Round 5: LHP Brandon Waddell, Virginia. The 21 year old junior is a southpaw who sits at 90 and has a slider & change. He had a breakout year in 2014, but suffered through big control issues this season, which hurt as he's more of a command pitcher than a guy with great stuff. Waddell's a pick based more on projectability than performance.
Round 6: RHP Jonathan Brubaker. The Akron Zip sits at 90 and touches 94 with his heater as part of a three pitch mix, posting a 5-4/3.36 mark for the Zips. JT is a 6'4" junior and is in this spot thanks to continued improvement on the hill as his ERA went down and his K's went up every season. He was listed as one of the MAC's top five pitchers by Matt Garrioch of Minor League Ball.
Round 7: 3B Mitchell Tolman. The Oregon junior can hit pretty well - .327 for the Ducks from the three hole, and never falling under .315 in his college years - and has a good eye, with more walks than whiffs. Otherwise, he's got an average set of physical tools, with gap but not long ball power. He's played second, too, and the Bucs may want to move him around some. Tolman has a engine that never stops running, and that fire has helped him play at a higher level than his tools suggest he should.
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| Mitchell Tolman already reps like a Buc (photo Tyson Alger/The Oregonian) |
Round 8: RHP Seth McGarry of Florida Atlantic. The 21 year old junior reliever went 4-1-5 with a 2.25 ERA in 21 games, while striking out 35 batters and walking 14 in 44 IP for the Owls. He tosses a mid-90 fastball that touches 97 and slow (low 80s) slider combo. He had injuries in both 2103 and 2014, and that may be what landed him in the bullpen. Seth was though to be an early third day selection, but he was picked as one of the top 100 college juniors by Perfect Game and was on Baseball Draft's All-Conference prospect team..
Round 9: RHP Bret Helton from Utah. The junior started his college career as a two-way player before switching to the mound full time this season. He split his time between starting and the bullpen with some not-so-hot number over his career - 4-12/5.67 with 91 K in 127 IP. He tosses in the low 90s, topping out at 94 and has a strong cutter and curve. His dad is Barry Helton, who won a pair of Super Bowls while a SF Forty Niner.
Round 10: RHP Logan Sendelbach. The 6'3" Tiffin University junior led the staff with a 5-3 record, compiling a 2.83 ERA. In 57 IP, he struck out 50 and walked 29. That was good enough to earn him a spot on the All-Great Lakes Conference squad.
A couple of quick thoughts - Bunch of projects selected in these rounds, with McGarry, Tolman and Waddell looking like the top of the crop. But to go after a couple of the higher priced preppies, you have to cut back on the Top Ten budget, and the Bucs have followed that line since the pool was initiated.
More noticeable was that no prep pitchers and an overload of college players were picked, rubbing hard against the grain of former draft classes. The prep pitchers haven't really paid off for the FO, and it just may be that now that the Bucs are drafting later, they're adjusting their hit-or-miss projections for safer players. But it may just be the nature of this draft group; they certainly have had no problem selecting prep position players in the recent past. So it'll be interseting to see if their philosophy has made a U-turn or if it's just a function of talent availability.
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