Pounding the Table: Garrett Whitley

You know how sometimes, you're having a perfectly good, perfectly reasonable conversation about something baseball-related and then there's that guy? You know the guy - the guy who has a general understanding of baseball; he may even go to a game or two a year, and every few weeks he looks at the standings. But when you talk about the sport, he's full of all kinds of information? Yeah, that guy. The longer a sports conversation with that guy goes, the higher the probability becomes that he will say those words. Those magic words.

"I still don't understand why [team name] passed on Mike Trout."

[Team name] is safe here, because literally every single team in baseball passed on Mike Trout, including the team that drafted Mike Trout. No matter how long you go on about cold-weather players and about the success and bust rates of toolsy players, that guy is convinced that a major league scout should be able to magically look at a guy like Mike Trout and to know that he alone is going to make it as a baseball superstar.

After all, he figured it out after watching the guy for two years in the majors. Surely, a professional scout should be able to figure it out in a handful of high school games and a showcase or two.

My point is: Garrett Whitley is the next guy that that guy can't believe that every team in baseball passed on. He's going to be Derek Jeter to Dansby Swanson's Phil Nevin. The Roger Clemens to Carson Fulmer's Erik Sonberg.

What do you like in a ballplayer? Power to all fields? Hitting? Glove? Surprising plate discipline for a prep standout? How about a 6.5 60-yard dash time?

Highest ceiling of any player in the draft, and you want to pass him up for what? A college shortstop? C'mon. Live a little. Don't let that guy win.