PHILADELPHIA — The Athletics drafted Georgia Tech outfielder Drew Burress with the eighth prime successful the Major League Baseball Draft connected Saturday.
Burress was rated arsenic the No. 7 wide draught propect, according to MLB Pipeline. The scouting study connected the outfielder is that helium has large sheet subject and powerfulness to each fields acknowledgment to a compact swing.
The 5-foot-9, 185-pound slugger deed .357 with 60 homers and a 1.204 OPS successful 3 seasons. He became the archetypal subordinate to deed 60 homers successful schoolhouse history, hitting 16 homers and 60 RBIs successful helping Georgia Tech to the ACC regular-season title.
Earlier successful the day, the astonishing Chicago White Sox went with the expected prime and selected UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky. A 6-foot-2 right-handed hitter, Cholowsky was a Golden Spikes finalist astatine UCLA and had a 1.088 OPS with 21 homers and 60 RBIs successful his inferior season. He was the Big Ten Player of the Year.
“Roch, his household and his enactment operation impressed america passim the full process, and his acquisition astatine UCLA surely prepared him to instrumentality the adjacent measurement arsenic a professional,” White Sox wide manager Chris Getz said. “An outstanding antiaircraft shortstop, Roch brings an interaction bat to immoderate lineup, and helium is simply a person connected the tract arsenic good arsenic successful the clubhouse. He has much than lived up to precise precocious expectations, and we cannot hold to get him into our organization, get started and spot him proceed his maturation and success.”
The adjacent 2 picks went astir arsenic wide predicted.
Tampa Bay selected Texas precocious schoolhouse shortstop Grady Emerson with the 2nd prime and Minnesota took Georgia Tech catcher Vahn Lackey third.
Just 18 years old, the 6-3, 185-pound Emerson bats left, throws close and is wide considered the champion all-around subordinate successful the draft. A University of Texas commit, Emerson transferred to Fort Worth Christian for his elder year, erstwhile helium played nether caput manager Rusty Greer, a nine-year MLB seasoned who spent 9 seasons with the Texas Rangers.
The 21-year-old Lackey didn’t person immoderate Division I offers until his elder twelvemonth of precocious schoolhouse and has since blossomed into 1 of the apical catching prospects successful the draught retired of Georgia Tech. The 6-foot-2, 215-pounder showed immoderate versatility by besides playing 3rd base.
The remainder of the apical 10
San Francisco selected right-handed pitcher Jackson Flora — a noted fried chickenhearted aficionado — retired of UC Santa Barbara with the No. 4 pick. The Pirates took outfielder Derek Curiel from LSU with the 5th pick. Louisville outfielder Zion Rose went sixth to Kansas City and Oak Grove High School (Mississippi) outfielder Eric Booth Jr. went seventh to Baltimore.
Atlanta took Virginia outfielder AJ Gracia with the ninth prime and Colorado selected Kentucky shortstop Tyler Bell 10th.
The players were no-shows
With erstwhile White Sox and Phillies players Jimmy Rollins and Greg Luzinski connected manus to rally hundreds of fans astatine the draft, Chicago had the apical enactment for the archetypal clip since taking Harold Baines successful 1977.
Baines was inducted into the Hall of Fame successful 2019.
The White Sox, who the No. 1 prime aft they mislaid 102 games past play and won the draught lottery, person pegged Cholowsky arsenic a aboriginal prima that tin assistance them triumph their archetypal World Series rubric since 2005.
Led by All-Star 3rd baseman Miguel Vargas, the White Sox person emerged arsenic 1 of the apical surprises and entered Saturday successful archetypal spot successful the AL Central aft enduring 3 consecutive 100-loss seasons.
Cholowsky is the archetypal collegiate shortstop to spell No. 1 wide since Vanderbilt’s Dansby Swanson successful 2015 and was UCLA’s archetypal No. 1 draught prime since Gerrit Cole successful 2011.
Cholowsky’s contiguous reaction?
Well, it didn’t travel successful Philadelphia, wherever helium led disconnected the lineup of MLB draught prospects who did not amusement up astatine the city’s normal center, conscionable a fewer miles distant from Citizens Bank Park, the location of Tuesday’s All-Star Game. MLB said Friday that nary amateur players were scheduled to be the draft, conscionable arsenic past year.
Major League Baseball has weaved the thought of forcing players to be into negotiations for a caller corporate bargaining agreement. MLB projected requiring up to 10 prospects to be the draft, and each would get a $50,000 draught attendance bonus.
That meant the loudest ovation during draught festivities belonged to the Phillie Phanatic erstwhile helium was introduced during mascot rotation call. Phillies fans conscionable astir booed Braves mascot Blooper retired of the normal halfway and had much jeers for MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred.
Manfred — who botched the pronunciation of Cholowsky’s sanction astatine the podium — turned the assemblage absorption astir earlier the commencement of the draught arsenic helium name-dropped immoderate of the large stars successful Phillies history. (For the record, Cholowsky’s past sanction is pronounced chil-OW’-skee.)
There was different announcement to marque wrong the normal center.
“We’re going to spot the accomplishment of tremendous endowment today,” Siera Santos of MLB Network told the crowd.
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
English (US)·