2010 MLB Mock Draft News and Predictions for 2010 MLB Draft

2010 MLB mock drafts are a big part of predicting how things could play out. All 2010 MLB mock drafts do have one thing in common, and that is who will be taken first overall my the Washington Nationals. Catcher Bryce Harper is the best offensive player we have seen come out of college in a while, and the fact that he hits for power from the catch position makes him a hot commodity. Joe Mauer didn't even receive this amount of coverage when he was about to be drafted, and honestly it could be hard for Harper to live up to that hype. What Harper will provide though, is a great catch to use in tandem with Stephen Strasburg for many years to come if they can both show they deserve to be on the big club.

The rest of the first round keeps shifting around what teams might want to see in their draft picks, and mock drafts continue to argue about who will be the second pick in the draft. The Pittsburgh Pirates have the second overall pick, and there are two players that they could have their eye on. The first is pitcher Jameson Taillon out of Texas and the second is shortstop Manny Machado out of Florida. Pittsburgh has been pretty silent on who they would go for, but if they take one of these two players, the Baltimore Orioles will take the second one with the third overall pick. If Pittsburgh surprises fans, then Baltimore will have to make a quick decision about whether they want Taillon or Machado more.

With the assumption that Taillon and Machado are off the board when the Kansas City Royals draft fourth, catcher Yasmani Grandal is a great pick for the Royals. He is a big guy behind the plate out of Miami, and would be a safe bet to make it up to the majors pretty quickly. The fifth pick will then be the Cleveland Indians, who will most likely go with a pitcher. They have two great choices at this spot, with Drew Pomeranz of Mississippi and Chris Sale of Florida Gulf Coast both available. They are both big left-handers that are proven, and it will be up to Cleveland to decide which one is a safer pick. The pitcher they pass on will most likely be taken by Arizona at the 6th overall pick, giving the Diamondbacks another really good pitcher in their minor league system.

After the first six picks in the 2010 MLB Draft, things get really tricky as teams will have to decide if they want to go for a more risky pitcher, or add someone with a great offensive up-side to their system. With the Mets, Astros, Padres, and Athletics rounding out the Top 10 picks, it's also hard to predict because all four teams need more prospects on both pitching and offense. Now the pick for Oakland is easy, because it will probably be Barrett Loux out of Texas A&M. They love drafting pitching and it just makes sense. If Loux is taken in the first six picks, look for Oakland to simply go after the top pitcher we haven't predicted at this point.

According to Keith Law at ESPN, he thinks that the Mets will go for Zack Cox, a third baseman for Arkansas. He then has Houston selecting outfielder Delino DeShields Jr. out of Woodward Academy, and then the San Diego Padres going with Kolbrin Vitek, a second baseman at Ball State. Those three offensive players are easy to predict because they have such a great up-side on offense. The people over at My MLB Draft have a different opinion about the 8 through 10 picks though, disagreeing with all three choices. They have: Houston taking Josh Sale, San Diego going with Michael Choice, and Oakland liking shortstop Christian Colon. Sale played 3B/OF at Bishop Blanchet High School in Washington, Choice was an outfielder for Texas-Arlington, and Colon was a shortstop for Cal-State Fullerton.

The differences in these draft predictions show that there are a number in indecisive teams as well as great players in the mix. Where the teams will go in the end is going to be determined later today, when the first round of the 2010 MLB Draft gets started on MLB Network at 4 p.m. PST (7 p.m. EST).