I 100% agree with this and have been preaching this in other threads. Strasburg still looks like the #1 right now, but there is plenty of time for his stock to fall, or for someone to emerge as a clear cut #2.

As far as high schoolers go.. I’d love to get a college pitcher at #2 but if a high schooler is truly the best talent available then you’ve gotta give them a chance. Unfortunately there aren’t any more Upton brothers coming through that I know of!

Only high schoolers I’ve heard much of so far are LHP Tyler Matzek, LHP Matt Purke and OF Donovan Tate, all of whom could go top 10-15.

Correct me if this logic is wrong, but it seems like the M’s might have the best shot with a High School prospect that emerges this season as a true stud. None of the prospects after Strassburg, at least at this point, have enough”wow factor” to warrant a SECOND OVERALL selection in the draft. Greene is definitely looking like more of a mid-first rounder, Ackley has Tommy John/injury concerns (not to mention the question marks about what his true position is), and so forth. It seems much more likely that a High School prospect will emerge than a college prospect to all of a sudden turn into an Evan Longoria or David Price.

Personally, I would much rather the M’s find an Evan Longoria than a pitcher because the rotation looks more promising to me than anything else. You definitely have to go with the best player available, but if there is a hitter at #2 that emerges big-time this season, especially an infielder, I would be pretty doggone happy. I wouldn’t mind finding a B.J. Upton or Alex Rodriguez in one of our nation’s high schools, even though I’m assuming we’d already know all about them by now if there was a chance that they were out there.

Then on another note if Strasburg’s mechanics are bad enough to the point where his arm will die out you can expect 5 seasons porbably out of him before his arm blows but even if you get 5 seasons out of him with the future of our ball-club you can say we’ll have to best rotation in the entire MLB(Felix,Morrow,Strasburg!,and maybe Erikkkkkkkkk) and with Truinfel, Halman, Saunders, Raben, etc. coming up you’re looking at Seattle for serious contenders for the next 5 seasons with a rotation like that backed up with good young talent.

And maybe being Mark Prior isn’t a bad thing. He led the Cubs to being a few innings from the World Series before Alex Gonzalez went all Roger Dorn on them and let an inning-ending double play skip through him.

People forget that Mark Prior gave the Cubs 613.1 innings of great baseball, never posting an ERA+ lower than 109 and peaked at 178(!) in 2003. How many teams draft atop the draft would kill for 613 innings of 132 ERA+ baseball.

When you draft for need you end up wasting your first round pick on a Josh Fields.

Prospects aren’t reliable. They flame out, they plateau, they get hurt, etc etc etc… you have to stock up on as many quality players as possible.

If the best player available at #2 is a pitcher such as Alex White, Mike Minor or someone else, then they should definitely take him. Never mind Aumont, Ramirez, Pineda, Adcock, Valdivia, Cleto, Felix, RRS, Olson or whatever other quality arms are in the system. Get as many as you can because most of them won’t see significant time with the Seattle Mariners.

Just because the system is weak at SS doesn’t mean they should stretch to take Grant Green, who is currently looking like a 5-10 pick. Picking Ackley at 2 would be stretch right now as well unless he proves his arm is healthy and he can play CF where his offensive production and athleticism can be put to proper use, rather than at 1B where he’s playing now. Playing 1B is really hurting his draft stock.

You’d be an idiot of a GM to not draft the best player available when you look solely at four pitchers in your farm system.
You’d be an idiot of a GM to assume that they all pan out too…

Not the can’t-miss prospect that the M’s HAVE TO nab at the #2 slot.