by Bill Moriarity / A’s Farm Editor
July 17, 2021
The man responsible for overseeing the A’s efforts in the amateur draft is scouting director Eric Kubota. Kubota started out his career in the baseball world by interning for the A’s in the mid-‘80s, and he eventually served as the assistant director of scouting and the supervisor of international scouting before succeeding Grady Fuson as scouting director following Fuson’s departure after the 2001 season.
In past years, we’ve talked with Kubota about top picks like Addison Russell in 2012, Matt Chapman in 2014, A.J. Puk in 2016, Austin Beck in 2017 and Tyler Soderstrom in 2020. And this year, we were eager to get his insights on #1 pick Max Muncy as well as the A’s other top ten picks from the 2021 draft.
Now in his 20th season as the A’s scouting director, Kubota was kind enough to take the time to speak with us just a couple of days after the draft to offer his insights on the newest crop of A’s prospects. You can listen to our complete conversation on A’s Cast.
AF: So, we obviously want to talk to you about this year’s top ten draft picks for the A’s. But before we do, I did want to ask you one question about last year’s draft…You really made the most of that first pick with catcher Tyler Soderstrom. This year, as a 19-year-old, he’s hitting over .300 for Stockton. He’s leading the team in most offensive categories. I’m just curious to know what your impressions have been of Soderstrom this year…and how his performance this year compares to what you saw of him in high school and what you projected for him when you were scouting him back then?
EK: Yeah, we’re certainly happy for Tyler and the season he’s putting together right now. I guess, to a certain degree, it’s reflective of what we thought of him. We thought he had an advanced high school bat. We did think his catching had a chance to develop into major league quality catching, and that seems to be progressing in that direction. So, we’re certainly pleased for Tyler and, obviously, it makes us feel good too.
AF: I know last year everyone talked about what a mature hitter he was, and that certainly seems to be the case. Like I said, he’s only 19 years old, but he looks like he’s been doing this his whole life.
EK: Yeah, I think it helps that his dad was a major leaguer, so that certainly helped him. I think spending time at the alt site last summer, even though it wasn’t the ideal situation, I think he made the most of it. Just being around those older players and seeing Triple-A and major league level pitching every day, I think it was definitely an advantage for him.
AF: Now getting to this year’s draft class, you started out your first pick with another high school hitter, shortstop Max Muncy out of Thousand Oaks. Besides following in the tradition of drafting guys named Max Muncy, what else about this Max Muncy really stood out for you guys and really put him in a position where you thought this kid could be our number-one pick this year?
EK: We were able to see a lot of Max, and he performed at a high level. We think he’s a live athlete, number one, with a good swing and strength, and he’s just got this mental makeup and confidence. And I think he just has a self-belief that will carry him through in this game.
AF: Well, I know he himself talked about being a high-energy player, and I kind of got the feeling that he was quite a leader on the team.
EK: Yeah, I think he is a high-energy player. I’m not necessarily sure he’s a rah-rah type. I think he’s more of a lead-by-example type, but he plays really hard. He’s very athletic and just has a belief in his own abilities.
AF: Well, I guess anytime you’ve got a player where you feel he’s got a good chance to stick at shortstop and he’s also got real power potential, that’s a combination that’s hard to resist when you start envisioning that power-hitting shortstop kind of player, right?
EK: Yeah, for sure. And we don’t think his offense is just kind of a one-trick pony type of thing. We do think he has a chance to be a really good hitter. So, it’s a combination of the chance to hit at a high level and also have strength.
AF: And I know in terms of comps, you’ve compared him to Dansby Swanson already, and that seems like a pretty good comp. But can you talk a little bit more about how he compares?
EK: If you see him in a baseball uniform, physically, you can’t help but think of Dansby, so that was really the first thing that came to my mind. Their games, I think, have a lot of similarities.
AF: Now after Muncy, with your second pick, you went with another infielder, a college third baseman, Zack Gelof out of Virginia. It seems like he’s another guy that’s got a lot of offensive potential, but can you talk about what really opened your eyes about Zack Gelof?
