Continuing on with the draft recaps, it's on to the AL South!!
AL SOUTH
Austin Rock Stars
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With the 17th pick, the newest Rock Star is Tommie Winn. Winn has an elite glove, arm and accuracy in the field. His range isn’t quite where you’d like to see it for a major league shortstop, but he may get a shot there due to his high ratings in the other fielding categories. Offensively, Winn has good power, but everything looks pretty mediocre, and he will struggle vs. lefties. His biggest asset for sure is his fielding. Austin also got a decent relief prospect in round 2, and not much else that impressed us.
Final Synopsis: Winn is outstanding in the field and should be able to hold his own at the plate. Overall, not much depth here though.
Grade: B-
Florida Shark Waves
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Picking 21st, Florida landed SS Micah Olmos, who has tremendous ratings across the board fielding wise and looks like a potential gold glove winner, specifically thanks to his incredible arm and accuracy. He is horrid against lefties at the plate, but should be decent against righties. At #33, Florida got Charley Linden, another shortstop who isn’t as good in the field, but has a better bat than Olmos. After that, 3rd rounder Joey Acosta, another shortstop, is their best pick in the later rounds, and 2nd rounder Bret Pennington is a speedster with superb base running skills.
Final Synopsis: Florida helped themselves out in the field for sure, but each of the above mentioned players has a hole in their abilities at the plate.
Grade: B-
Little Rock Travelers
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#8 overall pick P.T. Cubillan hasn’t signed yet, and for Little Rock hopefully he rejected their offer and they get the pick back next season, as he’s a bit of a disappointment for what you’d expect at the #8 overall pick. 2nd rounder RF Wascar Carrara has nice power and contact, but low RH split and batting eye are a concern for his potential success in the bigs. 4th rounder Edgar Moya was a nice value pick and has some major league potential.
Final Synopsis: Hopefully they’ll get the picks back for their 1st and 3rd rounders next season and put them to better use. They got a few decent players, but overall, it was not an impressive draft.
Grade: D-
Tampa Bay Tankers
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Picking 32nd, Tampa Bay got Brad Osborne, who looks like he’ll be a wonder with the glove out in Center Field one day. He has great contact and batting eye at the plate, but his other hitting attributes are lacking. He has some speed, and is ok at base running. 2nd rounder 2B Julius Gwynn could be a major league backup at some point, but that is about where his ceiling is at. Fielding whiz SS Pete Titan is a nice pick in the fourth round, even though he lacks a major league bat.
Final Synopsis: Tampa got some great prospects fielding wise, but it doesn’t look like any of them will have much success at the plate.
Grade: C+
UP NEXT: NL North