BREWERS FIRST ROUND SELECTION MARK ROGERS

This was said about Gatorade National High School Player of the Year and Brewers' first round pick, MARK ROGERS.

"one of the best high school pitching prospects seen in 15 years of scouting"

Well there are two ways to look at it. You can think "great JOSH BECKETT, KERRY WOOD, Mark Rogers" or you can think "TODD VAN POPPLE, JM GOLD, NICK NEUGEBAUER."

PETER GAMMONS was on ESPN radio this afternoon and was raving about Mark Rogers, saying that he has excellent command and strong mechanics. Gammons did say that this draft was reminiscent of the 2000 draft, which has been regarded as a rather weak class.

Rogers' numbers in high school are nothing short of amazing, 9-0 with a 0.16 ERA and a 142 K's in 56 IP. As impressive as his 17.8 K/7 (remember, high school games are 7 innings) is, remember that he was playing against completely inferior competition. It wasn't like he put these numbers up in Miami/Dade County or Southern California, he did this in hockey/ice fishing land. Of course he can't help who his competition is, and no matter who you are playing an 0.16 ERA is amazing. You could put Randy Johnson in his prime in rookie ball and he wouldn't post an 0.16 ERA. Nevertheless it'll be interesting to see how he adjusts to facing guys that aren't completely overwhelmed by a 88-92 MPH fastball. That is always the knock on good HS pitchers. They never develop their off-speed stuff because nobody can hit their fastball, then when they get to the next level and their fastball isn't so dominant they start getting lit up like a Christmas tree.

JACK ZDURIENCIK, the Milwaukee Brewers' director of scouting has done a phenominal job in stocking up the minor leagues, so for the purposes of the draft I pretty much close my eyes and nod my head to whatever Zduriencik says and does. The man has proven that he knows what he is doing so far. If this were SAL BANDO making the selection I would be more nervous, but with the way the organization has been having successful drafts for the past five seasons now, I am willing to go along for the ride.