The amateur draft always a favorite time of the year for GM Josh Swain. The way real teams build their core is to through the draft. Jersey Shore is no exception to the rule, just look at their former 1st round picks: Mike Bryant, Matt Doyle, Richard Coker, Lawrence Schroeder, Fabrice Brodeur, Gianluigi Ciottone, Roland Martin, Gerald Johnson, Matthieu Vancini....and those are just 1st and 1st round compensatory picks over the past 10 years.
The D-Bags selected 24th this year and for the 3rd year in a row and for the 4th time in 5 years they chose to selected a prep player over going the going the college route. They selected out of Sante Fe High School, Catcher Ben Morton, or simply as his teammates call him.....Cadillac. In his senior year and first year as a starter, Morton caught 36 of the teams 40 games while hitting 8 doubles, 6 homers and driving in 33 runs. He finished with a triple slash line of .299/.389/.493. While not lighting it up like a lot of first rounders in high school do, Jersey's scouts see the tools While his defensive tools won't light the world on fire, scouts predict him to be middle o the road if he can live up to his potential, but his bat is why he got chosen here. "We have his bat and gap as plus tools and his power at plus-plus. He will never be a guy who walks a lot and probably will strike out his fair amount of times, but catchers are still one of the more rare positions in the BSA and if he can refine his hitting tools he could be one of the better hitting catchers in the league, but he has a long ways to go for that. I imagine he struggles pretty good with A pitching, but being at age 18 we have a lot of options going forward," said GM Swain.
Jersey won't pick again until the 62nd overall pick which will be their regular 2nd round pick. While that is a lot of players to be picked between now and then, don't be surprised to see GM Swain find a player who will turn out to be productive, it's just what they do in Jersey during a draft.
Last year's 1st round pick Miguel Serna, who was drafted 21st overall last season, is starting to pick it up in A ball after struggling last season. While the power hasn't come around he is hitting .251 and has 20 doubles in A ball. Jersey's other 1st round pick, SP Ben Head, another prep player, is improving as well. He has reduced his BB/9, while picking up his K/9 and H/9. His FIP is 4,43 and will probably spend the rest of the year in Manhattan to improve. 2nd round pick and 63rd overall last season 2B John Moore is really picking it up in AA. Moore turned 24 this year has shown off his speed with 18 steals, 18 doubles and 3 triples. He has struggled in the field, but management has him playing shortstop trying to improve his range there as he has been scouted to be one of the better fielding 2B at the AA level. Chances are he will be playing in AAA before the year is done.
GO D-BAGS
No comments:
Post a Comment