Tigers Links: Special Amateur Draft edition

Yes the Tigers did draft another hard throwing right pitcher in Florida junior Alex Faedo, however he’s not your typical Tigers pick as described by Rob, mostly since he has much more potential than many of the arms the Tigers have drafted previously. In fact, the Tigers actually drafted him in the 40^th round during his senior year of high school.

The Tigers followed that up by drafting a power-hitting outfielder and first base combo named Reynaldo Rivera from a junior college in Florida. They then used their 3rd round pick number 95 overall on Joey Morgan whose a right-handed catcher.

In the fourth round, with the 125th pick, the Tigers selected Gio Arriera a right handed pitcher from Palm Beach Community College. The fifth round the Tigers went with another catcher, this time high-schooler Sam McMillian was chosen. In rounds six through 10 the Tigers took three more pitchers and a couple of outfielders.

In total the Tigers took 21 pitchers over 40 rounds of the draft. Another fun fact about the Tigers draft this year is they drafted Colby Bortles the younger brother of Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles with their 22nd round pick.

In other draft news, the Minnesota Twins selected Royce Lewis a high-school shortstop with the first overall pick in the 2017 draft. A right-handed high school pitcher named Hunter Greene was drafted number two overall by Cincinnati, and no he’s not related to Shane Greene. The third pick was made by the San Diego Padres and they took a right handed pitcher MacKenzie Gore, yet another high schooler.

With the fourth pick in the draft the Tampa Bay Rays selected a two-way player who can play first base and pitch left-handed in Brendan McKay. The fifth pick went to the Atlanta Braves, they used their pick on a pitcher from Vanderbilt named Kyle Wright.

The Kansas City Royals grabbed first basemen Nick Pratto with the 14th overall pick, he was on the Tigers radar. For pick-by-pick analysis of the entire first round, MLB.com has you covered. If you’re looking just to see who was drafted where, MLB.com has a great draft tracker where you can sort by team, round, school, state or position, that can be found here.

Meanwhile the Nationals selected, current manager, Dusty Baker’s son Darren in the 27th round. He’s an outfielder and has already committed to the University of California, Berkeley so we may not be seeing Dusty and Darren on the field together anytime soon. Darren is famous for the photo below when he was a bat boy for the San Francisco Giants at three years old. If you’re not familiar with that event, here is the backstory.

Courtesy of Kevork Djansezian, AP

Sports Illustrated went through all the draft picks and found the funniest and best names in the draft this year, check it out. Bleacher Report dives into the biggest #1 overall pick fails in history based upon wins above replacement.

Tigers draft pick Alex Faedo records a save and sends the Florida Gators to the College World Series on Monday night