I would likely avoid the short-season leagues.  If I am willing to invest a first-round pick on a college player, I want him playing High-A ball for me.  As a GM, if I thought he was worth a early to mid first round pick, I would think he's up to the challenge of High-A ball.

Long term, sounds like 1B is his likely destination.  I'd probaly keep him at 3B to start, just to see if there was any hope of him sticking there.

I'm praying the Giants get him at #10.  So what if he plays 1B.  When was the last time the Giants had a power hitting first baseman?  Anyway, I'd have him on a similar track as Tim Lincecum last year.  1-2 weeks at Salem-Keizer.  If he rakes there, move him right up to San Jose for the rest of the summer.  Hopefully AA in 2008.  Who knows?  Maybe he could be like Will Clark and move straight from the Cal League his first summer to the majors?

Much as I want the Giants to draft him, I have to say that mug looks frighteningly similar to Todd Linden's.

i'd put him at a lower level... keep his confidence high instead of rushing him into a level of competition he has not really seen before.

Since I'm a Pirates fan, that'd be Hickory in the Sally League. Seems like a good compromise.

mills had a huge day in the NAIA championship game, homering 3 times and driving in 8 to lead lewis-clark st to the title. the 3rd homer (his 38th of the season) broke the NAIA record for HR in a season.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/college/?p=160

I'm even higher on Mills than most and consider him (along with Price and Weiters) to be the surest bet as a MFL contributor. I'd probably let him get his feet wet in Low A, but be quick to pull the trigger and move him to High A in 2007 if he performs as expected. Perhaps as soon as a few weeks in. One of the chief knocks on Mills has been the strength of his competition, so as a GM I'd want to bury those doubts by putting him up against age-appropriate competition ASAP. Mills turns 21 on 08/15/07. The long-term goal is to start at AA in 2008, and perhaps earn a cup of coffee in September '08. His bat is going to move FAST! His position might depends more on the organization that drafts him. He's not graceful at 3B, but his defense improved significantly over the course of the season, and he could possibly be a league-average defender with a lot of work over there. For a team like the Nationals, though, his glove is never going to dislodge Zimmerman, so an immediate move to 1B may be the best course. I think Mills is a particularly good fit for PIT, BAL, and WAS early on. SF will definately take him off the board at #10 if he makes it that far.

Wow, the above is really hard to read. Let's try this:

I'm even higher on Mills than most and consider him (along with Price and Weiters) to be the surest bet as a MFL contributor. I'd probably let him get his feet wet in Low A, but be quick to pull the trigger and move him to High A in 2007 if he performs as expected. Perhaps as soon as a few weeks in. One of the chief knocks on Mills has been the strength of his competition, so as a GM I'd want to bury those doubts by putting him up against age-appropriate competition ASAP. Mills turns 21 on 08/15/07. The long-term goal is to start at AA in 2008, and perhaps earn a cup of coffee in September '08. His bat is going to move FAST!

His position might depends more on the organization that drafts him. I think he's close enough to the majors that you have to take positional needs into consideration here. He's not graceful at 3B, but his defense improved significantly over the course of the season, and he could possibly be a league-average defender with a lot of work over there. For a team like the Nationals, though, his glove is never going to dislodge Zimmerman, so an immediate move to 1B may be the best course.

I think Mills is a particularly good fit for PIT, BAL, and WAS early on. SF will definately take him off the board at #10 if he makes it that far.

Start him at Low A after the draft, start him at High A in 2008, then bump him to AA by June if he's raking. May as well put him at 1B and just let him mash away.

i would put him in short season ball (either the New York-Penn League or the Northwest League) for a couple of weeks like the rays did with longoria last year and then see where he is at.

If Beau Mills was to become a first baseman is he really any better than Matt LaPorta? Laporta had more home runs (20) than strikeouts (16) this year. He also led the nation in OBP and OPS while playing in the SEC. That's seriously impressive performance at a level where stats have some meaning.

I'm not going to argue that Mills NAIA stats have no meaning. He certainly was impressive. But I'd have a hard time believing that the Division I OPS leader would take a backseat regarding production to anything a lower level college division player might do.

NAIA uses wood bats, right?

(N/T)

Anyone know how many of Mills' walks were intentional? I haven't been able to find stats anywhere, just curious because he'd seem a very likely target for an intentional pass playing in the NAIA. No doubt he can mash, just wondering if he's really able to work the count, or can just flat out hit anything like Vlad. (And by Vlad I mean the guy on the Angels, not the previous poster.)

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18446967&BRD=1699&PAG=461&dept_id=46370&rf i=6

Indians scouting director John Mirabelli says that Beau Mills "will be assigned to the Indians' rookie level team at Mahoning Valley initially."

So there's the answer.