After spending one day and one pick in the Major League Baseball amateur draft on Monday, the Seattle Mariners got down to the business of stocking up on prospective offensive talent on Tuesday.
The Mariners selected 15 players on day two of the draft to join first-round pick Mike Zunino, a University of Florida catcher who was taken with the third overall pick on Monday.
Including Zunino, the Mariners took 12 position players and four pitchers. There were 10 players from college, six from high schools.
“There’s certain players you see right in front of your face that you not sure whether or not they will get to you in a certain round, so you have to jump up and take them,” Mariners director of amateur scouting Tom McNamara said. “You don’t want to be sitting there after the draft or three or four years later, saying, ‘we really liked those guys.’ Well, no, you didn’t. You have to step up and take the players you like.”
McNamara liked slugging high school shortstop Joseph DeCarlo enough to take him with the Mariners’ second-round pick. Baseball America rated DeCarlo as the 57th best high school prospect in the draft.
“He’s a good looking hitter, a very physical kid,” McNamara said. “We were very happy to get him to get where we got him.”
The Mariners then went with lanky right-handed starting pitcher Edwin Diaz out of Caguas Military Academy in Caguas, Puerto Rico with their third-round pick. At 18, Diaz is rail thin at 6-2, 160 pounds, but the Mariners saw him hit 95-97 mph with fastball.
“He’s a projectable, very athletic kid,” McNamara said.
The Mariners later selected 17-year-old Kristian Brito out of Yabucoa, Puerto Rico in the 11th round. At 6-5, 230 pounds, Brito is massive and raw.
“It’s been one of the best year’s they’ve had,” McNamara said of Puerto Rico. “We’ve got to know (Brito) and he’s a good kid that comes from a good family. He’s got power. But he’s a guy that’s going to go out to Peoria and get used to playing professional baseball. He does have some thunder in his bat.”
One thing that McNamara did find pleasing was selecting a group of six players he felt were “physical hitters” who could drive the baseball and have success immediately.
Besides DeCarlo, fourth-round pick Patrick Kivlehan (third base), sixth-round pick Timmy Lopes (shortstop), seventh-round pick Taylor Ard (first base) and eighth-round pick Nick Halamanderis and were all guys that McNamara felt fit that label.
“I think all of them are going to hit,” McNamara said. “These are offensive players. That’s the way we look at them.”
Ard was a two-time first-team all-conference selection for Washington State. He hit .332 with 41 runs scored, 16 doubles, 12 home runs and 50 RBI in his junior season for the Cougs.
“We’ve obviously seen him the last couple of years,” McNamara said. “The last time I saw Taylor was at Stanford when he hit a home run off of (Mark) Appel a couple weeks ago. It’s always a nice lasting impression to hit a ball out against one of the best pitchers in the country. He’s a physical kid, he’s confident, he knows the strike zone and he can drive the baseball.”
Kivlehan is one of the more interesting stories in the draft. After playing for four years on the Rutgers University football team as a strong safety, he decided to play baseball in his one year remaining of eligibility. And despite being away from the game, Kivlehan came out and won the Big East’s triple crown — leading the league with a .392 batting average, 14 homers and 50 RBI — while being named player of the year.
“He’s just a physical, athletic kid,” McNamara said. “We were really surprised how the guy just picked up and led the Big East in every offensive category you can think of. He got better and better as the season went on. He likes to play and he has character.”
Another intriguing pick for the Mariners was the selection of right-handed pitcher Grady Wood out of Western Oregon University in the 10th round. The senior pitcher went 12-0 with a 1.69 ERA for the Wolves while earning NCAA Division II All-American honors. He won 20 consecutive games over two seasons, one away from the Division II national record.
“He’s a sinker/slider/cutter guy that throws from an effective arm angle,” McNamara said. “He’s a local guy. He’s a senior. And he gets people out, plain and simple.”
The draft continues today with rounds 16-40.
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