From the Crow's Nest: Florida OF Buddy Reed

Welcome back to 'From the Crow's Nest', a series in which we look at a few players the Mariners could potentially select with the eleventh overall pick in the 2016 MLB Draft. Last week, we took a look at Vanderbilt OF Bryan Reynolds. This week, we'll be examining Buddy Reed, an athletic outfielder out of Florida whose skills align with those valued by general manager Jerry Dipoto. Shall we?

At A Glance

The Rundown

The first two prospects we looked at in this series go more of the safe route: prospects who boast polish and fast-moving potential, but lack the mesmerizingly-high ceiling. This week, we're going a little more on the raw, high-potential side with Florida OF Buddy Reed, who has the potential to be an all-around star if he figures things out in the batter's box.

First, the positives. Reed is a stud athlete who has no problem kicking his large frame into high gear. He possesses strong instincts in the outfield and plays a good center field. In all likelihood, he'll stick at center moving forward, but he'd make a darn good corner outfielder should it ever come to that. Here are a couple of his finer moments with the glove, one in center and one in left field (where Florida has played him occasionally in the past):

He takes some really clean routes to the ball and watching him use all of his plus speed is a blast. The wheels translate to the bases as well; Reed has collected 41 stolen bases so far in his college career. To top it all off, he has a plus arm. He's as fine of an athlete and defender as you'll find in this draft, especially amongst the college ranks.

The rawness for Reed lies solely in his bat. Though, to his credit, he has improved every year in Gainesville:

Reed has a short, quick swing that hasn't generated a ton of power yet. This could change in the future as he matures, but power has never been a big part of his game. There isn't a ton going on downstairs in his swing and he doesn't make contact nearly as much as you'd like from your shiny new top draft pick, but whoever drafts him will likely do it with the confidence that these issues can be fixed.

If Reed can put it together at the plate, his ceiling will skyrocket. He could very well reach the big leagues on defensive prowess and speed alone, but the development of hit tools could push his ceiling up as high as an all-around star.

Should enough teams find themselves unsold on Reed's bat moving forward, there's a very real chance he could fall to the Mariners.

Previous From the Crow's Nest prospects

Bryan Reynolds - OF - Vanderbilt University

Connor Jones - RHP - University of Virginia