Draft 13 – Wednesday Last Minute Draft Dirt

Dan Kirby advises that relief specialist Phil Bickford threw a first pitch strike 210 times to the 292 batters he faced. Had 128 K/11 BB

Rob Kaminsky has been named Gatorade Baseball Player of the Year for NJ for the 2nd Consecutive Year

Cal State Northridge (31-26, 15-12) has not renewed the contract of head coach Matt Curtis.

Gaither (FL) HS SS Oscar Mercado hit only .280 this spring season. He also was timed last weekend  with a 6.4 sec. 60-yard.

Great Bridge pitcher Connor Jones on Tuesday was named the Gatorade Virginia Baseball Player of the Year. Jones, a 6-foot-3, 205-pound senior right-hander who has signed with Virginia, guided the Wildcats to the Southeastern District regular-season championship. He was 8-0 without permitting an earned run and struck out 62 batters over 43 innings during the regular season. LINK

Wharton (FL) HS 3B/SS Tucker Nieuhaus had a very disappointing spring due to multiple injuries.

Great story on Stanford CF Austin Wilson:

It’s a page out of The Book of Hitting by Manny Ramirez — the slugger used to take pitches in batting practice, even — but it was a great piece of practice for Wilson, and it was a no-brainer for him. “I knew I had to somehow keep my baseball skills up, so I stood in on bullpens,” he said with what was almost a shrug. It was “about the eye, and see the spinning on pitches, and obviously breaking balls are a component of that. That helped me read pitches better.” Wilson’s strikeout rate shrunk down all the way to 13.1% this year. - LINK

Loveland (CO) RHP Alec Hansen came down with forearm pain and is expected to pass on the draft and go to school at Oklahoma.

MaxiPrep listed, in their opinion, the top 10 LH HS pitchers in the draft:

            

    Rob Kaminsky, St. Joseph Regional (Montvale, N.J.)

Trey Ball, New Castle (Ind.)

Ian Clarkin, Madison (San Diego)

A.J. Puk, Washington (Cedar Rapids, Iowa)

Matt Krook, St. Ignatius (San Francisco)

Stephen Gonsalves, Cathedral Catholic (San Diego)

Jonah Wesely, Tracy (Calif.)

Hunter Green, Warren East (Bowling Green, Ky.)

Jacob Brentz, Parkway South (Manchester, Mo.)

Chris Kohler, Los Osos (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.)