College Splits: Tampa Bay Rays 2010 Draft Recap

Tampa Bay Rays 2010 Draft Recap

June 15, 2010

The Rays' second round pick, RHP Jake Thompson was Bryce Harper before Bryce Harper was cool. Not the "Baseball's Lebron" part, though. Just the part about leaving high school early and enrolling to play college baseball. Thompson's career has been a bit of a mixed bag. This season is more of what you'd want to see in an early round pick, (K/BB over 3, and more groundouts than airouts), but last year's K/9 under 5 makes you wonder.

Both scouts and stat geeks loved Jesse Hahn in the days leading up to the draft, but ultimately it will be the Rays' medical staff who will have the most say in his early minor league career. A forearm injury which caused Hahn to a month of action likely cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars in bonus money. Here's hoping he can return to his +9 K/IP ways, continue inducing almost three times more groundouts as airouts, and make up for any lost bonus money in free agency in six years.

With Derek Dietrich of the Georgia Institute of Technology (pick #79), Jesse Hahn of the Virginia Polytechnical Institute and State University (pick #191), and Adam Liberatore of the Tennessee Technological University (pick #641) selected by Tampa Bay this year, don't be surprised if you see a few Rays scouts at your local ITT Techincal Institute next spring, as well.

Draft Class Breakdown

Here's a general idea of who they took, and where they got 'em. To compare to other teams and MLB averages, check out this post at THT Live.

  Pos    4YR  JC  HS  Total  
  RHP      7   6   6     19  
  LHP      5   1   3      9  
  C        1   1   2      4  
  1B       4   0   2      6  
  2B       3   0   0      3  
  3B       1   0   1      2  
  SS       1   0   2      3  
  CF       0   1   2      3  
  RF       0   1   2      3  
  OF       1   0   0      1  
  Total   23  10  20

Splits for Rays Draftees

17 - Josh Sale, Bishop Blanchet HS (WA)

31 - Justin O'Conner, Cowan HS (IN)

42 - Drew Vettleson, Central Kitsap School (WA)

66 - Jacob Thompson, Cal State - Long Beach

79 - Derek Dietrich, Georgia Tech

98 - Ryan Brett, Highline HS (WA)

131 - Austin Wood, St. Petersburg JC

161 - Ian Kendall, Ashland HS (OR)

191 - Jesse Hahn, Virginia Tech

221 - Michael Lorenzen, Fullerton HS (CA)

251 - Kenneth Kelly, Arizona State