Draft Pick Discussion, Rounds 21-50

[colbyjack]

Please use this thread to share your thoughts, links, stories, pictures and anything else on the Brewers picks on draft day from rounds 21 through 50. Please do not start separate threads to discuss the individual picks.

[battlekow]

3 Amigos settle in

Randy Sachs

Seeking better opportunities in baseball, education and a way of life, Brian Vigo-Suarez and his family left Puerto Rico and arrived in Keller three years ago.

And because those same opportunities were so alluring, Vigo-Suarez was joined by friends and Fossil Ridge baseball teammates Carlos Rodriguez and Reggie Rodriguez.

Not related, Carlos and Reggie left their families behind and have come to live with the Suarez family.

Carlos came to Texas about the same time as Vigo-Suarez, while Reggie came a year later.

Now, the three seniors are a nucleus of the Panthers team which is in the thick of the District 5-5A playoff hunt.

Ridge battled 10 innings with district leader Colleyville Heritage Friday before losing the contest, 3-1. That leaves the Panthers at 4-4, in a three-way tie for third, and 11-10 overall.

What's been more difficult than adjusting to the move up from 4A has been the transition to learning a new language and culture.

"I didn't know any English before coming here," Vigo-Suarez said. "Learning the language and culture was difficult for me."

Having his two buddies alongside him, and with the cooperation of the baseball team, the tension of walking into a brand new world for Vigo-Suarez was eased. Vigo-Suarez's mother was also of great assistance, as she already had a good grasp of English, while Reggie knew a bit more English than Brian or Carlos.

What the three transplants have done for the Panthers' baseball team is substantial.

Reggie leads the Panthers with a .400 batting average, while Vigo-Suarez and Carlos Rodriguez are both at about .300. The three Panthers have combined for 34 RBI, while Vigo-Suarez has two homeruns.

One of those homers was at the Ballpark in Arlington in a game against Carroll.

"That was a big deal," Vigo-Suarez said, explaining that playing in the Major League is a dream he works toward every day with plenty of hitting practice and weight-training.

Vigo-Suarez' athleticism at shortstop is noticeable, giving solid defensive help to the Panthers pitching.

"They wanted more opportunities for playing baseball and an education," Panthers head coach Doug Dulany said. "The families knew that if they were going to do well in college, they needed to get them here as soon as possible, and they've done well."

Indeed, college ball awaits the three of them. Vigo-Suarez has committed to Navarro College in Corsicana, Carlos will play at Odessa College and Reggie at North Central Texas College next year.

The baseball diamond affords the three "adopted brothers" an environment with a common language.

"There have been communication gaps," Dulany noted, but said that one of the assistant coaches knew some Spanish to help in the transition.

"My teammates have been helping me a lot with the language and school; we hang out together a lot," Vigo-Suarez said.

He noted that his sister, a sophomore at Fossil Ridge, is also benefitting.

"My family will stay here to wait for my sister to graduate," he said referencing the plan to stay in Keller before a move back to Puerto Rico.

Dulaney said it's been a "win-win situation for the guys and the team."

"We've learned a bit from each other and we're all better because of it," he said.

[splitterpfj]

Minnesota selects Eric Decker...round 27.

[colbyjack]

I would imagine Decker made it clear he intends to return next year to play football since his season was cut short last fall due to injury. I would be surprised if Minnesota is able to sign him there.

[crewcrazy]

Former Western Mass. baseball standouts Pete Fatse and Nick Ahmed find success at UConn

 

Junior Pete Fatse of Hampden was expected to make a significant impact again this season for the University of Connecticut baseball team, but freshman Nick Ahmed of East Longmeadow not so much so.

 

As it turned out, Fatse took his game to another level, and Ahmed proved his game belonged at the Division I level. The pair helped the Huskies finish 36-24 and come within one victory of the NCAA tournament.

 

Fatse, an outfielder, hit .324 with 18 doubles, four triples, 11 homers and 54 RBIs while hitting in the middle of the order for the Huskies, who fell to nationally-ranked Louisville in the Big East title game. He also stole 17 bases.

 

"He knows how to drive in runs, that's for sure," UConn coach Jim Penders said. "That's one of the best things he does for us, but the best thing he does is provide excellent leadership."

 

Fatse had 77 RBIs over his first two seasons, so his run production has been a given. His average, though, took a substantial jump this season. After hitting .268 as a freshman and .289 as a sophomore, he jumped up another 35 points this season.

 

With one season remaining, Fatse ranks in the top 10 in three career categories at UConn - homers (23), RBIs (131) and runs scored (132). He also ranks 15th in hits with 187. His 54 RBIs this season were 10th best in program history for a single season; his 57 runs were seventh best.

