I thought it was about time to start discussing the MLB Draft. We're at around two days away now, as the draft takes place over three days starting on June 7th. We're starting to link the Red Sox to players, but it's never too late to start trying to narrow things down as fans. You can never prepare yourself for a break-out performance from a guy like Reymond Fuentes, and at this point last year most mock drafts had started to home in on Max Stassi as the Sox selection, so take these names with a grain of salt. However, barring injury these are all 1st round talents. Where they fall will ultimately be determined by things like how they perform in work-outs, tournaments, and bonus demands, but for now let's mostly ignore those things. So I've highlighted four high school players that are all possible choices at 20. Keep in mind that the Red Sox have also been linked to college players Matt Harvey, Anthony Ranaudo, Kolbrin Vitek, and Asher Wojciechowski, but for this I'm sticking strictly to the prep ranks.

I figure we can use this FanPost to talk about the upcoming draft, where we can post any Red Sox or player updates until it starts on Monday.

Here are some links to check out, often containing information written by people much more informed than I:
http://www.mlbbonusbaby.com/
http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/draft/
http://baseballbeginnings.com/
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/events/draft/y2010/?tcid=mm_mlb_news
http://www.perfectgame.org/
http://pnrscouting.com/

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Baseball Prospectus released their list of the Top 11 Red Sox prospects, with an additional 4 noted after that, for a total of the Top 15.

Link

Five-Star Prospects
1. Ryan Westmoreland, CF
2. Casey Kelly RHP/SS
Four-Star Prospects
3. Josh Reddick, OF
4. Ryan Kalish, OF
Three-Star Prospects
5. Anthony Rizzo, 1B
6. Jose Iglesias, SS
7. Junichi Tazawa, RHP
8. Michael Bowden, RHP
9. Lars Anderson, 1B
10. Reymond Fuentes, CF
11. Derrik Gibson, 2B/SS

And

Four More:
12. David Renfroe, RHP/SS: Like Kelly, he's another big-bonus, two-way star, but Renfroe will begin his career as an infielder, and he projects as a prototypical third baseman due to his size, power potential, and arm.
13. Alex Wilson, RHP: He had a 0.50 ERA in New York-Penn League while giving up just 10 hits in 36 innings, but he's already 23, so he should dominate. Still, his fastball/slider combo is impressive.
14. Stolmy Pimentel, RHP: The young Dominican righty still has plus command and plenty of projection, but performances have been so-so.
15. Che-Hsuan Lin, LF: Lin’s tools still impress, his defense remains outstanding, his numbers... not so much, but Red Sox officials remain very high on him.

If you have a subscription to BP you can read details on all the top picks, but if not all you can read is the Westmoreland detail, where Goldstein says

Perfect World Projection: Westmoreland could be the kind of player people thought Grady Sizemore would become.

I don't have a subscription but I've read that Goldstein called Kelly's ceiling as a #2 starter and an "occasional all-star", not really an ace ceiling at this point.

Baseball America's list should be out in mid-December.