Zachary Osborne – RHP – 6′ 5″ – 200lbs – Throws/Hits: R/R – University of Louisiana at
Layfayette – Age: 22

Click HERE for the player profile from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette website

Jonathan Roof – SS – 6′ 1″ – 175lbs – Throws/Hits: R/R – Michigan State University – Age: 21

From Baseball America:

“Roof has extensive baseball bloodlines, as his father Gene and uncle Phil played in the major leagues and his brothers Eric and Shawn play in the Tigers system. Jonathan is the top defensive shortstop in the Big 10 Conference, with solid range, a strong arm and quality instincts. He’d go higher in the draft if scouts had more faith in his bat, but they worry that the 6-foot-1, 165-pounder lacks the strength to do much damage with wood. He’s an average runner.”

Click HERE for the player profile from the Michigan State University website

James Reyes – LHP – 5′ 10″ – 195lbs – Throws/Hits: L/L – Elon University – Age: 21

Click HERE for the MLB.com scouting video

From Baseball America:

“College baseball offers few quality lefthanders for this year’s draft, and Reyes was taking full advantage. He got off to a terrible start to his junior season, as a loss to Rice–his first after winning his first 12 decisions with Elon–sent him into a funk. He was pressing for scouts, trying to throw harder for radar guns, and lost the life and command on his fastball. When Reyes backed off to a still-firm 88-91 mph, his season took off, and he was 10-3, 3.97 heading into regional play, with 95 strikeouts against 21 walks in 95 innings. He creates some angle and downward plane on his fastball even though he’s just 5-foot-10, 194 pounds. When he doesn’t overthrow, he gets good life on the pitch, with boring action in to righthanded hitters. That helps set up his slider, which can be an above-average pitch when he locates it well. It has tilt, and Reyes has shown the ability to back-foot it to righthanded hitters. His changeup has come along as well, giving Reyes another weapon to combat righthanders. He had thrown at least seven innings in seven consecutive starts and had a gaudy 196-40 strikeout-walk ratio the last two seasons. Reyes offers little projection and lacks athleticism, his biggest negative. He has improved as a fielder and at holding runners, but neither will ever be a strong suit. His strong finish was pushing him up draft boards, perhaps as high as the fourth or fifth round.”

Click HERE for the player profile from the Elon University website

Round 6 – Brett Nicholas – C – 6′ 2″ – 210lbs – Throws/Hits: R/L – University of Missouri – Age: 22

Click HERE for the MLB.com scouting video

From Baseball America:

“began his college career as a backup first baseman at Gonzaga, transferred to Scottsdale (Ariz.) CC and caught for the 2009 Division II Junior College World Series runners-up. He has seen time at catcher and third base after joining Missouri this spring. The 6-foot-2, 210-pounder has shown hitting aptitude and power from the left side of the plate. As a catcher, he has a solid-average arm and decent receiving skills with room for improvement. He’s not particularly agile, so he fits better behind the plate than at the hot corner.”

Click HERE for the player profile from the University of Missouri website

Click HERE for a pre-draft article on Brett Nicholas from the Columbia Missouri Tribune

Round 5 – Justin Grimm – RHP – 6′ 4″ – 195lbs – Throws/Bats: R/R – University of Georgia – Age: 22

Click HERE for MLB.com scouting report

From Baseball America:

“Grimm has many of the ingredients scouts look for in a college pitcher. He has a pitcher’s body at 6-foot-4, 193 pounds; he’s quick-armed and athletic; he has big-conference experience and was Georgia’s Friday starter this season; and he touches 95 mph regularly with his fastball. The bad news: Grimm had a career 5.80 ERA over nearly 180 innings, and some scouts consider him much the same pitcher after three years at Georgia as he was in 2007, when he was a 13th-round pick of the Red Sox out of high school in Virginia. Grimm has above-average fastball velocity at 90-94 mph, but the pitch lacks life and command thanks to poor mechanics. He rushes through his delivery, leaving his pitches up in the strike zone. He’s vulnerable to home runs because he finishes too upright and doesn’t drive the ball downhill. Scouts do consider the flaws to be correctable. He has a sharp curveball that at times grades out as an above-average pitch, but he wasn’t ahead of hitters enough to use it as a strikeout pitch this spring. Grimm’s changeup remains his third-best pitch. He competed well this season despite Georgia’s disappointing year, even pitching in midweek in relief to sew up a victory against Georgia State, then pitching a career-best eight innings in his final start, beating Kentucky. He’s still expected to go in the first four rounds despite his career 6-12 record.”