 

"I think, to be honest, I have to credit coach Penders and (assistant coach Chris Podeszwa) for instilling the confidence in me that I could hit in the middle of the order," Fatse said. "When I'm 0 for 2, I'm thinking about going 2 for 4, not being 0 for 3 and then 0 for 4. I just think I've developed since my freshman year."

 

Fatse was named the top player in Western Massachusetts by The Republican in 2006, the last player to win the honor before Ahmed took it home two straight seasons. Fatse was an infielder for Minnechaug Regional back then, but he's an outfielder for good now.

 

"It's one of the most exciting things to me," said Fatse, who is playing for the Holyoke Blue Sox of the New England Collegiate Baseball League this summer. "It may be a little more laid back than the infield, but I'm always thinking about making a play in the gap or throwing a runner out at the plate. I just love it."

[crewcrazy]

Looks like Demetrius McKelvie might be a tough sign: East Columbus Star Seeking $800,000 in Baseball Draft

 

McKelvie, from my phone conversations, is a sharp teenager and very likeable. He already has signed with Marshall for baseball and intends to try out for football as a safety.

 

His future lies in baseball, but football is a bargaining tool in his negotiations.

 

Over the last week, he has spoken with eight scouts and says all have told him he will go in the top 10 rounds. He says the Kansas City Royals are considering taking him as high as the second round. Simpson doubts that will happen. He also says McKelvie has to be careful not to price himself out of the draft.

 

McKelvie says the Texas Rangers are willing to give him $400,000.

 

Depending on the bonus, McKelvie wants the payments spread over two or five years. If the bonus is on the lower end, he wants it over two years. If more than $450,000, he wants payments over five years to buy out football.

 

Looks like opinions are definitely divided on him...should be interesting to see how this plays out.

[battlekow]

I like the Sizemore pick. He's put up .600+ slugging percentages the last couple years and was a third-team All-American.

[battlekow]

Batts, McKelvie chosen in Major League Baseball draft

Chuck Carree

 

Just one other local player was selected - East Columbus High School standout Demetrius McKelvie to Milwaukee in the 25th round.

In the spring, McKelvie batted .467 with 10 extra base hits. He slugged .867 and drove in 13 runs and slammed a pair of home runs.

"I am real happy,'' he said. "I should have gone a little earlier.''

He already has signed a scholarship with Marshall and was not sure if he would sign a pro contract or join the Thundering Herd.

He said the scout contacted him and will make an offer soon.

McKelvie returned earlier this week from a workout with the Brewers.

"I hit the ball well, and threw well at Miller Park,'' McKelvie said. "I really didn't know if they would take me. Teams don't like to tip their hand.''

Baseball America rated McKelvie, a left-handed hitting outfielder, the 21st best prospect in the state and it included both prep and college players.

Ironically, he went in the same round as Charlotte's Richie Shaffer, which Baseball America rated the ninth top prospect in the state.

Scouts wrestled with whether to draft McKelvie, questioning if he was ready for the minor leagues.

"He definitely looks the part,'' a scout said. "He has raw power and he is an interesting guy. It will be interesting when he goes out and faces good competition. He just needs to play and get at bats for his abilities to get better.''

While most project him as a left fielder, one scout says not so fast. He thinks McKelvie can play both corner outfield spots and first base, but his chief asset is potential at bat.

[yoshii8]

So is the draft over now, or do they have a day 3?

[Boy Jeenius]

Jacobbi McDaniel 6' 285lbs? I already love this guy. 33rd round pick. How deep will they sign this year?

[Mass Haas]

So is the draft over now, or do they have a day 3?

Yeah, the draft is going great guns right now, fast as lightning. I think we had very limited availability in terms of assistance today, and you'll see us catching up later.

 

I know why they do it (to fill rosters), but I always shrug when 23- and this year, even 24-year-olds are drafted. We always end up reminding ourselves of their age when they dominate Pioneer League pitching, and then they normally stumble and get released halfway through their next season.

 

Doug Melvin was in the booth last night and made it sound as though they may have a tough time coming up with 50 picks. I hate losing the draft-and-follow, that's what made these 30-50 round selections interesting in the past.

 

Hey, they talked 49th round LHP Daniel Meadows away from Texas Tech last year, so we'll see...

[DKM4Boston]

Jacobbi McDaniel 6' 285lbs? I already love this guy. 33rd round pick. How deep will they sign this year?

He's a big-time 5-star Florida State football recruit...plays defensive tackle. Gotta imagine he's a tough sign.

