Official MLB Draft Thread

[Dave Saltzer]

^{Meet our 4th Round pick}

 

 

Brendon Sanger | Rank: 160

School: Florida AtlanticYear: JuniorPosition: OFAge: 21 DOB: 9/11/1993Bats: L Throws: RHeight: 6'1" Weight: 180 lb.

Previously Drafted: Never

 

VIDEO

Scouting grades: Hit: 50 | Power: 40 | Run: 50 | Arm: 50 | Field: 50 | Overall: 45

In three years at Florida Atlantic, Sanger has done nothing but hit, leading the team in batting average three years in a row. His ability to swing the bat should help him in a year where college bats are hard to come by.

Sanger saved the best for his junior year, hitting .377 during the regular season and earning Conference USA Player of the Year honors in the process. While he doesn't have the most traditional setup at the plate, he has good timing and a knack for getting the barrel to the ball. He works counts well and has more walks than strikeouts in his college career. He's a little bit of a tweener defensively, without the power for right field or the speed to play center.

Even if Sanger profiles more as a fourth outfielder than anything else, his ability at the plate will likely get him off the board in the top five rounds.

[Dave Saltzer]

More on Sanger--the pundits on MLB were talking about his high OB%, which is .491 this year and .462 for his college career. That should make some drool.

[Angel Dog and Beer]

Mariano Rivera Jr. (RHP) to the Nats.  Hope Dad taught him the cutter.

[Stradling]

More on Sanger--the pundits on MLB were talking about his high OB%, which is .491 this year and .462 for his college career. That should make some drool.

Probably a high floor type of draftee.

[mulwin444]

So Angels have gone:

 

1st round: College C

2nd round: High School OF

3rd round:  College RHP

4th Round: College OF

[nando714]

Sanger. ..potential lead off guy?

Edited June 9, 2015 by nando714

[Dick B Back]

Mariano Rivera Jr. (RHP) to the Nats. Hope Dad taught him the cutter.

Hope they don't do to him whatever they've done to Strasburg and Gio.

[red321]

With a draft pick like this, and the spin on it by the FO, is it any wonder why position player development in this org has hit the skids? 

 

I will say...nobody can over react...and over analyze...quite like you can.

 

 

 

 

[Dave Saltzer]

In the 5th round, the Angels drafted

 

Jared Foster 

+ College Player at LSU

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Biography Data Positions: IF Proper Name: Jared Kent Foster Born: November 2, 1992 (22.219) Place Lake Charles, Louisiana Height/Weight: 6-0 / 185 Bats/Throws: Right-Right High School: Barbe (Lake Charles,LA) College: Louisiana State University Drafted: Not drafted TBC Player ID: 167812 Update this Profile

<div '="" style="width: 435px; display: inline; float: left; padding-left: 6px; border-right-width: 1px; border-right-style: solid; border-right-color: rgb(170, 170, 170);"> Career Activity Scouting Scores speed contact patience batting power 57 61 29 49 57

*as of 2014 season.

  Download all Scouting Score

 

 

 

 

 

Batting Statistics

 

Year Team Lg Level # Org Pos Age Diff G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO HBP IBB SH SF GDP AVG OBP SLG OPS ISO secA Babip K/BB AB/HR TB PA 2012 LSU SEC NCAA 17 fr   19   45 110 21 24 5 0 1 13 4 3 10 24 5   3 0 2 .218 .312 .291 603 .073 .173 .271 2.40 110.0 32 128 2013 LSU SEC NCAA 17 so   20   42 64 19 23 2 0 2 12 3 0 4 8 4   0 1 3 .359 .425 .484 909 .125 .234 .382 2.00 32.0 31 73 2014 LSU SEC NCAA 17     21   43 61 8 7 4 0 0 8 1 0 6 11 0   4 0 0 .115 .194 .180 374 .066 .180 .140 1.83 -- 11 71 2015 LSU SEC NCAA   -   22   52 201 36 57 12 2 9 34 9 0 14 33 3   4 0 4 .284 .339 .498 837 .214 .328 .302 2.36 22.3 100 222 NCAA (4 seasons) 182 436 84 111 23 2 12 67 17 3 34 76 12 0 11 1 9 .255 .325 .399 724 .144 .255 .284 2.24 36.3 174 494

Pitching Statistics

 

