Rice third baseman Anthony Rendon tops John Sickels’ list of the top 100 2011 MLB Draft prospects. Note that this isn’t a mock draft, so Sickels isn’t saying the Pirates will necessarily take Rendon with the first overall pick (although I think they should). Rendon is pretty unquestionably the best college hitter in the draft, and would be at the top of nearly everyone’s draft board were it not for multiple ankle and shoulder injuries.
Right behind Rendon is UCLA pitcher Trevor Bauer, who seems to be climbing everyone’s draft boards recently. I’ve seen no indication so far that the Pirates are interested in Bauer, and I already wrote about him, so there’s little to say about him except that what you think about his prospect status is a litmus test about how you feel about various hot-button issues for pitching prospects – size (Bauer is relatively small), college stats as a way of evaluating draft prospects (Bauer’s are great this year, much better than fellow highly-touted Bruin Gerrit Cole), workloads (Bauer’s is ridiculous), and delivery (Bauer’s is unconventional).
Following Bauer are Cole, Dylan Bundy, Danny Hultzen, and Bubba Starling.