Innholdsfortegnelse for June 29, 2018 i Baseball America

The Giants don’t often pick in the top 10 very often, but when they do they have an enviable track record in the draft. Just four times this century have the Giants picked a player in the top 10. The worst of those four picks is righthander Zack Wheeler, who went sixth overall in 2009 and never suited up for the Giants—but he landed Carlos Beltran in trade. The other three are a big reason the Giants have three World Series trophies this decade. San Francisco picked righthander Tim Lincecum (10th, 2006), lefthander Madison Bumgarner (10th, 2007) and catcher Buster Posey (fifth, 2008). “What’s made us successful (when picking in the top 10) is that we are picking guys who will do the work. They get themselves to the big…

SAN DIEGO PADRES Righthander Chris Paddack waited 22 months to show off his reconstructed elbow after having Tommy John surgery in August 2016. The initial report? The 22-year-old was better than ever. Paddack opened the year with 24.2 scoreless innings after reporting to high Class A Lake Elsinore in late April. Though he allowed eight runs in 10 innings over his final two starts in May, his return was eye-opening. Paddack struck out 70 batters through 42.1 innings, while allowing just 32 hits and three walks. The resulting 0.83 WHIP prompted some to wonder just when the Padres might have to bump him to Double-A San Antonio. “The balance is trying to find a level where he has a little bit of adversity and a little bit of success,”…

@TRACYRINGOLSBY During his senior year in high school, Bobby Meacham was on a recruiting visit to San Diego State, sitting in the office of baseball coach Jim Dietz, when Tony Gwynn walked down the hall. “Is that Tony Gwynn?” Meacham asked Dietz. Dietz said it was. “I didn’t know Tony was on the team,” Meacham said. “He isn’t,” Dietz said. “He’s on the basketball team.” “He’s the best baseball player I ever played against,” Meacham said. Meacham, who attended Mater Dei High in Santa Ana, Calif., and Gwynn, who attended Long Beach Poly High, played against each other, both during the school year and in summer leagues. “He loved basketball,” said Meacham, a shortstop who spent six seasons in the majors with the Yankees and today manages Triple-A Buffalo for…

In Secaucus, N.J., Commissioner Rob Manfred stepped to the podium at about 7:30 p.m. on June 4 to announce who the Reds selected with the fifth overall pick of the draft. At the same time, 1,000 miles away in Gainesville, Fla., Florida third baseman Jonathan India was taking the field to start the fifth inning of a regional final against Florida Atlantic. “With the fifth selection of the 2018 MLB draft, the Cincinnati Reds select Jonathan India,” Manfred announced. “Jonathan is the third baseman from the University of Florida in Gainesville, Fla.” India didn’t hear anything the Commissioner said. He was busy taking ground balls at third base. What India did eventually hear was a fan yelling from the stands that the Reds had drafted him. “I wasn’t trying to…

Wilson’s stable of brands is making a return to the College World Series and its plans are bigger than ever. Wilson—which hasn’t had a presence in Omaha during the vendor-filled event for a few years while it was been busy acquiring EvoShield and Louisville Slugger to go with its main Wilson and DeMarini brands—is attempting to make a splash with its return to the event. Wilson is converting The Bullpen, which is part of the Omaha Baseball Village across from TD Ameritrade Park, home of the CWS. In an area that gets blocked off and filled with a stage for music, food and countless vendors, Wilson has taken one of the only buildings—it has air conditioning to boot—and filled it with the latest in gear. “It will be unlike anything…

Not only was Oregon State’s Nick Madrigal not a prototype pick at No. 4 overall, but the 5-foot-7 shortstop wasn’t even a prototype White Sox pick. Chicago focused on college sluggers with their first-round picks in 2016 and 2017, when they took Zack Collins and Jake Burger. No one will confuse Madrigal with Collins or Burger, and—at least for a time—White Sox scouting director Nick Hostetler would not have considered Madrgial that high on the board. “I think going into the process, the first thing in my mind was: We can’t take a 5-foot-7 guy,” Hostetler said a few days after the draft. “But then you start to watch him play … (He) changed my mind immediately.” While Madrigal might not be a big deal in the literal sense, what…

When Eric Borba first heard that Cole Winn would potentially be transferring to his program, he wasn’t sure what to think. Initially, he didn’t even know the name of the uber-talented Colorado righthander who was pondering a move to the most prestigious region in the country for high school baseball. “I got a call from my assistant coach about late July,” said Borba, the head coach of Orange (Calif.) Lutheran High. “It was about a week before the Area Code [Games] and he just said, ‘Hey, there’s a pitcher from Colorado who is potentially going to be coming out to OLu.’ I said, ‘What’s his name?’ He didn’t even know it at the time.” It took no time at all for Borba and the rest of the program to realize…

