After finishing poorly last season, Oakland earned the sixth overall pick in this year’s amateur draft. The A’s also had the 37th overall pick in the Competitive Balance Lottery Round A, which meant the team would pick eleven players in the first ten rounds of the draft. And with the tenth round concluding at the end of the second day of the draft on Friday, it’s now time to take a look at the A’s top eleven picks of the 2016 draft.
After taking three collegiate pitchers with their top three picks on Thursday, the A’s continued to focus on college arms again on Friday. Overall, the team selected seven college pitchers, one high school hurler and three college position players with its top eleven picks.
The three position players include third-rounder Sean Murphy, a strong-armed catcher from Wright State, fifth-rounder JaVon Shelby, a power-hitting third baseman out of Kentucky, and seventh-rounder Tyler Ramirez, a solid-hitting center fielder out of North Carolina.
The only high school player taken by the A’s in the top ten rounds was fourth-rounder Skylar Szynski, who pitched a perfect game in his sophomore season. Szynski has committed to Indiana, but the A’s are hopeful of signing him.
As we mentioned in yesterday’s day one draft recap, top pick A.J. Puk is a flame-throwing lefty out of Florida with top-of-the-rotation potential, while second pick Daulton Jefferies is a 20-year-old righty from UC Berkeley (Cal) with pinpoint control, and Logan Shore is a solid strike-thrower also out of Florida who possesses an advanced understanding of pitching. And all three played together as members of 2015’s USA Collegiate National Team last summer.
Most of the remaining pitchers taken on Friday tend to be big strikeout guys. And sixth-rounder Brandon Bailey out of Gonzaga is remarkably reminiscent of last year’s sixth-round pick, right-hander Bowdien Derby, who’s since been dealt to the Brewers. Both are under-sized west coast righties with gaudy strikeout totals whom the A’s selected in the sixth round.
We’ll be learning a lot more about all the A’s top picks in the coming days and can look forward to getting the chance to see much more of them at Vermont or Arizona, or possibly even Beloit, before the month is through.
#1 – 1st Round
A.J. Puk
Left-Handed Pitcher
Florida
Age: 21 / 6’7” – 230 lbs.
Bats: Left / Throws: Left
2016 College Stats: 70 IP / 50 H / 25 ER / 31 BB / 95 K / 3.21 ERA / 1.16 WHIP
Daulton Jefferies
Right-Handed Pitcher
UC Berkeley (Cal)
Age: 20 / 6’0” – 185 lbs.
Bats: Left / Throws: Right
2016 College Stats: 50 IP / 34 H / 6 ER / 8 BB / 53 K / 1.08 ERA / 0.84 WHIP
#3 – 2nd Round
Logan Shore
Right-Handed Pitcher
Florida
Age: 21 / 6’2” – 215 lbs.
Bats: Right / Throws: Right
2016 College Stats: 92 1/3 IP / 75 H / 25 ER / 15 BB / 80 K / 2.44 ERA / 0.97 WHIP
#4 – 3rd Round
Sean Murphy
Catcher
Wright State
Age: 21 / 6’3” – 215 lbs.
Bats: Right / Throws: Right
2016 College Stats: 121 AB / 6 HR / 23 BB / 16 K / .281 AVG / .408 OBP / .504 SLG
#5 – 4th Round
Skylar Szynski
Right-Handed Pitcher
Penn High School (Indiana)
Age: 18 / 6’2” – 195 lbs.
Bats: Left / Throws: Right
2016 High School Stats: 59 2/3 IP / 29 H / 12 ER / 18 BB / 78 K / 1.41 ERA / 0.79 WHIP
JaVon Shelby
Third Baseman
Kentucky
Age: 21 / 5’11” – 175 lbs.
Bats: Right / Throws: Right
2016 College Stats: 198 AB / 12 HR / 29 BB / 67 K / .212 AVG / .335 OBP / .470 SLG
#7 – 6th Round
Brandon Bailey
Right-Handed Pitcher
Gonzaga
Age: 21 / 5’10” – 175 lbs.
Bats: Right / Throws: Right
2016 College Stats: 100 1/3 IP / 80 H / 27 ER / 31 BB / 125 K / 2.42 ERA / 1.11 WHIP
#8 – 7th Round
Tyler Ramirez
Center Fielder
North Carolina
Age: 21 / 5’9” – 185 lbs.
Bats: Left / Throws: Left
2016 College Stats: 189 AB / 8 HR / 50 BB / 54 K / .333 AVG / .482 OBP / .540 SLG
#9 – 8th Round
Will Gilbert
Left-Handed Pitcher
North Carolina State
Age: 22 / 5’11” – 165 lbs.
Bats: Left / Throws: Left
2016 College Stats: 44 2/3 IP / 43 H / 12 ER / 10 BB / 53 K / 2.42 ERA / 1.19 WHIP
#10 – 9th Round
Dalton Sawyer
Left-Handed Pitcher
Minnesota
Age: 22 / 6’4” – 190 lbs.
Bats: Left / Throws: Left
2016 College Stats: 94 2/3 IP / 79 H / 35 ER / 42 BB / 112 K / 3.33 ERA / 1.28 WHIP
#11 – 10th Round
Mitchell Jordan
Right-Handed Pitcher
Stetson
Age: 21 / 6’2” – 205 lbs.
Bats: Right / Throws: Right
2016 College Stats: 80 IP / 73 H / 35 ER / 32 BB / 75 K / 3.94 ERA / 1.31 WHIP
11th SS Eli White (Clemson), 12th OF Luke Persico (UCLA), 13th 2B Nathan Mondou (Wake Forest), 14th RHP Nolan Blackwood (Memphis), 15th LHP Ty Damron (Texas Tech), 16th OF Anthony Churlin (Island Coast HS-FL), 17th RHP Seth Martinez (Arizona St), 18th C Skyler Weber (Georgia), 19th RHP Sam Gilbert (Kansas), 20th RHP Brigham Hill (Texas A&M)
21st OF Kyle Nowlin (Eastern Kentucky), 22nd C Roger Gonzalez (Winthrop), 23rd RHP Christian Lindsay-Young (Niagara CC), 24th OF Robert Bennie (East Stroudsburg), 25th OF Jeramiah McCray (Martin Luther King HS-CA), 26th 1B Charley Gould (William & Mary), 27th OF Cole Gruber (Nebraska-Omaha), 28th 2B Josh Vidales (Houston), 29th RHP Matt Milburn (Wofford), 30th RHP Nick Highberger (Creighton)
31st RHP Sam Sheehan (Westmont), 32nd C Collin Theroux (Oklahoma State), 33rd C Jarrett Costa (Westmont), 34th SS Casey Thomas (Texas A&M-Corpus Christi), 35th LHP Daniel Rafferty (Bucknell), 36th RHP Brady Schanuel (Parkland), 37th OF Michael Farley (Chico HS-CA), 38th OF Matthew Frazier (Clovis North HS-CA), 39th SS Shane Martinez (John W North HS-CA), 40th SS Brett Bittiger (Pace)
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