February 20th, 2012 
Chris Crawford 
Won’t bore you too much with an introduction, and sorry there was no rundown this weekend. We’ll get those up starting next weekend.
Quite a few changes from the first edition; Some might call them hasty, but after
getting first looks at a few player and some reports from people that I trust, I thought updating was necessary. The top three stays the same, and at this point, it’s tough to see that top three changing for a long time (though the order absolutely could). The big changes come below that top three. Fried’s impressive showing at the MLB Urban Youth Academy in Compton solidified my feelings that I had him too low at 7, and Trey Williams was moving outside of the top ten even without the poor showing. The highest-rated new comer is Carlos Correa, who’s likelihood to stick at shortstop with above-average offense make him very likely to go in the first twenty picks.
Have at it.
| Rank | Player | Position | School | Prev |
| 01 | Mark Appel | RHP | Stanford | 01 |
| 02 | Lucas Giolito | RHP | Harvard Westlake HS (CA) | 02 |
| 03 | Byron Buxton | OF | Appling County HS (GA) | 03 |
| 04 | Max Fried | LHP | Harvard Westlake HS (CA) | 07 |
| 05 | Mike Zunino | C | Florida | 09 |
| 06 | Kevin Gausman | RHP | LSU | 06 |
| 07 | Deven Marrero | SS | Arizona State | 08 |
| 08 | Victor Roache | OF | Georgia Southern | 04 |
| 09 | Chris Beck | RHP | Georgia Southern | 14 |
| 10 | Walker Weickel | RHP | Olympia HS (FL) | 10 |
| 11 | David Dahl | OF | Oak Mountain HS (AL) | 13 |
| 12 | Stryker Trahan | C | Acadania HS (LA) | 17 |
| 13 | Trey Williams | 3B | Valencia HS (CA) | 05 |
| 14 | Gavin Cecchini | SS | Garbe HS | 16 |
| 15 | Matthew Smoral | LHP | Solon HS (OH) | 18 |
| 16 | Carlos Correa | SS | P.R. Baseball Academy | NR |
| 17 | Michael Wacha | RHP | Texas A&M | 11 |
| 18 | Lance McCullers | RHP | Jesuit HS (OH) | 15 |
| 19 | Nick Williams | OF | Gavleston Ball HS (TX) | 12 |
| 20 | Kyle Zimmer | RHP | San Francisco | 22 |
| 21 | Lucas Sims | RHP | Brookwood HS (GA) | 21 |
| 22 | Joey Gallo | 1B/3B | Bishop Gorman HS (NV) | 25 |
| 23 | Stephen Piscotty | 3B | Stanford | NR |
| 24 | Marcus Stroman | RHP | Duke | 24 |
| 25 | Taylore Cherry | RHP | Butler HS (OH) | 20 |
Posted in 
[...] Chris Crawford, at MLB Draft Insider, posted volume 2 of his big board, with Mark Appel remaining at the top. -LINK [...]
Chris- First of all, love the site. It’s nice to dive into when my daughter is screaming at the top of her lungs for my committing the injustice of… putting her to bed. Anyway, I digress.
Curious why Appel is on the top of EVERYONE’s list, yet no one seems to have a lot nice to say about him. That may be a bit dramatic, but almost everything I read says something along the lines of “Good fastball, ok secondary offerings, doesn’t miss a lot of bats, not convinced he’ll ever be a #1, let alone an ace.” Is it merely that he has the highest floor of anyone in the draft, or is there something I’m missing or misinterpreting.
Appreciate it, Andrew.
And it’s a little bit of a lot of things for Appel. It’s not a strong year for college pitching, he has the potential to have two plus pitches and one above-average offering, and too often we base this on results. It’s just as much about process as it is results.
Would it be nice to see Appel start dominating the way the other Pac-12 arms did last year? Of course. The pure stuff, however, is unmatched by any collegiate arm right now, and only Giolito gives him a run for the money.