Phillies news: Keith Law projects HS outfielder to Philadelphia in 2020 MLB Mock Draft

A new bit of Phillies news takes us to the 2020 MLB Draft

Keith Law of The Athletic dropped a bit of Phillies news today in his first 2020 MLB Mock Draft.

The full Keith Law’s mock draft 1.0 can be viewed on The Athletic (subscription required) and with the 15th overall pick, Law has the Phillies going with Austin Hendrick, an outfielder from West Allegheny (Penn.) High School near Pittsburgh.

Here’s what Law had to say about Hendrick in his mock draft:

"Hendrick has huge exit velocities and raw power, but he’ll be 19 at the draft and didn’t get to play at all this spring, all of which seems to have cooled interest in him at the top of the draft."

Hendrick is listed as a 6’1 lefty by Perfect Game with fast hands, lift, and an exit velocity of 105 MPH.

In January Baseball America called Hendrick the best high school hitter in the draft.

This is the second major mock draft that has projected the Phillies to go with a high school outfielder. Jonathan Mayo of MLB Pipeline had the Phillies going with Robert Hassell out of Tennessee.

Baseball America had the Phillies go with a college pitcher, Cade Cavalli out of the University of Oklahoma.

Law had Hassell going eighth overall and Cavalli 19th to the Mets in his mock draft, so these players are certainly in the Phillies range midway through the first round.

I’ve long been in favor of taking college players in the draft given their more advanced approaches and bodies. Some consider college players to be safer than high school players, but some high school players can exceed expectations depending on how they develop.

The new Phillies front office has recently had a preference towards college players. Philadelphia’s last three first round picks (Adam Haseley, Alec Bohm, and Bryson Stott) have all been college players who have developed into highly rated prospects.

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Historically the Phillies have taken high school players in the first round, but recently had a decades worth of failed first round picks.

Only one of the last 10 high school players drafted by the Phillies (J.P. Crawford) has reached the big leagues with the team. Jesse Biddle and Travis d’Arnaud reached the show with other teams and have had average careers at best.

The jury remains out on first overall pick Mickey Moniak, who played in Double-A Reading last year but could miss an entire season due to the virus.