2014 Draft Links: Jacob Gatewood

Fox's Kiley McDaniel profiles one of the early 2014 #1 pick candidates, high school SS Jacob Gatewood. Redact his name from the scouting report and you might think the article is about Carlos Correa. McDaniel reports that Gatewood projects a similar offensive profile to bigger shortstops like Correa, Machado, and Tulo. Despite concerns about his future defensive home, he's ranked as McDaniel's #1 prep position prospect and may be in the conversation to go 1.1 next draft

http://sbb.scout.com/2/1306609.html

Gatewood is one of those players that jumps out at you right away: a 6'4 shortstop with electric bat speed. His BP swing can get into lean back/uppercut/yank homers territory pretty quickly but if you had easy plus power at 17 years old, you'd probably do that, too. Gatewood's raw power comes from quick, strong wrists, leverage and bat speed; it's at least a 60 right now and may be a little better, with more on the way as he adds strength. That's the calling card and, as you might guess, I don't think he'll stick at shortstop long-term as he adds some of that weight but he has a longer, more narrow frame than most guys with his height/weight.