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Saturday, June 11, 2016

Take a Look at the Dodgers Picks at 4 thru 10 - Welcome to the Blue!


On the second day of the 2016 Draft the Dodgers selected eight players between rounds three to ten.  Below is a short synopsis on the players taken from rounds four to ten.  You can check out my report on 3rd Round pick Dustin May here.

It should be noted that two of the players below, to go along with the Dodgers #1 pick Gavin Lux, are shortstops.  This is not to say that the Dodgers are looking to replace the current officeholder at the position, Corey Seager.  Instead, drafting is all about getting the best athletes possible.  Per Jon Weisman at Dodger Insider:
“The theory is that looking throughout the history of the draft and how athletes develop and age, when they’re athletic enough to play shortstop, it’s a pretty good recipe — as they age and get older and their skills develop and their bodies go forward or backwards — they can usually play other positions,” Gasparino said. “So many players today who are left fielders or right fielders, third basemen, second basemen, started out as shortstops. If you can start there, it’s a lot easier to transition to other places on the field, and gives you more avenues of versatility that way.”

In other words, this isn’t the NBA. With development such a long, protracted process in baseball — and almost no such thing as a quick fix — the overwhelming tendency is to take the player with the greatest potential, regardless of what the current Major League roster looks like. If the worst-case scenario is the Dodgers have multiple quality shortstops, they’ll live with that.
In Jon's story he also shares some quotes from Billy Gasparino about the eight players taken today, and I've included them in the below writeups.

4th Round Pick

D.J. Peters

DJ Peters is a 6' 5" tall outfielder who played this past season at Western Nevada Community College.  Peters, a 20-year-old outfielder from Glendora, CA, set records for Western Nevada College in batting average (.419) and home runs (16) this season.   The Region 18 Player of the Year posted a .419/.510/.734 slashline and became the first Wildcat to hit above .400 in a season.  You can follow him on twitter here: @8Peters.  Per Jon Weisman at Dodger Insider:
“He’s just an uber-talented outfielder with tons of tools and upside, and big power. He came to our workout at Dodger Stadium and was launching balls into the stands and throwing well and running well, just really a physical freak in some ways.”
Below are more stories and reports worth checking out:

5th Round Pick

Devin Smeltzer

Devon Smeltzer is a 20-year old left-handed pitcher from San Jacinto College in San Jacinto, California.  He stands 6' 3" tall and is a cancer survivor.  Before turning ten they found a grapefruit-sized mass connected to his prostate and it was pressing on his bladder.   He went 9-3 with five complete games and posted a 1.18 ERA (12 ER/91.2 IP), while striking out 128 batters against just 23 walks in 15 starts this year.  Per Seth Soffian at News-Press.com:
"It makes you grow up. It makes you be an adult," Smeltzer said. "When you think of cancer you think of the worst. But once I got over it and realized I had something curable – it was very aggressive, but I had a good shot – I just kind of got over myself and started helping others in there. I started getting real close with them."

About six weeks of chemotherapy and radiation cut Devin's weight nearly in half, from 80 to 50 pounds. But he never quit playing baseball, forcing down protein shakes that tasted like copper to him just so he could avoid a feeding tube, which would have meant no baseball.
You can follow him on twitter here: @alka_SMELTZer. Per Jon Weisman at Dodger Insider:
“Smeltzer’s a left-hand pitcher with plus pitchability, really good slider. He’s had tons of success, really good makeup. Just really happy to get him there.”
Below are more stories and reports worth checking out:

6th Round Pick

Errol Robinson

Errol Robinson is a 21-year old shortstop from Ole Miss University.  He stands 5' 11" tall.  Robinson hit .286 with 28 doubles, four triples, two home runs and 85 RBI in three seasons for Ole Miss and was named SEC All-Freshman selection in 2014.  Per MLB.com:
Robinson started 61 games for Ole Miss this season and had a .270 batting average, but the shortstop is mainly a singles hitter, with only one home run. He has average to slightly-above-average speed on the bases, and is a solid shortstop defensively with a serviceable arm.
You can follow him on twitter here: @errol_robinson6.  Per Jon Weisman at Dodger Insider:
“Errol is a plus defender at short, with a track record of hitting in the Cape (Cod League). We just think he’s an athletic shortstop with a chance to be an everyday player — really good find for us there in the sixth round.”
Below are more stories and reports worth checking out:

