Baseball Draft Day Two

As the Seattle Mainers are getting ready to play the Astros in Houston day two of the baseball draft ended several minutes ago for the Mariners. Like I have said I don’t know much about the players who the Mariners have drafted or will draft.

Day two is interesting look at the players they took round three thru ten. All have one thing in common they played college ball so no high schoolers so far. What is uncommon large school programs and small schools as well. The Mariners not only drafted pitchers they went for position players that have played up the middle. Other words they drafted two catchers, one shortstop and a centerfielder.

So a summary of the players that they choose in rounds three thru ten. They started off by drafting Cal Raleigh catcher for Florida State. He started all three years at FSU however like most of the Mariner draft picks he improved his junior year. His bat is mentioned as his strength over his defense but I am sure he will get some good coaching on how to play the position. I am sure like the others the Mariners like his potential. Also he is a switch-hitter which is a good thing as well. It isn’t easy to find a left handed hitting catcher so someone who can hit both ways is a plus as well. How fast he moves up the farm system we will have to see. The key to is that he stays away from injuries as well. The second catcher the Mariners took was Jake Anchia out of Nova Southeastern University which is in Florida as well. The scouts mentioned that he would go in the first ten rounds of the draft and the Mariners selected him in the seventh round. His father Miguel immigrated from Cuba when he was twelve years old so Jake was born and raised in Miami. He is another player who can rise above his circumstances. Something the Mariners brass like very much.

Between the two catchers the Mariners drafted three pitchers. In the fourth round they picked Michael Plassmeyer out of University of Missouri. He is known for his pinpoint control. We will have to see how that works on the professional level. Another plus he throws left handed which the Mariners can really use in the system. He was followed by right handed pitcher Nolan Hoffman out of Texas A & M. He is another pitcher that the Mariners drafted that is tall. He has played only one season at A&M after pitching junior college ball for two years. He became the closer for them. He had a record of 4-1 with 1.24 era. He pitched in thirty-two games going fifty-one innings while striking out 51 batters. Also he only gave up one home run for the season. Scouts figure he could be a long reliever or close in the majors. The Mariners could turn him into a starter as well.

The most interesting pick so far in the draft by the Mariners is the seventh round pick Joey O’Brien. He actually was born in Japan and came to USA go to college to play baseball. His father is American while his mother is Japanese. Another part of the story that makes it all interesting is that he can hit as well like another Japanese player that the Mariners went after during the last off-season in Ohtani. We will have to see what the Mariners have planned for him though he was listed as a pitcher. In college he played left and center field when not pitching. This season he went 6-4 with an era of 2.61. He pitched in seventeen games starting nine of them. In the field he batted .330 that included nine home runs and drove in 52 runs. He can throw the fast ball up to 96 miles per hour. I am sure we will hear more from him too.

In the ninth and tenth rounds the Mariners took centerfielder Keegan McGovern out of Georgia and shortstop Matt Sanders from Troy University. McGovern’s stats went up in his final season at Georgia. He batted .319 with eighteen home runs and fifty runs batted in. His home runs were more than the two previous two years combined. I am sure the Mariners liked that he walked thirty-seven times in fifty-eight games. His on base percentage was over four hundred in his final two years. Though the Mariners list him in center field he played a lot of left field for Georgia. Matt Sanders who the Mariners list at shortstop had a batting average of .378. Like the other players his last season has been his best. He is another player that walks a lot as well. In sixty-three games he walked forty-four times and had an on-base percentage of .463.

Wednesday the Mariners scouting team will be busy with the eleven round thru the fortieth going. I am sure we will be have stories to tell about those players as well. Now we wish the best to the Mariners as they play in Houston. Go M’s.