(Not Hank) did a fabulous job of covering rounds 1 and 2, and he continued his sterling effort with rounds 3 through 7 this afternoon. Please feel free to leave a comment on either (i) the draft itself or (ii) (Not Hanks) contribution to documenting the awesomeness of the draft thus far for the Astros. Some would say the odds were loaded in their favour, but they certainly made it count, with three of the top dozen picks (via FanGraphs), top 8 picks (Baseball America or minorleagueball.com, including the top pick of the latter). My job tonight is to finish off Day 2 of the draft, which does through to round 10.
8-229: Garrett Stubbs, Catcher, Senior (22) from Southern Cal
Stubbs is an... ahem... stubby figure (at 5-9) and weighs 150 pounds (or alternatively, 5-10, 165). He bats from the left side, but throws righty. Stubbs does not feature in minorleagueball.com's top 400, but ranked 336 on BA's top 500. According to thebaseballcube.com, he batted .346/.435/.434 in 288 Plate Appearances in 2015, with 27 walks versus 31 strikeouts. That was (i) his best year during college and (ii) the year in which he received the most playing time of his college career. He has some speed: 20 stolen bases versus 7 caught stealing. He was recently named the Pac-12's Defensive Player of the Year.
He is the proud owner of a degree in policy planning and development, and has a brother who is also a Trojan. On Twitter.
9-259: Zac Person, LHP, Senior (22) from LSU
Zachary Quinn Person is a lefty reliever out of LSU, who also hails from Louisiana (the town of Enuice, to be exact). Union Pacific once crashed a train in Eunice, causing about one-third of the town to be evacuated. Person would have been about 7 at the time, and there is a non-zero chance that he would have been a serious Astros fan when that happened.
Anyhow, he has been used as a lefty reliever over most of his college career, starting only two games in his last two years. Through 177 innings (his whole career), he has pitched to a 2.54 ERA, including a WHIP of 1.21, a BB/9 of 4.83 and a K/9 of 10.47. His Senior year was the worst of his career from the perspective of ERA (3.34), but the best of his career in terms of walks (3.03), K/BB ratio (3.40) and WHIP (0.98). Has fastball apparently sits in the upper 80's, and he possesses an outstanding breaking pitch.
He is a Kinesiology major, and has an awful walk up song (actual song in this link). He was not ranked in minorleagueball.com's Top 400 or on BA's top 500. On Twitter.
10-289: Scott Weathersby, RHP, Senior (23) from Mississippi
Weatherby is a 23 year old senior who has started 4 games in 51 appearances in his College career. He has a career ERA of 2.81, and his 2015 ERA was better at 2.62. He pitched 55 innings in 2015, allowing 45 hits, walking 14 (WHIP 1.07) and striking out 51. He high point of his college career was the six (!) innings of relief against Vanderbilt on April 10, where he retired 18 of 21 batters and got the Rebels out of a bases loaded jam that he inherited. More juicy game anecdotes here.
Not on minorleagueball.com's top 400 or on BA's top 500. On Twitter.
Wrapping up:
Couple of points here. Firstly, congratulations to the 8 young men drafted today, and the 4 drafted yesterday. The moment when you were drafted should be one you remember for the rest of your life. Exciting way to start a pro career.
Second, the Astros may be looking to somehow pay for their generosity of yesterday, plus get older players who could help the team sooner, rather than later. Two of the three covered here are relievers, and all three are seniors. That adds to the three pitchers already drafted today, all of whom look to be relievers, and are relatively advanced in age. The other two players are a younger CF (18 imperial years of age, 16 metric years - where each year is 400 days long) and a college catcher/3B.
Only Ferrell, Thornton, Freeman and Stubbs appear on either minorleagueball.com's top 400 or BA's top 500, and only Ferrell appears on both lists. Looks like some money may be being saved here.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
