1794866Among the forgotten draft prospects in any year are the college seniors who were, for some reason, either not high enough to get drafted the season before, or weren’t inclined to sign a contract and returned to school.

So we aren’t talking about a first-round pick or anything, but one of those seniors is Alabama right fielder Kent Matthes. He bats from the wrong side of the plate, isn’t extraordinarily fast and while he did hit .303/.361/.504 with 11 home runs a year ago, those numbers are very pedestrian in college ball. Plus, Matthes’ BB/K ratio was an awful 15-53, explaining why he was not selected in 50 rounds in 2008.

But this year is quite different. Matthes is hitting .398/.483/1.000 with a NCAA-leading 20 home runs, 11 doubles and a drastically improved 18-20 BB/K ratio. He hit his 20th long ball at home versus LSU Sunday amidst a 2-for-5 effort and does warrant early first-day consideration, according to one scout that has recently seen Matthes and a number of the SEC’s top prospects that have come through Louisiana State.

“He definitely can contribute on some level in the big leagues,” the scout said of Matthes. “He didn’t slip through the cracks, he’s just gotten a lot better. Senior signs don’t often go off (the draft board) in the first or second rounds much, but he is one of the 10 best college players I have seen here this year, so he has to be somewhere in the top three or four rounds at least.”

Another scout in the area opined that Matthes was “probably one of the top 150 or so,” but that in a weak class, he expects many clubs to take chances on high school talents with more upside, perhaps pushing back the stock of someone like Matthes.

  • Arizona State’s Jason Kipnis went 0-for-4 with a walk and Florida’s Matt den Dekker went 0-for-2 with two walks on Sunday. Kipnis ends the week with a .410/.516/.787 line and den Dekker is hitting .342/.476/.518 with a 21-22 BB/K ratio and 10 steals in 11 attempts as they head to Florida State Tuesday.
  • Dustin Ackley went 1-for-4 with a walk and a strikeout, but his one hit was his 11th home run of the year, an opposite field jack in the fifth inning.
  • LSU’s D.J. LeMahieu broke out for four hits in five at-bats yesterday versus Alabama, including his fifth double of the year. There must be more power in that 6-foot-4, 195-pound frame, and he’s going to have to use it if he’s to be a high draft pick. LeMahieu is a draft-eligible sophomore and could probably use another year in college ball.
  • Georgia’s Rich Poythress hit his 16th home run of the year and drew a walk versus Kentucky left-hander James Paxton, who fought through a sore knee to strike out 10 in six innings. Poythress is hitting .430/.528/.852 with 25 extra-base hits and a 26-18 BB/K ratio in 35 games. Paxton allowed four earned runs on five hits and three walks, lowering his ERA to 6.07. But his 65-11 K/BB ratio in 43 innings still has the southpaw among the top 50 talents in the class, thanks to a low-90s fastball from a low arm slot.
  • Ole Miss right-hander Scott Bittle allowed a run on four hits in six strong inning versus South Carolina in his third start of the year. He struck out seven and walked two and is now 3-2 with a 1.93 ERA and 49-15 K/BB ratio in 32 2/3 innings.
  • The struggling Kentrail Davis went 4-for-4 with his fifth home run of the season Sunday, improving to .286/.421/.511 with 25 walks and 32 strikeouts in 36 games. Davis, like LeMahieu, may be better off coming back for his junior season and the 2010 draft.
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