Top 100 prospects

[Butcher]

<!--quoteo(post=20169:date=Feb 25 2009, 11:52 AM:name=BT)-->QUOTE (BT @ Feb 25 2009, 11:52 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec--><!--quoteo(post=20152:date=Feb 25 2009, 10:13 AM:name=Butcher)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Butcher @ Feb 25 2009, 10:13 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->Anyway, Vitters will probably be pretty good (knock on wood), but you should never draft to fill a position on the field -- you just take the best guy available (which wasn't Vitters).<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

You say that now. Look at the scouting reports I put up earlier. There were plenty of people that thought Vitters was a better prospect than Wieters. One was the best high school hitter, and one was the best college hitter. Wieters could end up better, but you simply can't say the Cubs decided NOT to take the "best guy available", when at the time they easily could have thought Vitters WAS the best guy available.
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Because the draft is such an inexact science, you try and eliminate as much risk and guesswork as possible. A college player is much closer to the finished product than a high school player. So, if a high school hitter and a college hitter are both projecting about the same, and they are both available, then you take the college hitter.