EK: He’s big and, for as big as he is, he’s a freakishly good athlete. He is very physical. He’s a very surprising runner. His running speed is above average. He’s a physical third baseman who actually hit leadoff for his college team, which is kind of unusual. We don’t really see that being where he sticks long-term, but we really liked the approach at the plate. He’s a good hitter now. I think he sacrificed a little bit of power potential to be the leadoff type of hitter that they wanted from him. But you can’t look at him and not think that there’s going to be power there, and there’s speed. There’s enough speed that he may be able to play some center field when things are all said and done as well.
AF: Oh, that’s interesting. I know I’d seen people talk about him potentially being a corner outfielder, but you’re envisioning him potentially in center?
EK: Yeah, he’s athletic enough where he could just about play anywhere. I mean, we think of him as a third baseman now, but we did talk about the possibility that…he’s such a good athlete, it’s good enough tools to play center field.
AF: As you mentioned, he’s definitely a big guy. I think he’s 6-foot-3. But I did notice he had more stolen bases than home runs last year. So, like you said, he’s definitely got a few tools he’s working with there.
EK: Yeah…it’s a big run tool, and it’s power potential, and we really like the approach at the plate.
AF: Did you have any comps for Zack?
EK: Not a great one. I think his overall game, not necessarily how he looks physically, but there’s a lot of Mark Canha and the same kind of skills as Mark brings right now.
AF: So, another one of those power hitting leadoff hitters, right?
EK: Yeah, exactly. And Mark has played pretty solid center field in the big leagues. He’s played all over the field for us.
AF: Now with your third pick, you took your first pitcher in the draft, right-hander Mason Miller out of Gardner-Webb in North Carolina. He has kind of an interesting story. Can you talk a little bit about Mason Miller and what put him so high on your radar?
EK: Well, just first talking about this story…he started his college career at a very small school called Waynesburg University, and he was just okay if you look at his performance. But at some point, while at Waynesburg, he was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. And once they diagnosed that and started him on treatment, both his physicality and his fastball ticked upwards quickly. And our scout in Pennsylvania, Matt Higginson, liked him a year ago. But I think Mason wasn’t a 100% sure if the time was right for him to sign and he ended up at Gardner-Webb and we continued to follow him there. He’s got a great body. We’ve seen him up to 99 off the mound with a chance for a plus breaking ball. We think there’s starter potential there with just a great body.
AF: So, do you have a comp for Mason Miller?
EK: One of our scouts kind of mentioned Nathan Eovaldi – I mean, the same kind of fastball, slider, chance to start.
AF: So, with your fourth pick, you went with Denzel Clarke out of Cal State Northridge, which is my alma mater, and he seems like he has a lot of potential. He’s a big guy. I think he’s 6-foot-5, 220 pounds. There’s certainly got to be power potential there, but I know he’s also shown a lot of speed as well. So, can you talk about the combination of tools that Denzel Clarke has to offer?
EK: Yeah, Denzel is the prototypical scout’s dream. He’s got an unbelievable body. He’s got top-of-the-chart speed. When he starts going, especially like first to third or covering ground in center field, it’s pretty impressive. There’s a ton of power potential. He’s maybe a little more raw, and that’s why we were lucky enough to get him in the fourth round. But he has the ability to be a true five-tool player, above average all the way across the board. It’s a really impressive physical package. He comes from a super athletic family. His mom represented Canada as a heptathlete in the ’84 Olympics in L.A. He’s got uncles who played in the Canadian Football League. He’s got very strong athletic blood lines.
AF: Well, he looks like he could be a football player if he wanted to. You mentioned that he’s a bit of a scout’s dream. I was thinking that too. With all the tools he’s got, I was kind of surprised to find him falling to you late in the fourth round. Were you also a little surprised that he was still available at that point?
EK: A little bit, yeah. By his own admission, he had kind of an up-and-down spring…and there was a period of time in the middle of the spring where they even removed him from the lineup to just kind of reflect a little bit. His performance, it definitely picked up as the spring went on, but it did not start really great, and he’d be the first to admit that. So, that kind of worked to our advantage.
