With The 3rd Pick Of The 2006 Amateur Draft, Tampa Bay Selects…

The 2006 Major League Baseball draft will be held June 6-7. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays have the 3rd pick of the draft and all indications are that the team will use that pick on a college pitcher. Alan Matthews of Baseball America is speculating that the Rays will take Brad Lincoln with the 3rd pick. Lincoln, a junior from the University of Houston, is a right handed pitcher. He is not very big at 6’0″ 200 pounds, but scouting reports say he possesses a fastball that can touch 95 and a hard breaking curveball. Interestingly, the player likely to be taken #1 overall, Andrew Miller, was previously drafted by the Devil Rays with their 3rd round pick in 2003, the year Tampa took Delmon Young with the #1 overall pick.

For all the woes of this franchise, management has done a superb job in the draft the last few few years. Below are the top-5 picks of the Devil Rays from the past four drafts. Of the 20 picks, 8 are solid major league prospects (in italics). Another 4 are borderline and may develop into big leaguers. Three of the draftees went unsigned, one has been traded and two from the 2005 class have yet to play. That leaves two players that have been drafted by the organization in the past 4 seasons that are still with the team and have yet to distinguish themselves (Jonathon Barratt and Matt Spring). That is an excellent track record in the amateur draft. 3 unsigned and 2 non-prospects in 20 picks.

Devil Rays Draft History 2002-2005

2002	1	B. J. Upton	SS	Future face of the organization, but at what position?
	2	Jason Pridie	OF	A tools guy that was taken by Twins in Rule 5 draft this year. After failing to make their Major League roster, sent back to Tampa. Average near .200 at AA Montgomery
	3	Elijah Dukes	OF	Appears to have put his temperamental problems behind him, and is experiencing a breakout season in Durham. May eventually be the reason the team trades one of their better known outfielders (i.e.. Carl Crawford or Delmon Young)
	4	Wes Bankston	3B?	On the DL at AA Montgomery. Has Major League potential with his bat, but the team is seeking a position for him. This season he has been moved to 3B, but has been error-prone, with 11 in 18 games
	5	Mark Romanczuk	P	Unsigned. Drafted in 2005 (4th round) by Arizona
2003	1	Delmon Young	OF	Rated top prospect in minors.
	2	James Houser	LHP	Drafted out of high school, and still young at 21, Houser has been productive and consistent if not overpowering. This season he is 3-4 with a 3.76 ERA at single-A Visalia.
	3	Andrew Miller	LHP	Unsigned. Another high school hurler, Miller is projected as the top pick in this year’s draft.
	4	Travis Schlichting	3B	Undistinguished numbers in 3 years, peaking at Low-A Southwest Michigan. Was traded this past off-season for current Rays backup catcher Josh Paul
	5	Jonathon Barratt	LHP	Another high school pitcher. Barratt has made 5 starts this season at Visalia. He is 2-2 with a 5.13 ERA.
2004	1	Jeff Niemann	RHP	The organization made a switch this season and started looking more at college pitchers after going almost exclusively for high schoolers. Niemann has all the makings of a future mid-rotation major leaguer. He was shut down midway through last season and has yet to see the field in 2006. May be sent to Montgomery later this month.
	2	Reid Brignac	SS	Big time prospect with the bat. This season is hitting .311-8-38, but has committed 17 errors in 51 games.
	3	Wade Davis	RHP	This kid looks like a can’t miss prospect. In 10 starts this season at low-A Southwest Michigan, Davis has pitched 54 innings with 32 hits, 25 walks and 71 strikeouts. His walk totals are a little high, but that is forgivable with a 1.00 ERA. Drafted out of high school, Davis is only 20 years old.
	4	Matt Spring	C	Has yet to distinguish himself with the bat. Catchers are notoriously slow to develop at the plate (see Toby Hall). If Spring is to advance through the system, it will be due to his defense.
	5	Jacob McGee	LHP	Another high school pitcher. McGee is also posting impressive numbers at SW Michigan. In 60.2 innings, he is 4-5 with a 2.82 ERA and a league leading 82 strikeouts.
2005	1	Wade Townsend	RHP	Townsend has yet to pitch for the Devil Rays. Tore a ligament in his arm during the Arizona Fall League. Had Tommy John surgery and will not pitch in 2006
	2	Chris Mason	RHP	Has looked solid in 10 starts for Visalia. He is 4-2, with a 3.45 ERA and 1.26 WHIP in the hitter-friendly league.
	3	Bryan Morris	RHP	Unsigned. The Rays failed to reach an agreement with Morris before Tuesday’s midnight deadline. He will re-enter the draft and is projected as a 1st round pick
	4	Jeremy Hellickson	RHP	4th straight pitcher taken in this draft, showing where the team’s priorities are. Has yet to pitch for the Rays. Likely to pitch for Hudson Valley when their season starts.
	5	Mike McCormick	3B	Likely to play for Hudson Valley when their season starts.

