The 2021 draft class is pretty solid at the top, with an SEC-heavy flavor and players with whom scouts have multiple years of high-level history. This is subject to change, even later today, as the first event of the summer, Perfect Game National, is being held in Hoover, Alabama, and features most of the prep players listed below. I have 100 total names listed, but since there will be significant shuffling of prep players in the half-dozen or so events expected to happen this summer, it seemed silly to rank 51-100 ordinally.
It’s unclear what sort of college-based event will happen this summer, with the third-best college summer program (behind the Cape Cod League and Team USA) in the Northwoods League being the best place for scouts. It’s expected that fall practice for colleges will be heavily attended, almost as much as spring games, as scouts look to build history with college players and refine their follow lists for the spring.
There are a handful of players who were eligible for last week’s 2020 MLB draft that are on this list, with Florida RHP Tommy Mace leading the way. He was asking for nearly $2 million and sources indicate he turned down low seven figures, so he’s still the second-round prospect I had him as pre-draft. A couple of others (Hunter Parks and Calvin Starnes) took steps forward in quarantine, but clubs weren’t willing to meet their prices since they wanted to see the improvement in person to pay full price.
Right now, this class is solid, and we’ll find out better if it’s average or above average by the end of the summer into the early fall as scouts get their first looks at this group as draft-eligible talents and draft models start spitting out early rankings.