Draft Pick Discussion, Rounds 21-50

[Mass Haas]

Link

 

University of Minnesota junior closer Scott Matyas was drafted in the 40th round by the Milwaukee Brewers, and will likely return for his senior year with the Gophers.

[Mass Haas]

21st round RHP Kevin Shackelford (Marshall University) is closing games for the West Virginia Miners of the Horizon League, a summer collegiate wood bat league with roots dating to 1963 that, just like the Cape Cod League, has teams comprised of some of college baseball’s best players.

[Mass Haas]

Nice picture of 6'9" Marques Kyles here.

[YoungGeezy]

Man he's a giant lol, I mean Stan is not a small guy but Marques just towers over him

[Tedaldtada]

http://sports.espn.go.com/new-york/nfl/news/story?id=5327381

 

Chad Jones got in a car wreck.

 

Edit: Jeez, this does not sound good. Pulling for you to make a comeback young man!

[molitor fan]

SportsCenter just broke in to report than Jones, who was a 3rd round draft pick of the NY Giants in the NFL, has been involved in a very serious car accident with a broken leg and nerve damage in his lower extremities.

 

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gameon/post/2010/06/new-york-giants-draft-pick-chad-jones-in-serious-car-crash/1

[MadScientist]

There's a picture of the accident here:

Crash picture at PFT

 

He was going pretty fast when he hit that pole, and is lucky to be alive.

[Nader Raider Tim]

Sounds like everything went well with Jones, or at least as good as they could go. When the quote "is expected to keep both of his leg's" has to be mentioned that sure sound's like a scary accident.

[HiAndTight]

Wow. Very lucky that he signed his rookie contract already. At least he will be taken care of for life if he spends the money wisely and doesn't blow it. Invest that money, buy an apartment complex, whatever.

 

Obviously I hope that's not his last NFL contract, but this happens to a lot of people who weren't just guaranteed a couple million dollars.

 

 

Very selfish and insensitive thought here, and it's not intended to be, but I do wonder if this may end up forcing him from the NFL and perhaps towards baseball.

 

Obviously there is a little bit more....margin for error for lack of a better term, when it comes to the type of leg injuries a baseball player can come back from.

 

 

 

Either way, it's all a very, very distant second to his health. Hope the young man can at least lead a fulfilling life with his family...then the concerns about sports come up.

 

By the way, anyone read the comment page on that link where someone calls him an idiot? Pretty classless.

[jwill535]

$850,000 signing bonus. Hopefully he had some supplemental health insurance, otherwise that signing bonus will be gone.

 

Since they were able to save the leg, I wonder if he would be able to pitch still since he probably wont be able to play football.

[colbyjack]

I agree with the sentiment that I hope Jones is ok after that accident, but I also agree that it makes you wonder if his NFL career may be over before it even started. I hate associating the word "luck" in an instance like this, but the Brewers could land a tremendously gifted athlete if his football days are over. As jwill noted, he is also a very talented pitcher and throws in the low-90s with a pretty good breaking pitch if he isn't able to patrol the outfield as a positional prospect.

[Never Outhustled]

I always thought Chad wasn't choosing his best sport, but I didn't want his choice to change for this reason. What was always odd about Chad was that even though football always came 1st for him, he never played the game like he loved it. He is/was a 225 pound safety that played like he weighed 185. He just seemed to have a better mentality for baseball. When he was starting in the OF he was putting up the same numbers as eventual first round pick Jared Mitchel, and Jones still hadn't unlocked his full power potential. As Colby already noted, he can also pitch, he became dominant as a reliever almost immediately when moved onto the mound.

 

Best of luck to him, I'm sure is getting some amazing medical care.

[Nader Raider Tim]

http://www.rotoworld.com/...t=NFL&Show=SKILL&id=5713

 

His agent say's he may end up playing baseball. He isn't ruling out football at all either.

[PilprinBuddha]

http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/giants/comeback_kid_bKevFURGWxauoTnLNK9fiN

[crewcrazy]

According to the New York Post, Chad Jones may decide to play baseball instead, because it would be less stressful on his leg if he makes a full recovery.

 

Encouraging medical reports caused the agent for Chad Jones to say the Giants' stricken draft pick could return to football as soon as the 2011 season -- but Jones might opt for baseball instead.

 

Jones underwent nearly eight hours of surgery to resume blood flow to his left ankle and foot after a one-car accident in New Orleans early Friday.

