With the fall baseball season in full swing nationwide and the WWBA championships coming to a close in Jupiter, FL, it seems fitting to discuss a prospect who perhaps has the most to gain or lose out of anyone in the months leading up to the June draft.  Stanford SS Kenny Diekroeger is arguably the best athlete in this year’s college crop.  He is basically a 60 across the board player in the “athlete” tools as well as with the glove.  He has all of the tools necessary to be a key up-the-middle contributor with a very good chance to be average at short or plus at second.  Diekroeger will have three years at Stanford under his belt come June and that combination of tools and experience should mean a very high selection in the draft, right?  Not necessarily.

Diekroeger posted a .293/.364/.356 slash line for the Cardinal in 2011 after .356/.392/.491 line as a freshman.  Many have used the new bat regulations to explain this drop in production.  I think there is more to it.  Kenny’s bat speed is easily at least plus, but he creates very little loft with his swing mechanics and produces entirely too many GB’s because his hands drop as he loads.  For most belt-high pitches and above (easily within the NCAA strike-zone) Kenny is a below-the-ball hitter.  This is not necessarily an easy fix, and it could be a problem that he will fight the rest of his days on the diamond.  It’s not necessarily as though he will ever be a bad hitter with his current mechanics, but he cannot be elite with them either, and with a frame as large as the one he currently has, sliding to third or the outfield is a real possibility.  An average or below hit tool on a 60 runner is not a first round player in many organizations’ opinions, and Diekroeger has potentially millions to gain from improved bat track and mechanics this year.

Diekroeger fails to transfer all of his weight and tends to close his lower half off as well.  This is usually an easier fix than the bat track issues, but is much tougher to do when also attempting to correct upper body flaws.

The PAC-12 is loaded with strong pitching this season, and Diekroeger will be able to prove (or not prove) that he is deserving of the top-10 talk that he was receiving after his freshman year as opposed to the late first round or early compensation round talk that he began receiving after his numbers softened up in 2011.  Diekroeger might very well be the second infielder off of the board in 2012 behind ASU SS Deven Marrero, but he also could end up falling behind several prep kids too like Gavin Cecchini.

As the Super Regionals head toward a conclusion and the Omaha field is set, it seems appropriate to introduce to our readers to Arizona State shortstop Deven Marrero, who is likely to land in the first-round and perhaps even within the first 10 picks.  Yet, he is not even the top shortstop in his own conference that will be eligible for the 2012 draft.  That honor belongs to Stanford’s Kenny Diekroeger.

Marrero profiles as an above-average defender at short with a plus arm and a plus glove.  He has outstanding instincts for the position and should have no problem staying there as a professional.  At the plate, he fails to generate tremendous bat speed in large part due to a lack of lower body action.  He hits against a pretty quiet front, though, and keeps his hands inside well enough to be a 50 to 55 hit tool player.  He will never hit many bombs in the pros, but he runs well enough to at least have an isolated power.

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