Year Team Lg Level Unif# Org Age Diff W L ERA G GS CG SHO GF SV IP H R ER HR BB SO WP BK HB WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 K/BB 2012 LSU SEC NCAA 32 fr 19   0 0 0.00 3 0 0 0   0 2.1 1 0 0 0 2 2 1     1.29 3.86 0.00 7.71 7.71 1.00 MLB: Average per 162 Games 0 0 0.00 68 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 31 0 0 1 1 0 0 4 1.29 3.86 0.00 7.71 7.71 1.00 NCAA (1 seasons) 0 0 0.00 3 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 2 2 1 0 0 1.50 4.50 0.00 9.00 9.00 1.00 Year Team Lg Level Unif# Org Age Diff W L ERA G GS CG SHO GF SV IP H R ER HR BB SO WP BK HB WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 K/BB

Other Batting Statistics Year Team Name League G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO HBP IBB SH SF GDP AVG OBP SLG OPS TB 2013 HP-Thomasville Toms CoastalPlain 9 20 1 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 7 0 0 2 0 0 .050 .136 .050 186 1 2013 Battle Creek Bombers Northwoods 16 59 13 22 3 0 2 10 6 1 8 13 6 0 0 2 1 .373 .435 .525 960 31 2014 Battle Creek Bombers Northwoods 10 34 2 7 0 0 0 4 3 1 3 8 2 0 0 1 0 .206 .263 .206 469 7

[Dave Saltzer]

Seems like he was a 2-way sports player, a walk-on backup QB as well as an outfielder. Here's an article I found on him.

 

LSU's Jared Foster refused to let his worst season be his last, and that's been big for the No. 2-ranked Tigers

Every once in a while before practice would get revved up back in January, LSU senior Jared Foster would go out to third base and field ground balls with Conner Hale. Just a whim really.

 

And when Tigers coach Paul Mainieri would see the athletic and personable Lake Charles native at the hot corner, his nose would wrinkle a little and he'd gently chide Foster -- at that point a very good full-time outfielder -- and shoo him away.

 

"He didn't like me fooling around out there at third base," Foster said with a smile. "He'd look at me and say 'No, no -- get out to the outfield.'"

 

Funny how things change.

 

Now when No. 2-ranked LSU squares off with Georgia in a three-game SEC series, Foster is entrenched on the infield as the starting second baseman.

 

The Tigers (32-6, 10-5 SEC) and Bulldogs (20-18, 6-9) get things rolling at 6 p.m. Friday at Foley Field.

 

When Mainieri went looking for a more solid defensive option at third base two weeks into the season, he shifted Hale there from first base. A second domino was Mainieri wanting to get both Foster and Jake Fraley -- who were sharing the left field job -- into the lineup together because both were swinging the bat well.

 

Paul Mainieri, Tulane vs. LSU 2015

LSU coach Paul Mainieri mixed and matched players on the infield early in the season, with Jared Foster moving in as the starter at second base.

David Grunfield, NOLA.com | Times-Picayune

 

The ripple effect led to Mainieri approaching Foster at the team hotel in Houston on the first weekend of March and nonchalantly mentioned that the coaches wanted to work him out at second base, a spot he played at Barbe for one of the best programs in the state.

 

To remove any embellishment, Mainieri had actually sent Foster to third base for some practice time when he was considering different options. But the second-base idea caught Foster a bit off guard but wasn't a total surprise because he has seen his coach of four years pulls levers and push buttons successfully quite often.

 

This has the making of another success story.

 

Foster has been nothing close to a stopgap. Instead, the most athletic LSU position player has adapted to his new role quickly, with an occasional glitch here and there.

 

In 30 games as the starter at second, Foster has committed only four errors and he went from, March 17 until Wednesday between miscues. Lately he has blossomed from being content to making routine plays to adding a few highlight-reel clips, and most importantly, he has found a comfort zone with shortstop Alex Bregman on middle-of-the-infield double plays.

 

Former Tiger Mason Katz went through a similar transformation. After spending most of his prep career at Jesuit as a catcher and second baseman, Katz moved to the outfield at LSU.

 

But a broken knuckle forced Mainieri to give Katz a shot at first base, and while he was undersized, Katz worked to become a very good defensive hand there. Late in his senior season when JaCoby Jones got hurt, Katz played a handful of games at second base -- which is where is playing in the St. Louis Cardinals farm system.

 

mason_katz Alabama SECT Mark Almond.JPG

Former LSU standout Mason Katz played both all three outfield positions, as well as a season at first base and some spout duty at second base in his four-year career.

Mark Almond | AL.com

 

"It's tough to make that transition from the outfield back to the infield unless you're willing to work really hard at it, and it looks like that's how Jared has approached it," Katz said this week.

 

"It also helps that he's one of those freak athletes that can play just about anywhere on the field if you give him a chance."

 

Given that chance, Foster has made the most of it.

 

"It feels good; it feels like home," Foster said.

 

It also feels a world different from an abysmal junior season when Foster began the season with such high promise and finished with a .115 batting average and a ton of uncertainty.

