The MLB 1st year player draft concluded today with rounds 31-50. As I expected their were some very big surprises throughout the draft. Some guys fell much further than expected (Cox) while others were taken much higher than originally thought (Loux). My mock draft, as I assumed, pegged only 5 guys completely correct, with 7 guys getting drafted by the team I originally had them going to. The Rangers definitely made some surprise picks in the early rounds. It was quite obvious early that they were working with a well defined budget, and had a plan of how to work with that budget. Let's take a look at the Rangers top picks:
1.15 Josh Skole, OF, Blessed Trinity High School (GA)- Skole is an extremely toolsy OF who has drawn Grady Sizemore comparisons. He has signed with Georgia Tech to play Safety on the football team and CF for the baseball team. This was a genius pick by the front office when taking into account the budget. Because of Skole's football scholarship the Rangers are able to spread Skole's signing bonus out over a 5 year span, thus saving us money for this year. Skole was considered an easy sign, and in fact has already signed a contract and will be in Arizona working out next week.
Skole was injured for almost the entire season with an ankle injury and only played 6 games in the playoffs. His stats for the 6 games: 452 avg, 6 home runs, 21 RBI's. Skole was clocked at 4.48 in the 40 yd dash and is considered an outstanding athlete who consistently drives the baseball. The Rangers insist Skole was not a signability pick, but was in fact on top of their draft board. Daniels believes that had Skole not been injured all year he would have gone in the top 15 picks. Skole had more helium in the weeks leading up to the draft than any other player and was even rumored to be a possibly Bluejay target at #11.
1.22 Kellin Deglan, C, R.E. Mountain Secondary School (British Columbia)- Deglan is a rare high school catching prospect from Canada. High school catchers are by the far the riskiest position to draft in the first round. However, Deglan is considered to be an advanced catcher both at the plate and behind it. Deglan has excellent pop times at just under 2 seconds and is considered quite athletic behind the plate. He is a lefty hitter who drives the ball, but is more of a line drive hitter at this point of his career. Deglan has played for the Canadian U-18 international team in tournaments all over the world and has looked very good. The Rangers are very high on his leadership and makeup and believe he can be an above average catcher in the major leagues. Deglan has already signed a contract with the Rangers which is reported at just under 1 Mil, or slightly under-slot.
1-supp (45) Luke Jackson, P, Calvary Christian Academy (FLA)- Jackson, 6'2 180, is another guy who had a lot of helium coming into draft day. He was originally considered a 4-6 round pick but shot up the draft boards and was being connected to multiple teams in the supplemental round and 2nd round. Jackson is relatively raw, having not started pitching or playing baseball full-time until the 9th grade. Jackson sits between 91-94 and touched 96 this year. His curveball and changeup are still inconsistent, but most prep pitchers are. Jackson may be a tougher sign than the first two with his University of Miami commit.
1-supp (49) Mike Olt, 3B, University of Connecticut- Olt has awesome power having set the UConn school record with 48 career homers as well as winning the Big East's 1st Home Run Derby. Olt, a former shortstop, is also considered to be an outstanding defensive player at the hot corner. His biggest weakness is his ability to make consistent contact having struck out 54 times in 264 AB's in a relatively weaker conference up north. Olt's profile resembles that of last years 2nd round pick Tommy Mendonca very strongly. The Rangers have spent picks in the top 2 rounds on 3B 4 times in the past 5 years (Olt, Mendonca, Matt West, Johnny Wittleman) hoping one of them pans out. The other 3 haven't shown much improvement at all this year. Maybe Olt will be the breakout 3B the team is looking for.
Others of note:
2.22 Cody Buckel, P, Royal HS (CAL)- Undersized pitcher out of California sits 92-94 and has decent movement. His biggest selling point is that he has control over 3 breaking pitches: curveball, changeup, and cutter. Buckel is considered somewhat of an overdraft, but the Rangers like undersized pitchers (Kiker, Ross, Erlin), and his mix of breaking pitches could get him to the bigs.
3.22 Jordan Aikins, OF, Union Grove HS (GA)- Aikins is considered the best athlete out of Georgia this year (which means a lot). He signed with Central Florida to play WR and CF and is considered by most to be a difficult sign. Aikins is somewhat raw, but has a plus arm, plus speed and good bat speed. There was a report out today saying Aikins is actually leaning towards signing with Texas rather than playing football which would be a nice steal for Texas.
5.22 Justin Grimm, P, University of Georgia- Grimm, 6'4" 195, was the closer for a bad Georgia team. Grimm has excellent stuff including a fastball that sits around 95. He also is very wild and has been extremely inconsistent at Georgia posting a career 5.8 era. If Grimm can harness his stuff he could be a solid reliever down the road.
7.22 James Reyes, P, Elon College- Reyes is another undersized pitcher at 5'10", but was dominant at times at Elon. His lefthanded sinker sits between 88-91 and has tons of movement. Early in the year he was overthrowing it which caused it to lose movement which made him less effective. He could be an interesting guy to watch.
9.22 Zach Osborne, P, Louisiana Layfayette- Osborne was the top starter for a solid ULL team. He shut out Rice 1-0 in his only regional start and obviously has pretty good stuff.
18.22 Garrett Buechele, 3B, Oklahoma- Garrett is the son of former Ranger 3B and current Frisco manager Steve Buechele. Garrett is the top hitter for an Oklahoma team who is competing in the super regional this weekend hitting 16 home runs this year.
30.22 Brian Ragira, OF, Arlington Martin HS (TEX)- Ragira is one of the best prep power hitters this year. He is considered a near impossible sign with a very strong commitment to Stanford. If there was any way we could talk him out of that, our draft would instantly look a lot better. Ragira is expected to be a 1st rounder in 2013.
The draft could have gone better for the Rangers had they had the money they usually have. However, considering the circumstances, the Rangers did an excellent job in the draft grabbing multiple guys with extremely high upside. It's no secret the Rangers love athletes and they added a couple top of the line athletes in Skole, Aikins, and even Deglan when factoring in his position. Time will tell how good this draft really was.
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