Rich Poythress has been swinging in his backyard batting cage since he was 9. The fence he's been reaching for all these years looms right in front of him.

"It's a lifelong dream and exciting," said the Greenbrier and Georgia star from Grovetown about the Major League Baseball amateur draft that starts Tuesday night. "It's really hard to find the words. It's almost a surreal type feeling and I'll probably have to wait for it to get here to describe it."

Poythress will soon become the second member of his family drafted into baseball, as his father Richard was a 26th-round selection by the Chicago Cubs in 1973 and played a couple seasons of minor-league ball.

In a 2009 draft noted for its depth in pitching talent, the right-handed Poythress is a rare commodity -- a proven collegiate power hitter to all fields. Dave Perno, his coach at Georgia, thinks the next step won't come too hard as his power continues to develop as he matures with a wooden bat in his hand.

"For him with the solid approach that he has and the strike zone discipline, I don't think it's going to be that big an adjustment for him," Perno said.

But projecting talent might be the most inexact science in sports. Albert Pujols was drafted 402nd overall in the 13th round of the 1999 draft before quickly becoming the best first baseman in baseball.

There's an aspect to the entire draft process that is often demeaning. Terse scouting reports carve players up like livestock. It would be hard for any young man not to take some of the harsh critiques personally.

The analysis of the 6-foot-4 Poythress on MLB.com tends to linger on the negative in assessing him as a one-trick power pony -- below-average speed ... adequate, at best, at first ... one-step range ... average bat speed.

It's startling considering Poythress won a gold glove as the top defensive first baseman in the country.

"It's all over the board," said his father of the varying draft predictions. "His mother and I look at some of this stuff online and you wonder who are these people and if they've ever seen him play."

Poythress didn't obsess about the critics when his stock started soaring along with his batting stats this spring or when they questioned his numbers after a succession of modest Friday performances against the SEC's prime pitching.

Rumors raged over the last month with Poythress's value ranging anywhere from a first- to third-rounder. Interest in his power numbers seems centered in places like Boston and Seattle. Expectations are that Poythress will be one of the top 49 players plucked in either the first or supplemental round.

"I think he's one of the best, if not the best, college hitters in the country," Perno said. "I think he can go as high as the first or low as the third. Either way he's going to get a great and well-deserved opportunity."

Poythress has come a long way from being undrafted out of high school to a potential first-rounder. He emerged as a rising star his sophomore season after fully recovering from knee surgery. Protecting 2008 first-rounder Gordon Beckham in the clean-up spot of the batting order, he helped lead the Bulldogs within one victory of a national title at the College World Series.

All eyes were on him this season as Georgia earned its first in-season No. 1 ranking and Poythress was delivering even bigger numbers at the plate.

"You just wanted to see him follow up what he did after last year and do it without Gordon Beckham hitting in front of him," Perno said.

Poythress finished his junior year with a .376 batting average, 25 home runs and a school-record 86 RBI -- the first player in Georgia history to post two seasons with 70 or more RBI. Twice this season he had three-homer games, including the first game of the NCAA regional in Tallahassee, Fla., against Ohio State.

"The home runs, RBI, batting average the last two years has just been so steady and very consistent," Perno said.

"You never expect anybody to put together two years like he's put together. It's just really remarkable."

His success generated plenty of recognition, including the SEC's All-Defensive team and a Louisville Slugger second-team All-American.

Poythress was considered a can't-miss kid through April when he and the Bulldogs were still ranked No. 1.

"Rich is officially hot," said Perno after Poythress's first three-homer game against Kennesaw State gave him the national lead in RBI. "He's on fire right now and I tip my hat to him. It's hard to find a better complete hitter."

He was among the SEC's top two in eight statistical categories.

"The beginning of SEC play through the middle was definitely the best baseball I've played since I've been here," Poythress said. "It was a lot of fun and easy because all nine of us in the lineup were doing well and our pitchers were throwing well. You have all those things working and it takes the pressure off of you and makes it easy."

Georgia, however, slumped into the postseason, losing eight in a row and 11 of their last 13 before the SEC Tournament. Not coincidentally, Poythress's draft stock started getting questioned after a couple of Friday misfires against what is typically the SEC's best pitching days.

"It's been a rough three weeks," Poythress admitted. "We just haven't put it all together. We've struggled from every aspect the last few weeks. But that's part of the game. It's a game of failures and your ability to handle those failures and make adjustments."

Poythress has already proven he's capable of making the transition to wooden bats, as he was named a starter in the Cape Cod League All-Star game last summer after leading Orleans with a robust .476 on-base percentage before a wrist injury curtailed his summer-league season.

"That's as good a baseball (league) as you can play," he said of the storied wooden-bat summer league. "It's similar to pro-ball type setting. The ability to experience things and more games and at bats you get under your belt the better baseball player you're going to be."

While Poythress would have the option of returning to Georgia if the MLB draft doesn't go as planned, that's unlikely.

"I don't think he's coming back," Perno said with a laugh. "He doesn't have anything else to prove in college. There's 31 pro teams and at least one of them is going to recognize his abilities and give him a fair shake."

His parents, who have attended every one of his games from Dixie Youth World Series to the College World Series, are ready to see where baseball will take them next.

"It's gone by just way too fast," Richard Poythress said of his son's collegiate career. "He's given us an awful lot of fond memories. It's hard to talk about, I swear. His whole career has been pretty awesome and he's fixin' to go to another level, let's hope. Rich knows getting drafted is just one step, but a big one."