Nick Rickles

Rickles was summer-ball teammates in 2009 with Bethune-Cookman's Peter O'Brien, and while O'Brien is the better pro prospect, many college coaches prefer Rickles, who has a durable 6-foot-3, 205-pound frame. He struggled as a sophomore before straightening out his swing in the Valley League last summer, hitting .284 with eight homers. He carried that over as a junior and has had his best power season, adding loft to his swing. Using a contact-oriented approach, he had more home runs (11) than strikeouts (seven). He has excellent balance at the plate and a professional approach to go with excellent bat control. Rickles is a decent athlete and runs around 7.0 seconds over 60 yards. Some scouts have reservations about Rickles' catch-and-throw skills. He has a hitch in his throwing motion as he transfers from glove to hand, negating to a degree his solid-average arm strength. Nevertheless, he threw out 35 percent of baserunners in 2011, after throwing out 29 percent as a sophomore and 26 percent as a freshman. He's a good receiver at the college level but no better than average. He has been one of the nation's best-performing college catchers and should sneak into the fifth to eighth round.