AF: And planted enough of a seed of doubt in some people’s minds, I guess. I know with a guy like that, the danger is also strikeouts too. I think he had about 40 strikeouts in maybe 140 at-bats last year. So, obviously, that’s something that needs to be refined. You did mention, not just the power, but he’s got the speed, and he’s another guy who seems to be genuinely capable of playing center field, right?
EK: He has the chance to be a Gold Glove center fielder. It has a chance to be elite defense.
AF: That’s saying quite a lot for a guy that big…Now with your fifth pick, you went with catcher CJ Rodriguez out of Vanderbilt. He hasn’t put up big offensive numbers. He’s probably primarily known for catching Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker at Vanderbilt. So, obviously, he’s got experience handling big-game pitchers well. I don’t know if that’s what primarily drew you to him, but talk a little bit about CJ Rodriguez if you could.
EK: Yeah, we think CJ is a premium defensive catcher with a plus arm. Like you said, he has handled really, really good pitchers, but we just think his defense is elite. At the plate, even though he may not have hit for a high average, we really value the fact that he controls the strike zone – more walks than strikeouts. So, it’s an offensive profile that can play, and the defense is top of the charts.
AF: I think, if I’m correct, he had 36 walks and only 19 strikeouts last year. So, he obviously is a guy with a good eye at the plate anyway. Do you have a comp for CJ Rodriguez?
EK: Yeah, he reminds us a little bit of Kurt Suzuki who was here as well – strong defense with some strength to develop and a chance to have solid offense.
AF: And neither of them are terribly big guys physically either.
EK: Right, yeah…although Kurt is probably bigger than he gets credit for. He’s like 6-feet tall, but yeah, they have some similarities in their defensive game for sure.
AF: I forgot to ask you, did you have any comps to offer on Denzel Clarke?
EK: I did. I was a little miffed that you didn’t ask ‘cause he was an easy one – Andre Dawson.
AF: Now with your sixth pick, you took only your second pitcher of the draft. That was Grant Holman out of Cal. He’s a 21-year-old guy, and I know he’s a big guy. I think he’s 6-foot-6, 250 pounds, throws hard, but I think he’s had some injuries too. I’m imagining, since he went to Cal, you guys got a lot of good looks at him and you had a pretty good idea of what you were getting in him, but tell me what you really liked about Grant Holman.
EK: Yeah, Grant is just physically imposing. He is big and a really good athlete for his size. He reminds us of Noah Syndergaard in a lot of ways, and it may just be physically and the hair…We like the fact that Grant was a two-way player up until this year. He was a good hitter for Cal. He’s athletic. For as big as he is, he repeats his delivery really well and throw strikes – really an advanced strike thrower for as big as he is…He has had some physical issues. He got off to a late start this spring, and then I think he made just about every start after that. So, we think it’s physical ailments that will be overcome in the long-term. And we think there’s a lot of upside with Grant.
AF: Yeah, he’s certainly a big guy. And if you get a 6-foot-6, 250-pound guy throwing a fastball your way, you’ve got to keep on your toes.
EK: He throws it generally where he wants to throw it too, which is impressive.
AF: Well, that’s good…Now with your seventh pick, you went with your second third baseman, Brett Harris out of Gonzaga. He’s a little bit of an older guy. He’s 23 already. He’s been around the college game for a little while. It seems like he’s known as a strong defensive third baseman, and I think he also was considered to be a bit of a leader on that team as well. But what stood out for you about Brett Harris?
EK: I think we liked the athlete and the defensive versatility. He’s played mostly third base, but he filled in at shortstop for an extended period. We think he can play all over the field. We think the bat is just starting to evolve really, even despite the age. We had a couple of scouts who really, really liked Brett and thought there was a lot of upside to his game.
AF: It seems like after your first half dozen picks or so that a lot of the guys had shown some degree of versatility. It looks like that really started to factor in a lot as the draft unfolded. Is that the case?
EK: It definitely wasn’t intentional, but it seems that…definitely some of these guys have played multiple positions.
AF: And any comps to offer on Brett Harris?
EK: Yeah, one of our scouts thought he reminded them of David Bote with the Cubs.
