OF Dylan Crews, Lake Mary HS [FL]
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DoB: 2/26/2002. B/T: R/R
Commitment: Louisiana State.
*Update* Dylan Crews has removed his name from the 2020 draft and will attend LSU.
The Orlando area is always a strong one for high school talent, and Lake Mary High School is at the forefront of that. In 2015, their shortstop, Brendan Rodgers, went third overall to the Rockies, and they have another premium prospect in outfielder Dylan Crews five years later. A year ago, it looked as though Crews might be close to the same level of talent as Rodgers, but he, along with other early top prep prospects Pete Crow-Armstrong and Jared Jones, saw his stock drop a bit over the summer as other names emerged. While Crow-Armstrong and Jones have built their stocks back up out in the Los Angeles area, Crews hasn't quite done the same, and he finds himself in an interesting position for the 2020 draft.
Crews actually reminds me a lot of Oakland A's prospect Austin Beck as a hitter, though he lacks the plus speed that Beck shows. Both are on the shorter side (Beck at 5'11", Crews at 6') but generate serious power from exceptionally quick right handed swings, with questions about the consistency of their hit tools. Crews has a history of barreling up and performing well against top pitchers, using that elite bat speed to barrel up premium velocity and send it out of the park. However, he struggled a bit over the summer, at times swinging out of his shoes to try to tap that power that can often come naturally to him. As a decent defender with average speed and a good arm, he'll probably be a left or right fielder in pro ball, which puts more of an emphasis on that bat.
It's an interesting task to try to grade Crews' hit tool, because he has shown a 55 grade bat in the past but played closer to 45 over the summer. Scouts know he has it in him, but without a ton of defensive value, it's really important that he shows it. His hands are so quick that he can sit back on pitches and wait for them to come to him, and in turn they're quick enough to explode the barrel through the zone and produce above average power without him having to sell out. The hope is that by learning to stay within himself as a hitter, he can get back to what made him such a premium prospect earlier in his high school career.
Crews has a commitment to LSU in hand, where he could go and rake for a couple of years in the SEC and rebuild his stock. The upside is a 25-30 home run hitter with solid on-base percentages, though the downside is a guy who never makes enough contact to reach the bigs. That puts his likely draft range somewhere in the second round if he's signable, though a team that buys into the bat and thinks the summer was just a matter of him slumping at the wrong time could pounce earlier. Austin Beck went sixth overall out of high school outside of Winston-Salem in 2017, though he projected to stay in center field and was trending up on draft day while Crews is trending down.
Some summer swings
Summer game action
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