Originally Posted by
The Federalist Engineer
Your comment is exactly the issue. A MLB prospect at 18 can be raw and inconsistent, they won't need him in the Big Leagues until the player is 22 or 23. Minor league stats barely matter for top picks, it's all development.
For College baseball, the team needs to win now. You want Alex Lange or Paul Maholm, good from Freshman to Junior. If the development gap is too huge, then you might exceed the 2 year limit before the next draft. Dakota Hudson was good but took two years, he wanted to transfer. Graham Ascraft was good potentially and did transfer. It was smart and good to have JC recruited, what is happening is part of nature for college baseball.