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Remember the good old days when the draft was held in June? People who were super into the draft and prospecting would look forward to that weekend at the beginning of the month and try to dig into the players that would possibly be wearing red pinstripes in the future. As long as drafts have been held in the internet age, somewhere, someone has decided to try and figure out who would take whom in the draft. It came to be known as “mock drafting” and a new profession was born.
Now that the draft has moved to All-Star weekend, it has given people that much longer to try and figure out who was going where. With the Covid pandemic messing things up for evaluators, it’s been really hard for people to figure out what teams plan on doing. It’s always been hard, but this year has been a particular challenge. As the mock drafts have trickled out, one thing has been the consensus about the Phillies: no one knows anything about them and their plans. They’ve tried their best to figure it out though, guessing and assuming what the Phillies will do.
All that being said, let’s take a trip around some of the more prominent websites to see what they think will happen on Sunday for the draft.
Fangraphs - Gunnar Hoglund, RHP
Hoglund is so polished that even though his career begins in the middle of a TJ rehab, he’s still likely to be one of the first players from this draft class to reach the big leagues. Benny Montgomery’s name keeps getting mentioned here by scouts with other clubs but we can’t tell if it’s something they’ve heard via industry discussion or if it’s bunk made seemingly real by early mocks putting Benny here because he’s a local kid.
Baseball America - Benny Montgomery, OF
As we mentioned in the Angels pick, Benny Montgomery seems to be getting some legitimate attention in the back of the top 10 picks, and he’s been rumored to go off the board in the 10-20 range for months now.
At this point it could be between Montgomery and Taylor for the first high school outfielder off the board, which is a bit surprising as the industry typically hammers right-right high school outfield profiles. However, both Montgomery and Taylor are no-doubt center field profiles with excellent tool sets and athleticism, which changes the calculus on that stigma.
This has been a spot where Benny Montgomery has almost been cemented in place, and it’s true the Phillies have interest in the toolsy outfielder in their backyard. But they also like Painter’s size, how his arm works and his feel for pitching, so it was time for a change.
CBS Sports - Colton Cowser, OF
The Phillies have been connected to (Benny) Montgomery all throughout the spring and part of me wonders whether their interest is overstated because of the geography (he’s from Harrisburg). Cowser is one of the best pure hitters in the draft class and those players usually don’t stay on the board much longer than the middle of the first round.
Benny Montgomery is mentioned a lot, but I’m not sure he gets to this pick, and it may not be much more than proximity. Cowser, Harry Ford and Will Taylor are the top players on my board at this pick. I’d expect the Phillies to jump on a solid value on someone that slipped a few picks.
So there you have it. As you can see, the two more popular names are Montgomery and Cowser, though Montgomery has seemed to be the favorite pick for Philadelphia for some time. Most of the writers here are quick to admit that his being so close to Philadelphia plays a part in that, so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens. These mock drafts are sure to change prior to Sunday, so stay tuned to see what people think the Phillies will lean towards.