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The Mariners finished the season as the 6th worst team in baseball, but a saving grace is that they'll pick 6th in next year's draft. Since they finished in the bottom 10, they won't have to give up that pick if they throw pots of gold at Jacoby Ellsbury, and they'll also get to choose a pretty good baseball player.
Next year's draft isn't until June, but there's already mock drafts out there, so let's take a look at some of the possible candidates that the Mariners could take with that #6 pick.
I've used My MLB Draft as a resource for years, perhaps because they have wonderful SEO and they're always at the top of my searches, but they've been pretty accurate over the years. Obviously, there's going to be a ton of movement between now and June, but it's always fun to speculate.
Their current mock has the M's taking RH prep arm Touki Toussaint, which is a real name. I joked about this a bit on Twitter, and our friend Jason Parks from Baseball Prospectus quickly jumped in to rave about him. Here's what he said.
@LookoutLanding Electric arm on that kid. Huge ceiling. It explodes out of his hand and everything moves.
— Jason Parks (@ProfessorParks) September 30, 2013
@LookoutLanding He's not the safest pick in the draft, but the arm is very loose and easy, and the ceiling is very legit. My favorite HS arm
— Jason Parks (@ProfessorParks) September 30, 2013
Without knowing much about Toussaint, that kind of praise is exciting. Prep arms are already incredibly risky even without the injury factor, so any signs of an effortless delivery are welcomed.
Toussaint has a solid frame at 6'2'', 190 lbs. He's considered to be extremely athletic, has an electric fastball, a plus curve, and he has a loose and easy delivery. Sound familiar?
I wanted to take a look at Toussaint's pitches/delivery from a couple of different sources and angles. Here's what I found.
You can see the easy delivery best in the 3rd GIF, and the hammer curve in the first. He's also got some movement on that fastball in the 2nd.
There's always a tremendous amount of risk in selecting a pitcher with a top 10 pick, let alone a prep arm. So much can change over the next 8 months too - Toussaint might not even be a player the Mariners would consider, or perhaps have a shot at depending on how his senior season unfolds.