they could take a chance on him in the early going.