The Hangover: Last Night In The AL East

Baltimore 6, D-Rays 5, 11 innings. The Rays blew a 5-1 lead and lost a heartbreaker to the O’s and spoiling a strong major league debut by James Shields. His stats don’t do show how good the rookie looked. We had heard all week about his “make up” and lack of major league “stuff”. Shields gave up 9 hits, 3 walks and 5 runs in 5 innings. Shields took a 5-1 lead into the 5th inning when the defense fell apart behind him. Although the Rays were not charged with any errors in the game, the team made 3 defensive mistakes in the 5th inning that led directly to the O’s scoring 4 runs and tying up the ballgame. Jeff Conine led of the inning and hit a pop up to shallow center field that Joey Gathright never saw. The ball dropped in front of him and Conine was on second with a double. The next batter, Kevin Millar hit a hard liner to left center that Gathright let get behind and role to the wall, turning a single into a double. Two batters later, Toby Hall was charged with a passed ball. The inning then fell apart for Shields. At the plate, Carl Crawford hit his 5th home run and 4th in the past week. Hall hit his career high 7th home run, a solo shot in the second. The Rays have now lost 6 in a row and have fallen 4 games behind Baltimore in the standings.

Boston 8, Toronto 6. The Sox maintained a tie atop of the AL East by salvaging the final game of their 3-game series with the Blue Jays. Boston scored enough to survive the a shaky major league debut by David Pauley as David Ortiz hit his 15th home run and Manny “ManRam” Ramirez hit his 13th…*Yawn*

New York 6, Detroit 1. The Spankees might be exposing Detroit as “Paper Tigers” (pun intended) by winning their 3rd straight in Detroit. Mike Mussina is staking his claim to being the starting pitcher for the American League All-Star team. Last night he pitched a complete game giving up only a single unearned run in the 9th inning. New York won this game despite missing Derek Jeter, Gary Sheffield, Jonny Damon and Hideki Matsui.

The Future: Yesterday On The Farm

Jacksonville 7, Montgomery 2. Jorge Cantu DH’d and went 0-4, one day after going 2-3 with a home run and 5 RBI. 2B Eliot Johnson hit his 9th home run of the season. For all the talk of the depth of outfielders in the organization, we think that people are missing the number of infielders that are potential major leaguers. With Jorge Cantu already making a name for himself in the bigs, and B. J. Upton considered by most a star in waiting, the team also has several other prospects. In addition to Johnson, SS Reid Brignac is putting up strong numbers in Visalia. Even as he struggles in the field, Brignac may be the player that pushes Upton to third base or the outfield. Also, Wes Bankston is believed to have a major league bat, although the team is still looking for a position for him to play. He has spent the mojority of this season at 3B after having previously played the outfield and first base.

Inland Empire 11, Visalia 6. There is a team called “Inland Empire”? Is this a single-A affiliate of the “Evil Empire”? We better look this up…Thanks to the amateur encyclopedites over at Wikipedia we juat learned that “Inland Empire” refers to the region of southern California that includes the counties east of Orange County. The team is the single-A affiliate of the Mariners and appear to be named after Route 66. Too Much Information.

Lansing 5, SW Michigan 0. 2 hits for the Rays…yuck.