All You Need To Know About MLB Draft Top Prospect JJ Bleday

The 2019 MLB Draft is just two short days away, and teams are locking in their draft boards as we speak. While players like Adley Rutschman, Andrew Vaughn and Bobby Witt Jr. have been the talk of the draft, Vanderbilt outfielder JJ Bleday is one player who absolutely should not get slept on as a potential top-five pick. While he's not heralded as the best college bat, he's pretty close to it, as he has the chance to be a high impact player in the majors.

JJ Bleday Stats

JJ Bleday took a starting role as a freshman and never looked back, composing a .323 batting average with 31 homers and 101 runs batted in through his junior year. These numbers are widely fueled by a magical 2019 season, as he's hit .346 with 25 homers and 64 runs batted in. These numbers helped him get SEC Player of the Year, which is an incredibly high honor considering all of the talent in the conference. He's most certainly an outstanding hitter.

Bleday sports a fast left-handed swing, and the ability to drive the ball with force to all fields using his strong 6-3, 205 pound frame. Like Vaughn, he's not a five-tool player, as he's a below average runner, but he's at least a competent outfielder to the point that he won't be a liability if he's deployed in the field every day.

Bleday was never known as a slugger until this year, as he never had more than a .511 slugging percentage prior to the awesome .748 he posted in his junior year. Is the power for real? With his frame and the way he controls the strike zone, Bleday's power surge could very well be him just scratching the surface of the raw power he possesses.

Whoever drafts JJ Bleday is going to get a pure hitter in every sense of the term. His plus hit tool and raw power from the left side of the plate, as well as his strong arm, make him a very intriguing outfield prospect. If he follows a path where he becomes a power hitter after a few years in the majors, then it may not be too much of a stretch to compare him to a player like Christian Yelich. It's one heck of a comparison, as Yelich has a collective .297 batting average with 104 homers in his seven-year career, but that's how good Bleday looks right now.

Vanderbilt has had three outfielders drafted in the first round in the past few years (Bryan Reynolds, Jeren Kendall, Rhett Wiseman), and Bleday has the tools to be better than all of them. Where he'll exactly go remains up in the air, but swirling rumors indicate he could potentially be looking at a return to Detroit, where he played travel baseball as a kid.

Good luck on Monday, Mr. Bleday. Here's to hoping you have a long and successful career wherever you go.