#MFRA EDGAR CABRAL PHILADELPHIA The Phillies have a long line of elite defensive catchers, from Mike Lieberthal to Carlos Ruiz and now to Jorge Alfaro. The 22-year-old Cabral follows in the same vein. An unknown 11th-round draft pick from Mt. San Antonio (Calif.) JC in 2015, Cabral has overcome his lack of pedigree with a top-notch defensive skillset behind the plate. He was named the best defensive catcher in the Phillies system before the year and owns above-average arm. With Cabral behind the plate, high Class A Clearwater’s staff ranks second in the Florida State League in strikeouts. 2018 CAPTAIN’S CATCHER AWARD WATCH LIST MOVE FORWARD RISE ABOVE™…

The Dominican Summer League is a level filled with sleeper prospects and potential breakout candidates. While prospects in the DSL are seemingly far away from the big leagues, several players on this list have already come up in trade discussions, with some of them having already been traded. Xander Bogaerts, Carlos Martinez, Orlando Arcia, Manuel Margot, Jorge Alfaro, Antonio Senzatela, Ronald Torreyes, Jeimer Candelario, Francis Martes, Victor Robles, Estevan Florial, Jesus Sanchez, Franklin Perez, Andres Gimenez and Jorge Mateo, among others, all ranked as top prospects in the DSL after playing in the league as teenagers. To qualify for this ranking of prospects who played in the DSL in 2017, a hitter must have had at least 60 plate appearances and a pitcher must have thrown at least 20 innings.…

The normal rhythm of the draft process is that teams cast a wide net at the start of the season, then cull names to winnow the pool to a core group of players to dissect and discuss in preparation for their first-round pick. That didn’t happen this year for the Royals. They picked 18th, 33rd, 38th, 40th and 58th. In a draft with a clear top prospect—Auburn righthander Casey Mize—but little clarity after that, and four picks in the top 40, the Royals had few players they could move on from as the draft neared. Their net remained wide. So the Royals’ scouts, crosscheckers and special assistants piled up the miles bouncing around the country, seeing almost everyone. “You travel more,” Royals scouting director Lonnie Goldberg said. “All of our…

The Baseball America end-of-season High School All-America Teams are selected by BA staff after consulting with scouts and high school coaches. In keeping with the BA tradition of looking at both the present and future, players are honored for both their production and their tools. In practical terms, that means a number of high school first-rounders fail to make our all-America teams each year. This year, the first-round omissions include outfielder Jarred Kelenic (Mets, sixth overall), shortstop Matt McLain (D-backs, 25th), righthander Mason Denaburg (Nationals, 27th), catcher Noah Naylor (Indians, 29th) and righthander Ethan Hankins (Indians, 35th). FIRST TEAM C ANTHONY SEIGLER SCHOOL: Cartersville (Ga.) HS THE SKINNY: The Yankees’ first-round pick is a switch-hitting catcher who can also switch-pitch. Seigler is a standout at the plate with solid bat-to-ball…

What the draft teaches us is that if you want to be selected, be a pitcher. Major league organizations need arms, and they always will. Of the 1,214 players selected in the 2018 draft, 54 percent were pitchers. Specifically, they were righthanded pitchers, who accounted for 41 percent of all players drafted. On the other hand, amateur first basemen and second basemen face long odds of being drafted, largely because teams expect that many of their future first and second basemen will begin their professional careers at more difficult defensive positions. Just 33 first basemen were drafted in 40 rounds this year. DRAFTEES BY STATE California continues to be the state that produces the most draftees, but Florida is steadily gaining on the Golden State. This year, 149 players were…

@STEVERUSHIN Because it’s called a draft, and involves several rounds, and draws customers from Busch Stadium and Miller Park and Coors Field, the three-day bender known as the Major League Baseball amateur draft might easily be mistaken for a 72-hour pub crawl, especially after the defending champion Astros selected, with their first pick, one Seth Beer. The morning after the first round, baseball fans woke to highlights of a young woman at a Padres game catching a foul ball in her beer cup at Petco Park and then—in what is becoming a custom at ballparks everywhere—chugging the beer with the ball still in it. Top notes of cowhide, mouthfeel of pine tar, bouquet of Lena Blackburne rubbing mud. Jason Day hit a ball into a fan’s beer at the Masters…