if they all show up to be honest with you- we may lose one or two at the most. Probably the best prospect in terms of the draft is Brandon Woodruff, and he has kind of hinted that he wants to go to college.
I think Woodruff, Trevor Fitts, Jacob Lindgren, and Jonathan Holder will all be drafted, and I think Will Cox might be.
I think Fitts has a chance to be in the weekend rotation next year- assuming Devin Jones leaves and assuming everyone is still healthy.
Lindgren and Cox will start out in the bullpen- Lindgren might even have a shot at the starting rotation if Routt leaves- he is also draft eligible this year, but I think he will more than likely start out in the bullpen or midweek. I like Cox, but Gene is making him out to be the next superstar. Basically, he is a workhorse that is going to be a back of the rotation/midweek starter/long relief guy. A quality pitcher with some development, but his upside isn't as great as Fitts, Lindgren or Woodruff.
Woodruff will be in the bullpen for sure, and I hope he can possibly start in right field for us. The thing that concerns me about Woodruff and his hitting is the level of competition that he is facing- he will have more of a jump than some of the others because he plays at a 1A school. See Hunter Renfroe.
Holder is also a dual position guy who will pitch out of the bullpen and will also compete for playing time at first base and one of the corner outfield spots. Personally, I think Woodruff is a better outfielder, plus Woodruff is a left handed power hitter, which is something we don't really have right now.
The others- Philip Casey, Matthew Britton, and Tyler Fullerton probably will be role players.
Then there is Bret Marks who is an invited walk-on that is a sidearm type pitcher. He is kind of interesting because he turned down scholarship offers from North Carolina and NC State to walk-on at MSU. I don't think he will contribute all that much next year because we already have Caleb Reed, but he might end up being a quality relief pitcher down the road.
As far as this being a top 20 class- let me say that I was surprised that our last class was ranked so low considering that our first class with less talent was ranked so high. Especially since our last class had five guys that were drafted on it that made it to school compared to two in Cohen's first class. Personally, I think it probably is a top 20 class, but we'll see.
Also, bear in mind that we are probably going to sign 2-3 more players in the spring to this class. I suspect that we will go after a left handed pitcher- perhaps Cody Livingston of Northwest Rankin?- and then 1-2 of the best available players left regardless of position.
As far as 2011 signees- we have Daniel Garner- catcher and Jacob Schempert- pitcher/third baseman verbally committed- both are very good players. We have two guys that are "leans" to MSU that I think we will get in Chase Domino- an outfielder from Fairhope HS and Myles Gentry a RH pitcher from Gulfport. We are recruiting Bubba Keene from Brookhaven Academy- he is a first baseman/pitcher, and I think we have a 50/50 chance of getting him. Our main competition for him is USM, and I think he grew up a USM fan.
I expect our next class to be about the size of our class this year- about 10 guys in Nov. Mississippi is not going to be a really deep class for baseball next year, which is kind of odd because Anthony Alford is probably the best draft prospect out there for next year. We are recruiting Alford for baseball, but since he also plays football and there is a really good chance that he will go play for MLB, I think the coaches kind of look at him as a "free roster spot" because he is obviously going to be on a football scholarship IF he goes to college and then IF he does, it's a very pleasant surprise because of MLB.
The other five guys will probably be out of state guys and/or a JUCO player or two if I had to guess.