 

After two seasons in the program when he went between starting and playing a key role off the bench after the Tigers' outfield talent upgraded, Foster came into last season as anointed starter in right field and the cleanup hitter.

 

As Mainieri often does, he talked Foster up to motivate him, preaching the chorus of how he believed big things were in store. That didn't happen, at least not until this season.

 

Foster staggered out of the gate, going 3-for-23 in his first six games with only one extra-base hit and three RBIs. By the third weekend of the season, Foster was out of the lineup and buried on a bench that wasn't overly deep.

 

Things never got better. Foster started only two SEC games, ended the season with only two multi-RBI games and had a scant seven hits in 61 at-bats when the year ended.

 

"It was like a dungeon drop," Foster said. "Not a lot of hope. It was one of the most frustrating things I've even been part of. It was pretty rough."

 

"I tried to be a player that I wasn't. I tried to create power and you've just got to let it come. I think I felt like I had to step up and prove a point but instead I fell into a rut and couldn't fight my way out of it."

 

Which totally rearranged some hopes and plans.

 

Going into his third season, Foster figured a solid year would be a launching pad to the Major League Baseball Draft -- just like every other junior college baseball player in the country thinks.

 

From all indications, there was plenty of reason for Foster to harbor that optimism.

 

"Last year he went into the season as a guy that was on everybody's radar and guys wanted to get out and see him," said LSU hitting coach Andy Cannizaro, who a year ago was a high-level scout with the New York Yankees. 

 

"He is a guy with great tools. He's a great athlete on the field. He does a lot of things that pro scouts and evaluators look for. He's as tooled up as a college baseball player as you're going to find in the country."

 

But also one whose nosedive was impossible to ignore.

 

Before the draft, Mainieri spoke to friends in MLB who said their teams were still interested in Foster but the dismal season had damaged his chances. Mainieri worked on setting up free-agent tryouts if the worst happened. And it did.

 

Oh, Foster's phone rang a few times with hollow promises that he was still on this team's radar or that team's list of next guys under consideration. But the phone never rang with an offer.

 

"When it got to Round 35, I turned it off and went out to find something to take my mind off of it," said Foster, who is usually tough to catch without a smile on his face. "It was tough for teams to pull trigger because I was hitting .115 and I understood that. It humbled me and I needed that really. It happened for a reason. It gave me motivation to come back this year and I've found my groove."

 

There were still a few roadblocks to get past first, though.

 

After briefly weighing the option of simply walking away -- "I was just going to get my degree and start my career in the real world" - Foster picked himself up, dusted off and looked for the next avenue.

 

That came with an emotional talk with his parents who convinced him there was no reason to give up because he still had athletic ability, as well as some tough love from Barbe coach Glenn Cecchini.

 

"I called him and told him 'I don't know whether I want to stay here or go to another school and get more at-bats,'" Foster said. "He let me finish and then he told me 'Look, it's tough, but you can't just let it go. You need to step up and you have the talent to do it.' He reminded me that everybody still believed me and that he thought I was one of the best athletes in Barbe history and it was time to go put it all together."

 

A different opportunity arose when Foster connected with LSU offensive coordinator Cam Cameron and decided to rejoin the Tigers' football program, which is what drew him to LSU in the first place in 2011.

 

Before he got a chance to show what he could do as a backup QB, though, a nagging foot injury that had bothered Foster since high school flared up and he needed surgery to remove a floating piece of bone, a procedure that involved removing some tendon and the surgeon inserting a screw.

 

That ended his football plans and also knocked Foster out of fall baseball practice. He spent nearly two months in a cast and had to work fervently to get his leg back to full strength for the start of pre-season practice in January.

 

Something else happened when practice began as well. Foster started having fun again.

 

The pressure he felt prior to his junior season fell away and with all three starting outfield spots spoken for, Foster knew he was likely going to have to battle for a spot as the fourth outfielder.

 

"I've been here long enough to know that you might not even be in the picture for half the season and then all of a sudden you're starting and making a huge impact," he said.

 

"Last year wasn't me. I don't even know who I was. I wasn't having fun anymore. After games, I didn't even want to talk to anybody. I would be up here working out or hitting the cages until midnight trying to find it and get back to where I wanted to be."

 

That pressure -- whether it was real, manufactured -- behind him, Foster started turning heads in pre-season practice. His swing was back and he had enhanced what was already a nice power stroke. Fraley was the returning starter in left, but Mainieri kept dropping hints that Foster was pushing for playing time.

 

That came to fruition quickly, as Foster started the season opener against Kansas and was 2-for-4 with a double and two RBIs. Two more two-hit games followed and when he smacked a two-run double against Southeastern Louisiana on Feb. 26 in the eighth game of the season, Foster surpassed his hit total from 2014.

