The Kansas City Royals are going to be linked to a number of polished college pitchers in the 2012 MLB Draft as it gets closer to the first round and the team's No. 5 overall selection. Given the plethora of big hitters still to make it to the majors and the lack of upper division arms that project well to the Major Leagues, the team is likely to go with someone like Louisiana State's Kevin Gausman or Stanford's Mark Appel -- if such players are still available.
MLB.com's Jonathan Mayo has the team taking Kyle Zimmer from the University of San Francisco at No. 5 in his latest mock draft. He writes, "College pitchers still seem to be the focus for the Royals. If Appel, Gausman and Zimmer are all gone, Kansas City could change course and look at Fried."
Zimmer was recently profiled by our own Matt Hays who wrote, "Zimmer, who really only has been pitching full-time for two seasons, is 6'4" and 220 lbs. His fastball will hit 99, and he also has a solid curveball to go with it."
Mayo also has Zimmer as a real possibility at No. 4 to the Baltimore Orioles.
Make sure to head over to Royals Review for more draft talk in the coming week.