2008 MLB Amateur Draft update
May 8, 2008 by redsoxtalk
Honestly, I don’t follow enough college baseball to be able to say anything intelligent on the upcoming draft, but here is a general update. Soxprospects.com also has a draft guide up.
Scouting director Jason MacLeod has done a bang up job almost every year, and now has a chance to really take our farm system over the top, as we own 5 picks within the first three rounds.
The Red Sox have the following early picks for this June:
Round 1, 30th pick
Round 1S, 45th pick (compensation for Eric Gagne)
Round 2, 77th pick
Round 2S, 85th pick (compensation for not signing Hunter Morris last year)
Round 3, 108th pick
This is pretty exciting if you consider MacLeod’s draft bounties:
2005 With 6 of the first 57 picks, he landed Craig Hansen, Jacoby Ellsbury, Clay Buchholz, Jed Lowrie and Michael Bowden.
2006 With 7 of the first 103 picks, he landed Justin Masterson, Jason Place, Daniel Bard, Kris Johnson and Aaron Bates.
2007 With 4 of the first 114 picks, he drafted Nick Hagadone and Ryan Dent.
Sources have speculated that the Sox will be on the hunt for catchers and corner infielders/outfielders with power.
Those certainly seem to be the areas of need, as we are kind of drowning (in a good way) in promising pitching prospects and speedy outfielder types. I’d also add that we may be looking for *ahem* shortstops.