Crow’s the pick if he’s there. I think Tim Beckham, Posey, Smoak, Matusz and Alvarez are gone when the Reds pick. If one of those guys are there, I think you have to take them My next 3 look like this:

1) Crow
2) Gordon Beckham, SS, U.Georgia
3) Aaron Hicks, OF-RHP, California HS

Kyle Skipworth would be there, but I can’t imagine taking a HS Catcher 2 years in a row. I’m all for “Best Player Available,” but I think you can reach 1 or 2 spots when you already have an exact copy of a player already in the system.

I haven’t seen Gillaspie discussed as anything more than a late first-rounder. Sickels has him outside his top 30 draft board, and outside his top 10 college hitters. He may be a good “pure hitter,” but he sure as hell doesn’t do anything else well.

Crow would be a good pick, as would Gordon Beckham. I also like Brett Lawrie, a Canadian HS 3B. He might be a reach at No. 7, but I sure like his bat.

I liked Hicks a lot more before the season. As the draft gets closer, I keep thinking Hicks is exactly the kind of player Jim Bowden would draft and that scares me for no rational reason.

just shutout Ole Miss on three hits in the opening round of the tournament. Anyone know if the baseball tournament as important to scouts as the basketball tournament is?

He’s the real deal.

What do you all think about him?

teams shouldn’ t draft by need, especially at the mlb level, they should draft either the most polished and likely to make the big leagues or the most talented with the highest ceiling no matter what position he plays. If the Reds are looking to the 2008 draft to fix their current “problem” at thirdbase they are in trouble, considering that his ETA would be 2011 or later.

John Sickels has the Reds taking Crow. They passed on Gordan Beckham (#8) and Hicks (whom Bowden takes at #9). Yonder Alonso fell to #17, and Conor Gillaspie fell all the way to #27.

Weird that players projected in round one include guys named Josh Fields and Chris Carpenter.