Click HERE for the player profile from the University of Georgia website

Click HERE for a pre-draft interview with Justin Grimm from his hometown online newspaper Tri-Cities.com

Round 2 – Cody Buckel – RHP – 6′ 0″ – 170 lbs – Throws/Hits: R/R – Royal HS (CA) – Age: 18

Click HERE for the MLB.com scouting report

From Baseball America:

“Residing close to Hollywood, Buckel relishes a good dramatic flourish. He begins his pregame warm-up by standing on the grass between the mound and second base with the ball in his hand. He races up the backside of the mound, down the front, and fires the ball plateward. A fledgling singer and actor when he isn’t striking out hitters, Buckel is undersized for a righthander at 6 feet, 170 pounds. He does flash a big man’s fastball at 92-94 mph. Buckel mixes in an excellent array of secondary pitches, with a curveball, changeup and cutter. His pitching idol is Tim Lincecum, and while his stuff is not as electric as the Giants ace’s, he still displays the potential for four average to plus deliveries. The primary concern is durability, as he usually loses 3-4 mph on his fastball as a game progresses. Committed to Pepperdine, Buckel projects as either a back-of-the-rotation starter or set-up man in professional baseball.”

Click HERE for a profile of Cody Buckel from February in the Los Angeles Times

Click HERE for a profile of Cody Buckel from Inside SoCal: High School Sports Spotlight 

Click HERE for another profile of Cody Buckel from the Los Angeles CBS Early Show (he’s also a budding singer/actor) 

Round 3 – Jordan Aikins – OF – 6′ 3″ – 192lbs – Throws/Hits: R/R – Union Grove HS (GA) – Age: 18

MLB Scouting Report:  Jordan starred as a two sport star in baseball and football at Union
Grove HS and committed to the University of Central Florida to play both sports

From Baseball America:

“Some scouts compare him, a Central Florida signee, to Top 200 talent Niko Goodrum, and in most cases Goodrum comes out on the short end. Like Goodrum, Akins is tall and lean but packs 210 pounds onto his wide receiver’s frame. Despite his size, he runs the 60-yard dash in 6.4 seconds and has fast-twitch muscle to spare. Some consider him the state’s best athlete, which is quite a statement considering the depth of athletes in the Peach State this year. He has a plus arm, though not quite as strong as Goodrum’s, and has shown the natural bat speed and hitting ability to catch up to good fastballs. Breaking balls still give him fits, so his aptitude once he becomes a full-time baseball player will be crucial to whether he reaches his considerable ceiling. Akins is raw but has enough natural instincts to thrive despite being a part-time baseball player. He also could go out in the first two rounds, particularly to a team with extra picks. The only other question is football. Akins turned down Georgia for Central Florida’s two-sport offer. He was an explosive offensive player in high school, playing quarterback and wide receiver while also returning kicks and scoring close to 20 touchdowns.”

**Note from EMC: when you Google Jordan Aikins – 99% of the stories are about his football accomplisments – the University of Central Florida already has his picture up on their website (just my opinion: wondering if this guy might be a bit of reach to sign).

Round 4 – Drew Robinson – SS – 6′ 1″ – 185lbs –  Throws/Hits: L/R – Silverado HS (NV) - Age: 18

MLB.com: Click HERE for scouting video

From Baseball America:

“…has the best swing in the area–the prototypical lefthanded stroke–and scouts liked him more than any of the hitters in the Four Corners, outside of Bryce Harper. He’s 6-foot-1 and 180 pounds and his brother Chad is a pitcher in the Brewers system. Robinson’s swing is smooth and easy and got a Mark Grace comparison. He has an upright stance and strides into the ball, so his head drops a little, but he has looseness in his swing and strong hands. He’s more of a gap-to-gap hitter than a pure power hitter. A high school shortstop, he’ll probably have to move to the outfield. He ran a decent 60-yard dash last summer but is now regarded as a below-average runner after knee surgery, a pulled hamstring that kept him out of the Area Code Games, and a sore back earlier this spring. He has the above-average arm for right field. The Orioles have been the team most connected to Robinson and could take him in the third round. He’ll likely sign, and if he doesn’t he’s committed to Nebraska.”