AF: Now with your eighth pick, you took your second shortstop, Drew Swift out of Arizona State, and it looks like he’s definitely a defense-first shortstop. I think he’s won awards for his defense – maybe not as big an offensive profile. But what did you guys like about Drew Swift?
EK: Drew, he’s just a premium defender. We’ve seen him since high school. He’s always, always been a premium defensive player. He’s always been slight of build. He finally started to fill out some this year and started adding a little more physicality to his game, which will definitely help on the offense. We do think he has a chance to hit enough to play shortstop every day in the big leagues. But his shortstop is just, it’s premium defense at a premium position.
AF: He sounded like he had kind of a similar profile to the way everyone used to talk about Nick Allen, where his defense is solid, and if he can just hit enough, he’ll be good to go. Is that how you view him too?
EK: Somewhat. Yeah, I think that’s somewhat fair.
AF: Any comps for Drew Swift?
EK: I grew up in the Bay Area, and he reminds me a lot of Johnnie LeMaster.
AF: Ah, Johnnie LeMaster. You don’t hear a lot of Johnnie LeMaster references these days…Now, with your ninth pick, you went with a catcher, Shane McGuire, your second catcher, out of the University of San Diego. He’s the brother of Toronto catcher Reese McGuire. And I think he’s the only left-handed hitter you took in the whole draft this year. I guess any left-handed-hitting catchers always stand out a little bit, but what impressed you about Shane McGuire?
EK: Shane’s really got an advanced approach at the plate. He’s a really good hitter…He’s caught, he’s played first, he’s kind of played around the field. We do think he can stay behind the plate, and we value the fact that he can really hit.
AF: I think he had twice as many walks as strikeouts last year, which is a good sign anyway. So, does he have much power potential, or do you see him more as a contact hitter?
EK: He has strength to develop. He’ll have to probably make some adjustments in his approach to get to the power. There is a chance that he could develop power as he matures.
AF: And then with your tenth pick…you went with your third shortstop. I know you guys love those shortstops! Jack Winkler out of the University of San Francisco. Another guy I’m imagining you got a lot of looks at given where he went to school. But can you tell us a little bit about Jack Winkler and how he profiles?
EK: Yeah, just a really good baseball player. We really like the defense, very good actions, enough arm for shortstop. He played third base as a sophomore. I’m sure he could play second. We think there’s strength to develop in the bat. Just a really good baseball player with the ability to play around the infield.
AF: He seemed like another one of those guys with a lot of versatility…and he seemed to have a lot of speed too. I know he racked up a lot of stolen bases there at USF.
EK: Yeah, I saw that. That wouldn’t have been the first thing I would’ve said, but I noticed the stolen base numbers. We think that probably won’t be as big a part of his game going forward, but I think that there’s a chance he’ll develop power as he goes on too.
AF: Well, he’s definitely not slow-footed anyway. We can say that about him.
EK: No, no. And he’s definitely athletic enough to play in the middle of the diamond.
AF: You only took two pitchers in your top ten. I guess to balance things out a little bit on the final day of the draft, you took eight pitchers out of your final ten picks. Is there anyone out of that second batch, the 11-20 picks, that you think A’s fans should take particular note of or know about?
EK: Yeah, obviously, those are still quality picks. We think there’s still big leaguers in that group. It seems late now since it’s only a 20-round draft, but it would have been early in a 40-round draft…I think our 11th rounder, Eduardo Rivera from Puerto Rico…he’s 6-7, and he’s been up to 97, so there’s just a lot of upside there…Our 14th rounder, Jonny Butler from NC State, we really, really liked the bat. He’s a plus runner. He did not play center field at NC State because they had another player that’s played there that went in the third round, I believe, but we think he has a chance to play center. So, he would be another good name to kind of keep an eye on.
AF: So, do you anticipate signing any of these undrafted guys now in this period after the draft?
EK: We signed two, and that’ll probably be it. We signed a left-handed pitcher from Auburn named Jack Owen and then the first baseman from Stanford, Nick Brueser.
AF: Well, thanks again for taking the time out to talk to us this year. It’s always great for everyone to hear your insights on these guys. And we’ll look forward to seeing how things play out here in the coming days.
EK: Okay, Bill, thanks.
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