 

It was originally feared Jones might lose his left foot, but agent Rocky Arceneaux told the Gannett Louisiana News Service that Jones could resume his football career as soon as 2011 in light of positive feedback from his doctors.

 

[snip]

 

"I'm optimistic [of a 2011 return]," Arceneaux said, according to the news service. "I would like to hope so. He's such a great athlete. I think if anybody could pull it off and come back from this, it would be Chad."

 

However, Arceneaux said Jones has not ruled out abandoning football altogether in favor of a baseball career because baseball would be less stressful on the leg.

 

Jones was a 50th-round pick by the Brewers in this year's player draft after doubling as a pitcher and outfielder at LSU.

 

Jones shattered the left shin and left fibula, cut a large gash in his left thigh and suffered arterial and nerve damage in the accident. He lost control of his 2010 Range Rover SUV and crashed into a pole.

[MadScientist]

Since the Brewers have the rights to him for the moment, is there anyway they can sign him to a nominal contract for the purpose of retain the rights to him? Possibly with some sort of bonus if he decides to choose baseball and is medically cleared.

 

I'm not sure what rules would apply in this case.

[colbyjack]

Since the Brewers have the rights to him for the moment, is there anyway they can sign him to a nominal contract for the purpose of retain the rights to him? Possibly with some sort of bonus if he decides to choose baseball and is medically cleared.

 

Yes, if they sign him to any deal, he's under their control just like any other newly signed player. The Angels did this with Jake Locker a year ago, signing him for something like $600,000 to retain his baseball rights. Of course, Locker has made it clear he intends to play in the NFL, but Jones' situation is proof that anything can and will happen.

 

At this point in time who knows what Jones will take to sign. If his injury truly does threaten his NFL career, the Brewers if nothing else retain his rights until mid-August, and after that Jones would have to wait until next year's draft to be eligible to be selected again. There was talk of him being a second round pick if he had any intent of playing baseball, so his bonus could be in a similar range as Locker's.

[battlekow]

the Brewers if nothing else retain his rights until mid-August

I may be wrong, but I assume that his NFL contract makes him ineligible in all NCAA sports, which would mean that the Brewers have until a week before next year's draft to sign him, rather the mid-August deadline for players with remaining eligibility.

[Mass Haas]

This article sheds some light on the baseball program at Elon University in North Carolina, with quotes from 29th round RHP Daniel Britt and 31st round catcher Michael Melillo.

[colbyjack]

I may be wrong, but I assume that his NFL contract makes him ineligible in all NCAA sports, which would mean that the Brewers have until a week before next year's draft to sign him, rather the mid-August deadline for players with remaining eligibility.

 

You could be right, but I think it's sports specific in the NCAA. Guys like Jeff Samarzdija and Drew Henson signed professional baseball deals yet they continued their NCAA football careers. I know Javon Walker began his baseball career (and Josh Booty too?) only to go back to NCAA football after their baseball careers failed, something Brent Brewer was rumored to do last offseason. I'm not sure if the NFL contract is different from MLB's that would prevent Jones from doing the reverse of this. I know the "no-agent" rule comes into play with this as well.

[battlekow]

You could be right, but I think it's sports specific in the NCAA. Guys like Jeff Samarzdija and Drew Henson signed professional baseball deals yet they continued their NCAA football careers. I know Javon Walker began his baseball career (and Josh Booty too?) only to go back to NCAA football after their baseball careers failed, something Brent Brewer was rumored to do last offseason. I'm not sure if the NFL contract is different from MLB's that would prevent Jones from doing the reverse of this. I know the "no-agent" rule comes into play with this as well.

These are good points, and I have no idea why I didn't just think of Brewer. I'm sure you're right.

[battlekow]

Reality check serves Grafton star hurler well
Todd Rosiak/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

West Allis - Everyone has those "what-if" moments.

Conor Fisk's came
in his junior year. Playing hockey for Grafton High School, he tried
checking an opponent but instead hurt himself badly. He suffered a major
tear to the labrum in his left shoulder, an injury that kept his arm in
a sling for two months and him off the baseball field - his true love -
for all but the final few weeks of the Black Hawks' season last summer.

Fisk is doing
great now, but what if he'd decided to check him with his right shoulder
instead? The one that helps him fire a baseball up to 92 miles an hour
and ultimately got him drafted in the 34th round by the Milwaukee
Brewers earlier this month?

He doesn't even
want to think about it.

"Thank God I
checked with my opposite shoulder," Fisk said Saturday at West Allis
Hale's Harvey Kuenn Tournament. "It was an easy decision not to play
hockey this year."

