SEATTLE — The second day of baseball’s amateur draft was more about unearthing raw talent that teams hope will develop in the minor leagues.
The Seattle Mariners selected 44 players on the final day of the draft Friday, some with intriguing upside and a few with names familiar to M’s fans.
They took Nate Tenbrink, a 6-foot-2, 202-pound left-handed-hitting first baseman from Kansas State, in the seventh round and left-handed pitcher Bobby LaFromboise, who went 5-3 with a 4.11 earned run average at the University of New Mexico, in the eighth round.
“Tenbrink is a good defensive player and we think he can play third base,” said Bob Fontaine, the Mariners’ scouting director. “But the big thing is he’s got power. He’s got to improve on his contact and that’s something we believe hitting with the wood bat will help. It forces you to stay back better. He’s played a good caliber of baseball and we like to get a lot of left-handed hitters if possible.”
As for names that ring a bell, the Mariners drafted Cal-Davis outfielder Ryan Royster, nephew of former big leaguer Jerry Royster, in the 13th round; Gateway (Ariz.) Community College outfielder Henry Cotto, son of former Mariner Henry Cotto, in the 41st round; and South Mountain (Ariz.) CC catcher Josh Rodriguez, son of M’s first base coach Eddie Rodriguez, in the 49th round.
Royster batted .336 with 10 home runs, 37 RBI and 13 steals his senior season at Cal-Davis.
“He has a good instinct for the game and we all know how important that is,” Fontaine said. “We all like this kid and we think he’s got a chance to be OK.”
The Mariners drafted two players from Washington, right-handed pitcher Brad Reid of Bellevue Community College in the 30th round and right-handed pitcher Andrew Kittredge of Ferris High School in Spokane in the 45th round. Kittredge already has committed to play at the University of Washington.
The Mariners finished the draft with 29 pitchers and 21 position players, and only 11 of their 50 picks were high schoolers.
“We thought that this was going to be a collegiate year for us, and it worked out that way,” said Fontaine, who went into the draft expecting to take more pitchers. “With the strength of the draft being the offensive part, that goes fast. Then it pushes down the other positions, which this year was pitchers. It pushed some good arms down to us and it pretty much played out like we had expected.”
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