7th Round Pick

Luke Raley

Luke Raley is a 21-year old outfielder from Lake Erie College.  He stands 6' 3" tall.  Raley, a junior Third-Team All-American selection, hit .424 with 11 doubles, two triples, 12 home runs and 39 RBI in 47 games this season, while posting a .528 on-base percentage and a .747 slugging percentage.  You can follow him on twitter here: @Lraley00.  Per Jon Weisman at Dodger Insider:
“Raley was kind of an underscouted outfielder from Lake Erie College, a small school that not many people get to. Marty Lamb did an outstanding job just finding this guy, identifying the talent and doing a lot of work on him. He’s big, he’s physical, he’s got tools, he had a great performance at a lower-level school, and we think it’s gonna translate well to the next level.”
Below are more stories and reports worth checking out:

8th Round Pick

Andre Scrubb

Andre Scrubb is a 21-year old right-handed pitcher from High Point University in North Carolina.  He stands 6' 4" tall. Scrubb appeared in 47 career games (29 starts) in three seasons with High Point University, posting 16-12 with 4.29 ERA with 189 strikeouts in 186.2 innings. Per MLB.com:
Scrubb can get his fastball up to 95 mph, but when he pitches from the stretch, he loses velocity. The High Point right-hander also has a good curveball, and he relies heavily on it. Scrubb had a 4.86 ERA in 14 starts in 2016, with 94 strikeouts in 74 innings -- but he also walked 54.
You can follow him on twitter here: @AndreScrubb.  Per Jon Weisman at Dodger Insider:
“He’s a big, right-handed pitcher with plus velocity, has a really good breaking ball. His strikeout rate was very high. We think we have a few ways we can help him more, get even more strikes, repeat his delivery better, and we’re looking forward to having our player-development staff work with this one.”
Below are more stories and reports worth checking out:
Scrubb’s heft and arm action have me leaning towards more of a bullpen future for him – fair or not – but he can throw two breaking balls for strikes, so starting as a pro shouldn’t be off the table. He’s coming off a really impressive 2015 season, so I could see teams that value performance giving him the edge.

9th Round Pick

Anthony Gonsolin

Anthony Gonsolin is a 22-year old right-handed pitcher from St. Mary's College in Moraga, California.  He stands 6' 2" tall.  Gonsolin, a two-way player who was drafted as a pitcher, went 3-3 with a 3.86 ERA and collected six saves in 18 games (five starts) while hitting .307 with nine doubles, three triples, seven home runs and 26 RBI during his senior year at Saint Mary’s College.  Per Jon Weisman at Dodger Insider:
“Gonsolin is a two-way player at St. Mary’s, very athletic, up to 95 with a plus curveball. He was also a prospect as a hitter. It’s one of those guys that Paul Cogan and Tom Kunis knew well and had a deep history with, and we were able to get him as a senior in the ninth round. … We’re going to convert him to pull-time pitcher, and feel good about his chances in that role full-time.”
Below are more stories and reports worth checking out:

10th Round Pick

Kevin Lachance

Kevin Lachance is a 21-year old shortstop from University of Maryland, Baltimore County.  He stands 6' 3" tall.  Lachance was named to the America East All-Conference First Team in May, after posting a .373/.451/.539 slashline with 14 doubles, one triple, six home runs and 29 RBI this year, while also stealing a UMBC-record 28 bases.  You can follow him on twitter here: @klachance_5.  Per Jon Weisman at Dodger Insider:
“Kevin is an athletic shortstop, maybe even slash center fielder — we’re not really sure what up-the-middle position he’s gonna play yet. But he’s a 70 runner, with a high-contact skill bat. He’s 6-3 — it’s a great body. Really twitchy, kind of loose athlete that we were excited to get.”

The 2016 draft concludes Saturday with the compression chamber of rounds 11-40 in a single day. After completing today’s selections, the Dodgers were quickly moving back into preparation mode.

“It’s not too much different from the first couple of days, except that it happens a lot faster,” Gasparino said. “So we’re going to spend a couple of hours getting more organized for tomorrow, building some priority lists for rounds 11-15. After that, it becomes a combination of trying to acquire some talent and also fill some roster spots, (talking) with player development about some of our needs. There’s a whole sort of mix that comes after that 15th round.”
Below are more stories and reports worth checking out:

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