Athletics Nation Community Prospect List #7

In a very close race, coming down to just 2 votes, Sonny Gray grabs the #6 spot, with Grant Green falling just short.

Making the voting this round to compete is Nolan Sanburn, a RHP.

From our good friend John Sickels' Minor League Ball;

Oakland drafted University of Arkansas right-hander Nolan Sanburn in the second round this year, 74^th overall. He was a reliever on a deep college pitching staff, but the Athletics are planning to develop him as a starting pitcher. He made his first start last Friday for Vermont in the New York-Penn League, throwing two shutout innings for the Lake Monsters, fanning two and allowing two hits.

Sanburn isn't a tall guy, listed at 6-1, 205, but there's nothing short about his arm: he's been clocked as high as 99 MPH and should work well in the low-to-mid-90s as a starter. He has a power curveball and a cutter/slider. The key now is refining a changeup but the organization feels he has the aptitude to develop it.

One thing in particular that I like about Sanburn: he's a very good athlete who was mainly a position player in high school. I like pitchers with two-way backgrounds.

The Rules:

• Vote for the candidate you like in the poll below. The winning vote getter at the end of the week will go up on the board, and a new slot will open up to take his place.
• Each week, I will take the top rec'd commented nomination and put him on the list. That means that after the first 5 prospects are put up, it will be you, AN, who chooses who gets up on the board next. So do your research.
• Each prospect coming up each week will have a bio to introduce him, written by some of AN's front page editorial crew! So look forward to that.
• In the very likely case of a trade, incoming prospects will be put up to a vote for where they rank between current people on the list. Outgoing prospects will be crossed out, and everyone moved up.
• If you want to check out Bio's of prospects on the list, check out the previous threads