Inbox: Who is the second-best college pitcher in the Draft after Flora?

The old adage was "feed a cold, starve a fever." Not only is that bad medical advice, but we've definitely been feeding our Draft fever here at MLB Pipeline.

Just this week, we have a new mock Draft, courtesy of Jim Callis. We spent a lot of time talking Draft on this week's Pipeline Podcast, including breaking down the top prospects still competing in Super Regionals. (Question about that round of the NCAA playoffs below!) And I conducted a survey of scouting executives about a number of Draft questions, including who they think will go No. 1. The survey included a question that covers our first query in this week's Inbox, so let's get to it.

The question in the survey asked scouts who the best college pitcher is behind Flora (Draft No. 5), the Santa Barbara ace who has separated himself from all other arms and is the only pitcher I think we'd guarantee will go in the top 10 picks. In the survey, four different college pitchers got multiple votes. Coastal Carolina's Cameron Flukey (Draft No. 11) led the way with seven votes, while Florida right-hander Liam Peterson (Draft No. 14) received six. Mississippi's Cade Townsend (Draft No. 27) was chosen three times and Southern Cal's Mason Edwards (Draft No. 34) was the lone lefty to get more than one vote (he got two).

In other words, the "next up" category in this demographic is very much up in the air. I do think that if Flukey had been healthy all year -- a rib stress fracture limited him to just 24 innings -- he'd be firmly in the top 10, or at least top half of the first round. And it was unfortunate that a lengthy rain delay cut short his Regionals matchup against Florida State's Wes Mendes (Draft No. 40), so scouts' last look at him in competition was only 3 1/3 innings long. I know Arkansas lefty Hunter Dietz (Draft No. 15) has a lengthy injury history, but I'm a little surprised he hasn't floated up a bit more firmly, and it wouldn't shock me if we look back and see that he's that SP2 behind Flora.

As Jim mentioned in his mock, the Tigers have taken high school left-handed hitters who can potentially play up the middle with their past five first-round or supplemental first-round picks. So it can be argued they have a type. I had them taking Trevor Condon (Draft No. 22) in my mock as a result of that, while Jim threw a similar dart with NorCal prep shortstop Archer Horn (Draft No. 67). The last time they took anything but a high school hitter was 2022, when Jace Jung (a left-handed-hitting college infielder) was their choice at No. 12. One should never say never when it comes to the Draft, especially when picking at No. 22., but unless we get specific intel otherwise, you're likely going to see prep left-handed hitters (or switch-hitters) in this spot in mock drafts.

I'm actually heading to West Virginia on Saturday for Game 2 of the Super Regional between WVU and Cal Poly, but that's just for fun and if I picked that, there would be some proximity bias at play. Like I was last weekend, I'll be trying to keep an eye on all the action, but if you're asking me to pick just one, I'm leaning towards Southern Cal vs. North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Is part of me doing that just so I don't give Callis the satisfaction of picking his Georgia Bulldogs Super Regional? I can neither confirm nor deny that. But I'm also really curious to see how Edwards bounces back after a subpar performance in Regional play against a Tar Heels lineup that features three Top 200 prospects in it.

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I didn't want to go 100 percent Draft content with the Inbox, and I think we've all been following Isaac's progress after his incredible return from life-saving brain surgery. Just seeing him on the field at all has been tremendous to see. And in many ways, he's back to being the same player he always was: Huge raw power, big swing-and-miss. Yes, he had a 40.5 percent K rate in April, followed by a more palatable 27.3 percent last month. That equates to 33.0 percent for the year, not that far off from his career rate (28.3) and in sync with what he did in 2024 (33.3), the first time he reached Double-A. The power is real -- he's tied for second in the Southern League with his 12 homers -- and he does indeed offset the K's somewhat with a lot of walks (almost 20 percent rate). He might be a three true outcomes type, but I also think this year is about him getting a full season of healthy reps more than anything else, and we'll be able to fully assess where he is as a prospect in 2027, when he'll hopefully be ready to knock on the big league door.