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With the high school and college baseball seasons starting to wrap up, we are getting a better idea about who may be taken off the board early in the upcoming MLB Draft.
UCLA's Roch Cholowsky is expected to go No. 1 overall to the Chicago White Sox, while Texas high school shortstop Grady Emerson and Georgia Tech catcher Vahn Lackey are expected to be the next ones off the board.
If this is how the top three play out, the San Francisco Giants, who hold the No. 4 pick, will still have some elite players to choose from. The question is, do they go the college or high school route?
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MLB analyst sets the stage for the Giants to draft UC Santa Barbara's ace
The Giants have been a team that has drafted college talent over high school talent throughout the years. Since 2018, they have drafted seven college players and just one high school player.
That is expected to remain true later this summer as Bleacher Report's Joel Reuter believes the Giants will draft UC Santa Barbara pitcher Jackson Flora.
"Flora has been far and away the most consistent performer in the college pitcher class all spring, going 12-0 with a 1.06 ERA, 0.85 WHIP and 133 strikeouts in 102 innings. With a durable 6'5" frame, a 70-grade fastball that bumps triple-digits and a pair of polished offspeed pitches, he offers the requisite mix of upside and floor to be the top arm off the board."
Flora has been dominant all season long for his squad and has become arguably the top pitcher in the class. He has an elite fastball and some great offspeed pitches to pair with it, like having two different variations of a slider that he uses.
He could be a great draft pick for the Giants and someone who could be the ace of the staff in the future.
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