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| Red Sox First Round Pick Trey Ball |
Well, so much for the draft experts. Most pundits (including us) were
certain that the Red Sox would select a franchise-defining outfielder with their #7 overall pick in the MLB Draft. When they have picked this high before, they got players like
Nomar Garciaparra (#9) and
Trot Nixon (#10). But
Ben Cherington pulled a swift one on us, going with an 18-year old high school pitcher from Indiana. Boston selected
Trey Ball with their pick, a string bean of a kid at 6'6" and 180 pounds (see pic). He has
both pitching and everyday player potential in the big leagues—but the overwhelming consensus is he will
pitch in the Red Sox organization. This just doesn't seem like a smart pick to us considering the elite talent that was still around at pick number seven—most notably OF
Austin Meadows. Look at how one respected evaluator describes Ball on
Baseball Hot Corner:
"Trey has a fantastic upside. He could be a All-Star and a top of the lineup pitcher or a really good outfielder." Is that really what we're looking for in a high draft pick—lots of "could be"s and "really good"s? We should have gone with a sure thing prospect. Time will tell, of course, and certainly the 'baseball ops' people on Yawkey Way know a
lot more than us. At least the kid has a great baseball
name.
