Giants mock draft: Baseball America guesses high-school pitching

Disclaimer: Jim Callis could have written this in the middle of a spirt quest, made up all the names, and I would have no idea. Even if he slipped in one Barnaby Poon just to mess with us, I still wouldn't know. I'd totally believe it. "Ol' Poon's got a real hose, they tell me," I would say, to no one in particular while waiting in line at the DMV. For I have never heard of any of these players. We've come a long way from the Smoak/Alonso/Posey debates of yore.

But it's a mock draft, and if the NFL sites have to post 600 of them every year, I'd feel bad if ignored the couple that related to the baseball Giants. The Giants have the 25th-overall pick in the June Draft, and here's who Baseball America and Jim Callis guess they'll have the chance to take:

25. GIANTS: (Matt) Krook pitches even closer to the Giants, who know a thing or two about developing pitching. Chris Anderson also might fit here.

PROJECTED PICK: MATT KROOK.

The name is a 55 on the 20-to-80 name scale, though I'm assuming it's pronounced like Mike Krukow's "Kruk," which could get confusing. He's a high-school lefty from St. Ignatius:

I read "hard-throwing lefty with control kinks to iron out," and I thought Jonathan Sanchez. Then I watched the video and, Bonds help me, I can't get Sanchez out of my head. It's the pause at the belt that does it for me. I think I'm just broken.

Of course, if Sanchez were a #25-overall pick, he would be one of the more successful ones in history. His career WAR mark would make him the 11th-most valuable #25 pick, and that's if you include the time away from the Giants, when he's been putting up negative numbers. If he retired after his time with the Giants, he would be #8 all-time. So a little perspective is probably in order.

More perspective: The most successful pitcher ever taken at #25 was Matt Cain. This will probably work out like that.

I'll trust the Giants, of course. They seem like smart fellers, and if they think Krook is the guy, they'll have good reasons. But I'd like to offer my support for another, important reason. Here's one of the first Google results for Krook:

It was a good old fashion pitcher's duel Friday night under the bright lights of Burlingame's Washington Park.

... About a dozen evaluators of baseball talent sat in the stands and pointed their guns in the direction of Burlingame's Grant Goodman and St. Ignatius' Matt Krook who did not disappoint, lighting up the radar and engaging in a duel worthy of prime time.

I played the last baseball game of my life 20 years ago at Washington Park, almost to the day. And Krook went up against a "Grant Goodman" there and out-dueled him.

This is a metaphor. This means something.

Unless it doesn't! Maybe Krook had a girlfriend named Lincoln, seeing as I had one named Kennedy. Mostly, I'm just annoyed that two high-school superstars were pitching a few blocks from my home last month, and I had no idea.

There you have it: The Giants are going high-school lefty if the BA draft is accurate. Would you be okay with that? If you actually have an inkling of who these players are, who is your pet draft prospect?