The 11th weekend of college baseball kicked off today, with some injury news and a top pitcher getting his start pushed back to Saturday due to weather. It’s Friday night, which means some of the best pitchers in this draft class were on the mound tonight. These players, and many others, have six weeks to impress scouts in advance of the draft. Check out the schedule for this weekend here. Check out the draft preview posted here and the recap of the tenth week’s action here. Just a reminder, the Pirates pick #9 and #14 in this year’s June amateur draft, so for the duration of the college season, leading up to draft day, we are following the players closely that are ranked in that range. This year’s draft will be held June 6-8. 
San Diego’s Kris Bryant, went 0-for-3, with a walk and a strikeout on Friday night in a 9-5 loss to San Francisco. On Wednesday, he hit his 21st home run of the season, setting a new career record for home runs at San Diego.
Colin Moran and North Carolina took on rival NC State today and won 7-1. Moran went 1-for-5 tonight, but the one hit was a big one. He hit a three-run homer in the first inning. Kent Emanuel, a 2010 draft pick of the Pirates, went eight innings for NC, giving up just one run on seven hits and three walks, while striking out nine batters.
Austin Wilson went 1-for-4 today, with a first inning infield single in Stanford’s 2-1 loss to Oregon. Wilson also reached base in the fifth inning on a fielder’s choice, but he was picked off of first base.
Mark Appel took the loss against Oregon, giving up a walk-off single, with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning. Appel allowed eight hits, walked two and struck out nine. He hit 97 MPH on the radar gun
DJ Peterson of New Mexico, went 3-for-4 today against UNLV, hitting his 20th double and his 13th homer of the year. He drove in two runs and scored twice, helping his team to a 9-0 win.
Jonathan Gray from Oklahoma was supposed to take on Texas Tech tonight, but his start was pushed back to Saturday due to a wet field and rainy weather.
Florida’s Jonathon Crawford rolled his ankle in practice on Thursday, so he missed his Friday start. If he is able to, he will pitch Saturday against Tennessee.
Another injury of note is Sean Manaea from Indiana State. His hip problem that pushed back a start a couple weeks ago has resurfaced. This week he won’t be able to pitch at all.
Bobby Wahl from Ole Miss, threw a complete game shutout over Tennessee in his last outing. This week against Kentucky, he went seven innings, allowing one run on four hits and a walk(plus a HBP), while picking up three strikeouts. It is a second solid outing from Wahl, who has had control issues in a few of his starts this season.
Marco Gonzales from Gonzaga pitched Thursday night against BYU. He picked up the win, but was not sharp, allowing four runs on 11 hits in eight innings. He issued one walk, which was intentional and he struck out three batters. He hasn’t pitched that well over the last five weeks combined now and his stock has likely dropped him to the late first round.
Braden Shipley was on the mound for Nevada against Air Force today. He has been mentioned numerous times in the back half of the top ten recently. Air Force has just 11 wins this season, so it wasn’t the best test for him. He threw seven innings to pick up his sixth win of the year, allowing three runs on six hits and a walk. While you would like to see him do a little better against that team, the shocking part was that he picked up just one strikeout.
Chris Anderson from Jacksonville also got mention as a possible top ten not that long ago. That was before hit a rough patch against some lesser quality opponents the previous three starts leading up to last week. He threw a shutout last weekend and was looking to get back to his high point in the rankings against North Florida on Friday night. Unfortunately for Anderson, this start didn’t live up to what he hoped. He went 6.2 innings, allowing five runs(four earned) on six hits and four walks, with three strikeouts. The walks were particularly high, since he walked 15 batters in his first ten starts combined. He also came into the game averaging 10 strikeouts per nine innings, so that too was a bad sign.
Fresno State’s Aaron Judge went 0-for-2 tonight against San Diego State, with a walk, an RBI and a run scored. He was facing off against Michael Cederoth, who is one of the top prospects in the 2014 draft class. Judge had a sac fly, and two ground outs against Cederoth.
Draft Notes
Prep LHP Rob Kaminsky from NJ has been getting mentions in the Pirates range recently after starting this year in the late first round range. Scouts were focused in on him Friday as he made his fifth start of the season. Coming into the game, he had given up ten hits in 26 innings, while striking out 53 batters. Kaminsky threw six innings in his team’s 6-0 win today, recording ten strikeouts and hitting 94 MPH on the gun. Profiles for him can be read here and another here.
Keith Law has an article for Insiders where he gives some Prep/Juco names to watch, including Dustin Peterson, the younger brother of DJ Peterson. Law says that the younger brother might be the better prospect. The article can be read here.
All I here about constantly is Moran and Bryant…. enough already….
Every article has at least one note on HS players. Tonight’s article will have notes on four different players. As you pointed out, it is much easier to get info on College players, so that is why they get the most attention, but I have mentioned JP Crawford numerous times, as well as Mercado. Both have player pages on the site that can be found in the draft preview link up top. If you don’t want to hear about Bryant and Moran, I’d suggest skipping the first couple spots each day because they will always be there. They are the two best college hitters, both have been mentioned in the Pirates range numerous times and they play everyday we cover the draft, so they will be there everyday.
Okay, I know its much easier to get information about college players than high school players here, but there is a better than even chance that we will be drafting at least 1 HS player in the draft, so why aren’t we getting any coverage there? I would love to here how JP crawford and Mercado are doing cause I want a SS, I don’t care about these outfielders and pitchers
Thanks for the update John
Glad to see Kaminsky added to the list. I think he’s the top pitcher in this draft class.