I think the respective starts for Marrero and Fontana have opened up the debate for top college shortstop prospect in all the land. As a long-time Marrero doubter – first round, sure, but top five? Craziness! – you can probably guess where I stand on the issue. After those two big names, the field is wide open. I’d imagine many would have one of the ACC prospects as the third man at the top. The perpetually underrated Perez and rock steady Taylor are both fine candidates, but my long-standing allegiance to the other Virginia infielder is the pick. The big question from the opposite side of the country comes when trying to place Oregon State’s breakout star Tyler Smith. I’ll be honest: in my pre-season ranking of these exact players, Smith ranked ahead of only the since unfollowed (as in he’s fallen off my personal 2012 draft follow list) Villanova’s Marlon Calbi. That’s obviously not much of an endorsement, but what to do with Smith now that he’s started the year hitting .463/.527/.575? How much weight do 80 at bats have? Coming into the year my notes on Smith were short and sweet: “defensively versatile up the middle, well above-average at both SS and 2B, good arm strength, above-average speed though not necessarily a base stealer, whole-field line drive approach with power to the gaps, mid- to late-round utility future.” Not much has changed from a tools standpoint, but seeing him put it all together, even if only in a small sample, is encouraging. For reference’s sake, he hit .230/.389/.265 in 113 park/schedule adjusted at bats last year. I honestly have no clue how high he can fly between now and June, but I’d make a tentative guess that he could catch the single digit rounds at the rate he is going.

• Alabama SR SS Jared Reaves
• Arizona JR SS Alex Mejia
• Arizona State JR SS Deven Marrero
• Arkansas rSR SS Tim Carver
• Florida JR SS Nolan Fontana
• Florida JR SS Cody Dent
• Florida State JR SS Justin Gonzalez
• Georgia JR SS Kyle Farmer
• Louisiana State SR SS Austin Nola
• Maryland SR SS Alfredo Rodriguez
• Miami JR SS Stephen Perez
• Michigan JR SS Derek Dennis
• Mississippi SR SS Blake Newalu
• NC State JR SS Chris Diaz
• NC State JR SS Matt Bergquist
• Oklahoma SR SS Caleb Bushyhead
• Oregon JR SS JJ Altobelli
• Oregon State JR SS Tyler Smith
• Oregon State SR SS Ryan Dunn
• Tennessee SR SS Zach Osborne
• Texas A&M JR SS Mikey Reynolds
• Vanderbilt JR SS Anthony Gomez
• Virginia JR SS Chris Taylor
• Virginia JR SS Stephen Bruno
• Wake Forest JR SS Pat Blair