Grafton coach
Brian Durst is thanking his lucky stars as well because Fisk has
returned from his mishap with a flourish, ranking as one of the most
dominating pitchers in the area, if not the state.

Using a
four-pitch arsenal, the 6-foot-2, 230-pound Fisk has gone 7-1 for
Grafton (11-6), striking out 90 batters in 60 innings and walking just
13 en route to a 1.05 earned-run average and an incredible WHIP of 0.88.
He has also thrown a five-inning perfect game against Brown Deer and a
one-hitter in a 2-0 win over North Shore rival Cedarburg.

"He's learned to
make the most of every opportunity he's given on the mound," Durst said.
"Every start he's going to give us a chance to compete."

This is Fisk's
fourth season pitching at the varsity level for Grafton but his first
under the microscope.

He flashed major
promise as a freshman, clocking a 74 mph fastball, but it was during
that off-season that Fisk realized he was only scratching the surface of
what he could become. Buying completely into a throwing program he and
his father had discovered, Fisk saw his fastball jump into the mid-80s.

Injuries kept him
off-balance as a sophomore and then the shoulder surgery almost wiped
out his junior season. But he was impressive enough upon his brief
return, striking out 41 in 35 1/3 innings to go along with two complete
games, that the possibility of being drafted as a senior suddenly
appeared real.

Last August he
got some exposure by attending an Atlanta Braves tryout camp at Marian
College. Then after pitching well for his traveling fall team, the
letters from both major-league and college teams began rolling in. He
signed with Wabash Valley College in Mount Carmel, Ill., a Division I
junior college, and entered his senior season as the top-rated pro
prospect in Wisconsin, according to Baseball America.

Projected by the
magazine to be drafted in the 20th round, Fisk went in the 34th to the
Brewers, a team he grew up watching, of course, yet never heard from as a
prospect.

"It's exciting.
It's also shocking," he said. "You grow up watching the home team play,
then to be drafted by them - I'm still shocked by it all. They never
talked to me or anything. I guess they're notorious for that. I was
expecting another team to pick me, and they got me. Shocked and amazed."

Fisk said at this
point his plans are to attend school, with the possibility he can be
drafted again next season - potentially much higher - an alluring one.

"I signed with
(Wabash Valley) and had them way before any of this talk about getting
drafted came up," he said. "That's where I plan on going, but if they
offer me something and I sign then I'll go play for the Brewers."

While Fisk's
fastball tops out at 92, he throws it consistently between 88-90 and
combines it with a curveball that Durst termed "devastating," a slider
and a changeup that he's still refining. Only a two-out, two-strike
bloop single in the top of the seventh kept Fisk from posting a
no-hitter against Cedarburg just five days after his perfect game.

"I left a
changeup up," Fisk said, shaking his head.

"He's got a lot
of poise on the mound," said Durst. "He's thrown in front of scouts and
big crowds, and so he's had eyes on him for awhile now. He just comes
out and knows what he has to do on the mound, and he's able to take care
of that and block out everything outside the lines. That's a real
credit to him."

Cedarburg exacted
some revenge on Fisk on Thursday, "spanking" him, as he put it, in a
7-2 loss that dropped Grafton's record in the North Shore to 6-4 with
the playoffs approaching. In other words, exactly the types of
situations in which Fisk believes he excels.

"Coming out here I
have the mentality that, being a draft pick now, I don't want to lose,"
said Fisk. "Bad days are going to happen; my stuff isn't going to be
that good, but I want to come out here and win every game and show
(everyone) how good I am and why I was picked."

[Mass Haas]

While the Brewers could still overwhelm Daniel Gibson, it's very unlikely:

 

FightinGators.com (University of Florida)

 

2011 freshman Daniel Gibson will push for innings, and they could come as a midweek starter. The Tampa Jesuit graduate is already on campus. During his junior year of high school, he threw consistently in the upper 80s. He got a jump in his velocity before his senior year, moving consistently into the low 90s. The Milwaukee Brewers drafted Gibson in the 26th round, but he is not expected to sign.

[brewmann04]

That not really good news the kid sound like he could be a decent Pitcher which we really can use.

[CWorley]

While I don't have any new information on Gibson, isn't it in his best interests to make it seem like he's a lock to go to college at this point? He's knows the Brewers want to sign him. Going through all the motions as far as getting ready for Florida would only give him more leverage. And if he doesn't sign, he'll be right on track with his training. I don't think he'll make a decision until close to the deadline - much like Gennett, Howell, and Hall did last year.