The top four prospects for the 2023 draft have received plenty of praise from industry sources, and the Southeastern Conference quartet could help make this year’s draft class one of the best in recent years.
As of mid April, Louisiana State outfielder Dylan Crews was the top draft prospect, while righthander Paul Skenes, his LSU teammate, ranked No. 3. Florida outfielder Wyatt Langford and Tennessee righthander Chase Dollander ranked second and fourth.
In this stock watch, we compare and contrast the position players Crews and Langford and the pitchers Skenes and Dollander.
SCOUT’S VIEW: CREWS VS. LANGFORD
TRACK RECORD
Both Crews and Langford are righthanded-hitting outfielders with similar tool sets and overall profiles but different backgrounds.
Crews entered the 2020 draft cycle as one of the best hitting prospects in the high school class, a player who combined electric bat speed with a lengthy underclass track record of performance. He didn’t fully live up to those expectations over the 2019 summer and showed more swing-and-miss than scouts wanted to see.
Without a full 2020 spring season to rebound in Florida, Crews was unable to reclaim his first-round status. Before he