[DKM4Boston]

31 - Jose Oveido - RHP - Miami Dade CC South

32 - Chris Ellington - RF - TCU

33 - Jacobbi McDaniel - 3B - Madison County HS (FL)

34 - Michael Ojala - RHP - Rice

35 - Matt Costello - LHP - Valdosta State

36 - Joshua Turley - LHP - Texas HS (AZ)

37 - Cullen Sexton - RHP - Minnesota

38 - Casey Stevenson - 2B - UC Irvine

39 - Brady Rodgers - RHP - Lamar Consolidated HS, Rosenberg, TX

40 - Kyle Hansen - RHP - St. Dominic HS, Oyster Bay, NY

 

Kyle Hansen is the brother of Craig Hansen and would be a dream to sign, but that is probably highly unlikely.

[colbyjack]

Sexton is a Wisconsite. Ojala is a really good pitcher for Rice that had a good season. I'm guessing he would return for his senior year, but I thought Luetge would too a year ago.

 

The team has taken quite a few projected 2B in this draft.

[battlekow]

Jacobbi McDaniel drafted, but still plans to play football for FSU
Andrew Carter

The Milwaukee Brewers have selected Jacobbi McDaniel, one of the most touted football players in the Seminoles' incoming recruiting class, in the 33rd round (1006th overall pick) of the Major League Baseball Draft.

McDaniel was considered among the best defensive tackle prospects in the nation and also was a standout baseball player at Madison County High School.

The question now, of course, is how likely is it that McDaniel chooses to play professional baseball instead of football at Florida State? And to get an answer to that question, I spoke to the man himself.

McDaniel told me moments ago that he told the scouts that he wasn't likely to pass up the chance to play football at FSU.

"To be getting drafted, it was a good thing because I was talking to the scouts before [the draft] and I told them I wasn't going to go baseball but to get drafted, that's a good thing," McDaniel said. "… I had told them that but they told me that I still earned the right to be drafted. For that to happen, it's a good thing."

McDaniel said he will report to Florida State next week, along with the rest of the incoming freshmen. He said he anticipates playing football but that he'll keep his options open should he receive a particularly lucrative offer to play baseball.

To pass up the chance to play football at FSU, McDaniel said he'd have to be offered $1.5 million to sign with the Brewers.

"They said they couldn't do it," McDaniel said.

Nonetheless, he said he was honored just to be drafted. He finished his senior season at Madison County with a .489 batting average. He hit 12 home runs and drove in 55 runs.

[DKM4Boston]

Brad Schreiber from Kimberly, WI was the Brewers' 42nd round choice.

[battlekow]

And cue brewjihad in 3...2...

[battlekow]

From last July:

 

Premium Stock

Dave Perkin

Perhaps the most fascinating storyline of the 2009 Draft has begun to develop in Southern California, courtesy of the Stock brothers.

Robert Stock of USC, currently playing in the Cape Cod League, has long been one of the premier prospects in the country. A catcher (and occasional pitcher) blessed with a howitzer for an arm and a powerful lefthanded bat, Robert has spent his youth drawing raves from scouts and collecting an attic full of shiny gold-plated trophies.

Younger brother Richard, of Agoura High in Southern Califronia, has quietly spent his amateur career in Robert's shadow, popping up in random showcase events and inevitably being referred to as "Stock's brother."

Richard Stock enjoyed a breakthrough performance Monday at the Milwaukee Brewers Area Code Tryout Camp at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, Calif.

A 6-foot-3, 185-pound lefthanded hitting catcher, Richard began his coming out party by blasting several home runs in a wood bat batting practice, lofting balls comfortably into the netting atop the right field fence.

He followed that display by rifling a series of clothes line throws down to second base in pre game, easily clocking bewteen 1.85 and 1.90 on his deliveries.

For an encore, Richard drove a long one hop double off of the left field fence during the simulated game.

The only flaw in Richard's game is his 7.29 speed. Not a single scout was concerned. One was heard to observe:

"Cindy Crawford has a mole. Nobody's perfect."

Richard Stock's effort in Costa Mesa no doubt established him as one of the premier high school Prospects in the nation, and he is possibly the top prep backstop.

Both Robert and Richard Stock are draft eligible in 2009.

This fact figures to generate a Rubik's cube style conundrum in the upcoming draft season: Which Stock item do scouts like best?

Let the arguments-and they promise to be vehement-begin.

The two day Area Code preliminary event, held on Monday and Tuesday July 7 and 8, got off to a colorful start.

College coaches flocked together, dressed in the de rigueur assistant coach outfit: Polo shirts in school colors and emblazoned with the team logo; tan or khaki colored shorts; brand name cross trainers worn with white ankle socks.

