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Reply to "2016 early draft top prospects"

NYdad2017 posted:
2019Dad posted:
old_school posted:

Last week I was talking to a guy who is connected to the Phillies, he used to be a part of the organization and is still very close to it. According to him the Phillies feel that Groome is no doubt the pick to make but they have concerns of him being drafted by and playing in his home market. For those you unfamiliar with the area Barnegat is about 40 or so from Philly (and about 20 miles or so from where Trout is from). I am not sure why that is such a concern assuming he spends a couple of years in the minors to develop but that is what I was told.

Rumors are obviously only worth what the person telling them credibility is worth, the guy who told me this is has been spot on several times over the years with comments of what the Phillies are going to do. I asked straight out if they were planning on drafting him and he said they still haven't decided...

As a long-time Phillies fan, it could be that some of the concern may be related to the team's experience with its 2010 first-round pick, Jesse Biddle, also a high-school LHP. He was from Philadelphia and grew up a Phillies fan, and there has been a belief -- rightly or wrongly -- in Phillies fans' circles that he put too much pressure on himself (particularly once he got to AA, in which the Phillies' affiliate is only about 60 miles away), or was under too much scrutiny, or something like that. Of course, in point of fact, lots of prospects struggle in AA, so who knows if it had anything to do with pressure or scrutiny or anything like that.

And 11 picks after Biddle the Blue Jays picked a RHP picked out of high school in Texas . . . can't recall his name . . . Synder-something . . .

That's the Baseball God's correcting the error the NY Mets made in 1966 when they picked Steve Chilcott at #1 and left some Reggie guy on the board to be picked at #2. 

And there are others. 

To be fair, Chilcott never made the majors because of a major injury, not necessarily poor play.

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