I like our day three overall, even though most of these guys will never make an impact. Real late, we seemed to go high ceiling, even though its unlikely any of those guys become Nationals this year.
Simms in the 11th was solid. He has been very good as a starter and reliever for Rice, but I dont think his stuff has developed as expected. His velocity hasn't picked up much since high school, but he still knows how to get people out.
11th rounder Andrew Cooper is another kid from Canada, that headed went the JuCo route. He's small for a righty, and haven't found out much about his raw stuff. But he apparently was a SS in high school and became a pitcher at the JuCo level, so he still has a lot of growth left to do, and still had a good season in the California JC ranks. Only K'd 56 in 99 innings, but was 13-3 with a 2.65 ERA. I dont know if there is extreme upside with his game, but he is definitely a work in progress still. He hit 20 batters(!) and had 13 wild pitches this year. So there are some definite control issues to work out, which could be ironed out with more consistent mechanics and work on his secondary pitches(speculation on my part, based on inexperience).
13th round John Costa underwent Tommy John surgery a few months ago, so he's another guy drafted even moreso on potential than polished skills now. He K'd 14 guys in 13 innings before going down with the injury. Seeing as he probably won't be ready to start the 2014 college season, I would imagine he takes the money to sign and get rehab under professional supervision.
14th round SS DAvid Masters originally went to Arkansas before heading to JuCo. He was drafted in the 50th round out of HS. Just off stats and a couple vague scouting reports, looks more like a mostly glove guy with an average bat. Can play any of the infield positions, but would likely start out at SS.
16th round OF Willie Allen has some interesting numbers. Same JC as Randolph Oduber. Hit .362 with 11 HR's and 21/23 on steals. 27/37 walk/K ratio in 49 games. Ranked 339 by Baseball America, drafted 496. Not much other than that that I could find.
20th round OF Brenton Allen out of UCLA is another intriguing option. He was drafted in the 9th round out of HS, despite his commitment to UCLA. He's got good bloodlines as his brother played football at Notre Dame and in the NFL. He went to Gahr HS, which is in the league I played in in HS(of course, he was there 10 years after I was). Gahr players are well versed in small ball, but he also had the athleticism and power/speed potential. The physical tools are there. But, he never lived up to the hype at UCLA. Didn't play regularly until this year, and only hit .247 with 34 K's in 38 games. He won't get much money to sign, so it's a worthwhile gamble that he could figure it out. He may return to UCLA though, in hopes of improving his stock and possibly graduating.
We took some extremely talented guys who fell in the draft, but it would appear no chance to sign them. Garrett Hampson, Bryce Harman, Andrew Dunlap, and Shaun Anderson all appeared to be top 10 round talents and likely to head off to school. Hampson and Harman could've been top 3 round guys.
Karsten Whitson did turn down $2.1mill out of HS(cough:idiot:cough). He played extremely well as a freshman, but was limited as a sophomore due to forearm tendinitis. Missed his entire junior year with shoulder surgery. Luckily, only an impingement and no the labrum or rotator cuff. Extremely unlikely to sign because we won't be able to give him any substantial money. Not likely to get that $2mill back either, considering his injury history in college, and he'll be a year older than the typical junior draftee.
So we took a number of talented but risky guys on day three. Quite a few will not sign. But I do like the idea of swinging for the fences with a lot of the picks. Most of the time these picks don't pan out anyway, so might as well gamble on the supremely talented kids that haven't quite put it together or injured ones.