One bold assistant coach strayed from the pack by wearing a migraine inducing pair of kaleidoscope patterned black and gray plaid shorts. Our hero is to commended for his independence, but certainly not for his fashion sense.

Scouts experiencing a temporary reprieve from their summer pro coverage gathered in bunches and compared their success, or lack of success, in the recently concluded 2008 draft.

Each day's festivities began with the 60-yard dash, run across the outfield at OCC. The track was a cow pasture on the first day, with the turf being thick, clumpy, uneven and moist. Most coaches and scouts disregarded the Monday 60 times, or chopped at least .20 seconds off their readings to compensate. The good folks at OCC mowed the grass and dried out the field before Tuesday's actvities.

Outfield, infield, catcher's POP times and wood bat BP completed the morning sessions. After a lunch break, a simulated game permitted each pitcher to show his stuff, or lack thereof.

Several Players, many of them previoulsy unknown, played brilliantly. Reports on several of those players will be posted to our Prospects Plus section over the next few days.

There was no question that the star of this event was Richard Stock. Both Robert and Richard Stock have the potential to become wealthy young men next June.

If they are entreprenurial types, the brothers can pool their funds and start a company to manufacture custom bats: Wood Stock.

[battlekow]

Baseball draft should be well-Stocked with talent
Rhiannon Potkey

The Stock market is open for this week's Major League Baseball Amateur Draft and teams have a chance to double their investment.

Brothers Robert and Richard Stock are eligible to be drafted this year for the first time and both are expected to be selected.

The Agoura High products, who are 14 months apart in age, have enjoyed being travel companions during their pre-draft workouts.

"There has been kind of a brotherly competition going on," Agoura senior Richard Stock said. "We have been trying to motivate each other and hit bigger home runs in batting practice. It has been really fun to play together for the first time since we were like 12."

The Stocks are two of several area high school and college players who should hear their names called once the draft begins today.

Robert Stock, a USC junior, joins a list of college prospects that includes Arizona junior pitcher Jason Stoffel (Agoura), Oklahoma junior shortstop Bryant Hernandez (St. Bonaventure) and UC Irvine senior infielder Ben Orloff (Simi Valley) among others.

Richard Stock joins Bryan Berglund of Royal, Jonathan Meyer of Simi Valley and Jack Marder of Newbury Park as Marmonte League prospects on the radar.

...

The Stocks are both catchers and pitchers.

Robert, 19, was projected as a first-round pick in the 2007 draft, but opted to leave Agoura after his junior year and enroll at USC a year early.

After Robert batted .226 and finished 5-4 with a 2.90 ERA this season, most projections have him being taken between the third and fifth rounds.

Richard, 18, has committed to USC and knows there is a possibility of being teammates with his brother in college next season.

"It would be interesting if we both went to USC," Richard said. "He wants to catch, so if the team likes him as a pitcher and takes him, he might want to go back to school."

Despite their double draft potential, the Stocks don't have any plans for an extended draft party at their Westlake Village home.

"We are probably just going to go to the field and hit," Richard said.

[brewjihad]

I've been cued. I'm not on top of this as I thought I would be. Awesome, we'll see how the negotiations go.

[battlekow]

Baseball America on Richard Stock:

Stock, the younger brother of USC's Robert Stock, has been hobbled by injuries to his wrist, back and ribs. A top 200 prospect when healthy, he figures to follow Robert to USC, where he could develop into one of the nation's finest catchers and a first-round candidate in 2012. He has better size than his older brother at 6-foot-3, 185 pounds, and raw power from the left side to go with above-average arm strength.

[Godspeed]

Jacobbi McDaniel drafted, but still plans to play football for FSU

Andrew Carter

 

"To be getting drafted, it was a good thing because I was talking to the scouts before [the draft] and I told them I wasn't going to go baseball but to get drafted, that's a good thing," McDaniel said. "… I had told them that but they told me that I still earned the right to be drafted. For that to happen, it's a good thing."

You mean the Brewers weren't insulting him by selecting him like they did with that kid down in Mississippi a few years back? Whatever happened to that guy (and his ego)?

[DKM4Boston]

Andrew Clark was drafted out of high school in Indiana. After being kicked off the team at Mississippi, he went on to Louisville and was drafted in the 31st round by the Cubs this year. I remember he was offended by the Brewers having the audacity to draft him so low (19th round or whatever...he was thinking 2nd or 3rd round)...now he's a 31st round pick.

[And That]

I'm trying to wrap my mind around a 285 pound third baseman.

[battlekow]

I'll have a very interesting interview with 26th-rounder Lex Rutledge up soon.