 

"I didn't really completely relax at first, but once I got past my seventh hit, it was like 'Yes! I got it! Now, let's keep it rolling,'" he said.

 

While Foster has slumped here and there like all hitters do, the roll has continued most of the season.

 

He heads into the weekend hitting .289 with eight doubles, is tied for the team-lead with eight home runs and has driven in 25 runs.

 

Mix in the emerging confidence and effectiveness at second base, and the turnaround has been as dramatic as the collapse with a whole lot of this season left to go.

 

"Versatility is going to be one of his bigger assets to pro scouts. He's proving that he can play second base and they know he can play all three outfield spots. He's got a plus-arm, he's a plus-runner, and the fact that he is doing all of this after struggling like he did last year says a lot about what kind of makeup he has. He's a guy who has continued to work hard and with a great attitude and now he's making the most of it. As a scout, you're dying to find a guy like Jared -- a senior with great tools, great makeup, a strong work ethic. He's really creating more of an opportunity for himself to play pro baseball."

 

Maybe as importantly as anything else to Foster, he is finishing what he started and for a team that could get LSU back to familiar territory in June.

 

Foster was on the 2013 College World Series team and was vital to the Tigers winning the SEC Tournament that May.

 

There's no way to get his junior season back, but Foster has found a way to reclaim what was missing.

 

"I love playing again," he said. "I never thought I wouldn't love to be out here but last year was a test for me.

 

"Now I can't wait to put my uniform on every day because I know I'm going to come out here and enjoy the game."

 

Added Mainieri, "When a kid like Jared has been through trials and tribulations and been knocked down and he gets get back up doesn't mope or feel sorry for himself and has come back fighting and working hard to succeed, I tell you, I just love those kinds of stories."

 

-------------------------

 

[Inside Pitch]

Hate to say this.......But, the Doggs have been having a pretty solid draft.

 

They really are -- both the Dodgers and A's did a really good job of going with what the draft was giving them.   Dodgers picked up a lot of falling pitchers and the A's went the college SS route.

[Inside Pitch]

The Angels last pick, David Fletcher from Loyola had a nice little season last year in the CCL, .300 average for a college freshman in a wooden bat league.  Hopefully they can get him to bite and not go back to school.

Edited June 9, 2015 by Inside Pitch

[CanadianHalo]

Jared Foster highlights:

[sneaky_flute]

Ranger draft picks were pretty ballsy. Hopefully Matuella will sign for 3rd round slot money

[Inside Pitch]

Ranger draft picks were pretty ballsy. Hopefully Matuella will sign for 3rd round slot money

 

They have been picking seniors -- so they look to be trying to open up the cash to pay him

Edited June 9, 2015 by Inside Pitch

[19HALO71]

Let's keep things in perspective.

 

Mike Trout was the #25 pick of the 2009 draft. That means 24 teams before the Angels passed on arguably the best player on the planet. 24 scouting departments didn't see the talent that Trout had. It's a crap shoot people. They do the research and make the best decision possible.

 

Go Angels

[Inside Pitch]

Angels 7th round pick is Hutton Moyer IF from Pepperdine, son of Jaime Moyer.  Hutton is a college Jr and reportedly 38 years old.  (21)

[Bobster7587]

Is first name is really "Hutton"? Wow. 

[jsnpritchett]

Angels 7th round pick is Hutton Moyer IF from Pepperdine, son of Jaime Moyer.  Hutton is a college Jr and reportedly 38 years old.  (21)

 

http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/profile.asp?P=hutton-moyer

 

Odd stats for him.  Zero HR last year, but 24 doubles.  This year, 14 HR, 9 doubles.  Guess he added some muscle over the off-season to get the ball over the fence...

[ten ocho recon scout]

Angels 7th round pick is Hutton Moyer IF from Pepperdine, son of Jaime Moyer. Hutton is a college Jr and reportedly 38 years old. (21)

Lol

[Hollyw00d]

Yay more light hitting middle infielders

[Inside Pitch]

Round 8 -- Kyle Survance OF, something something Texas.   Speedy OFer type.

 

http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/profile.asp?P=kyle-survance

Edited June 9, 2015 by Inside Pitch

[ettin]

Is first name is really "Hutton"? Wow.

It's "Huttie" now.

Edited June 9, 2015 by ettin

[ten ocho recon scout]

It's "Huttie" now.

i feel like that would have been a good sosh name for joba chamberlain if he ever came here

[Inside Pitch]

Round 9, Tanner Lubach C, Nebraska.   Hopefully Erstad taught him all about grit

 

http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/profile.asp?P=tanner-lubach