Yes we are following the draft on Minor Details beginning with Round 2 until it ends.  Due to our move to a new website the pick by pick format will be different.  However, we will have a final list at the end of the draft with links to all of the information we can find for each player drafted and we’ll keep it updtated until August signing deadline.

We’ve been on a roll as of late.  It’s always nice to play good baseball.  Things just seem a
little better.  The grass is a little greener, the sun shines just a bit brighter, and the games are always a little more fun.

Speaking of the sun shining a bit brighter — WOW!  Being from Indiana, I am used to the humidity, but we really only get to about ninety degrees in the dead of summer.  Here in Texas, in the month of May I cannot believe that it already got up in the middle to upper 90s and the humidity is . . . geez.  Whenever I get to talking about the Texas heat, people just smile at me and say “Oh, just wait till August.”  I think that needs to be the official motto of Texas.  They predicted bad storms all weekend and we got nothing.  I’ve seen it downpour when there was one cloud in the sky, I’ve seen flash flood warning and tornado warnings, and I haven’t even been here two months.  I’ve come to learn already that you just got to take things day by day.

Now that I am off that soapbox . . . . Things have been going very well for the team.  I have made a transition into the starting rotation for the time being, a move that I am very happy with.  Every year that I have been in professional baseball, I have started out in the bullpen and then at some point moved into the rotation, so this is something that I have grown more comfortable with through the years.  Starting is truly where my heart is at, but being is the bullpen was actually pretty fun for me.  Sitting in the bullpen allows you to listen and share some pretty funny stories, guys share riddles to pass the time, you go over different grips, get opinions on past outings and thoughts on how you would pitch a certain batter, and one of my all-time favorite activities is people-watching, and from where the Frisco bullpen is located it is a prime spot. 

Don’t get me wrong — being in the pen you have an enormous responsibility on your hands.  Most of the time you are coming into the game with runners on base, but on days when you are not pitching you become just another spectator in the stands and it’s amazing what guys will do to try and pass the time.  Being in the rotation is a different beast altogether.  You know when you’re going to pitch, you have scheduled bullpens, your running is planned out for you.  There are certain days you have to sit in the stands and chart and certain days you have be in the dugout to scout the opposing team you will be facing in a day or two.  Starting is about stamina.  You can’t blow yourself out like you can if you’re pitching an inning or two out of the pen.  It becomes very easy to wear yourself out when you’re in the rotation, and when things start to steamroll on you it’s very easy to let a good outing turn into a terrible one, and it can all happen in the blink of an eye.  I feel like there might be a little more pressure on the starting pitchers because when SportsCenter or the people around the water cooler are talking, they don’t talk about the guy who was the losing shortstop or how so and so threw five great innings before the disastrous 6^th.  It’s always about how bad the losing pitcher looked and how good the winning one was.  So both roles have their ups and downs.

            Getting back to the topic of people-watching.  As I sit in the stands and in the bullpen, I have come to notice player’s families, girlfriends, wives, and fiancés.  You can usually tell because when “Player X” comes into the game, there might be a little pacing going on.  They cheer a little louder than everyone else.  Or yell at the umpire a little more.  I find it funny to sit and watch families and significant others in the stadium because they seem to feel every ball and strike more than the player does.  I am not immune to this either.  I have been told that my own mother cannot sit still when I’m pitching, that when I get into the game she starts pacing because she is more nervous than I am (or to pace through our house and yell through the computer).  I think that’s just the beauty of the game.  You can constantly be on the edge of your seat, and unlike basketball and football where comebacks might take a little while, it takes four pitches for a team to score four runs and swing the game in the other direction, and the nature of the game is drastically changed.

Time for another series against Northwest Arkansas at their place, and then three games against Tulsa in their new stadium.  Let’s hope we can keep this hot streak going.  We’ve got a month left in the first half — I cannot believe how fast the first half has flown by!  As always if you have any questions, comments or diary ideas please email me at Ryan.Tatusko@gmail.com

Thank you as always.

– Ryan

Ryan.Tatusko@gmail.com
 

 Welcome back readers!  Things have calmed down somewhat around here, and we are officially embarking on our first road trip of the season.  I’ve been hearing that the road trips are one of the worst things about the Texas League – this and the months of June and July (ha ha) – but road trips are a necessity of the game.