Finally Gregor Chisholm gets the goods.
Earlier today we were wondering when the Blue Jays would announce who they had selected. I heard they announced they had signed 16 players so I went to the official site and clicked on the press release. Here is the full text of the release:
The TORONTO BLUE JAYS have signed 16 of the 40 players selected from the 2013 First Year Player Draft and five from the top 10 rounds.
As you can see, the press release left out a few details. However Gregor has delivered.
Here is the list from Gregor:
3rd rounder — Murphy, Patrick Hamilton HS (AZ) RHP R/R HS 6’04″ 195lbs 4th rounder — Smith, Evan Mary G Montgomery HS (AL) LHP R/L HS 6’05″ 190lbs 5th rounder — Lietz, Daniel Heartland CC (IL) LHP L/L J1 6’02″ 200lbs 7th rounder — Greene, Conner Santa Monica HS (CA) RHP R/R HS 6’03″ 165lbs 10th rounder — Custons, Garrett Air Force (CO) C R/R SR 6’00″ 200lbs 12th rounder — Mayza, Tim Millersville University (PA) LHP L/L JR 6’03″ 205lbs 13th rounder — Locastro, Timothy Ithaca College (NY) IF R/R JR 6’01″ 175lbs 15th rounder — Davis, Jonathan Central Arkansas (AR) OF R/R JR 5’08″ 188lbs 16th rounder – Jansen, Danny Appleton A West (WI) C R/R HS 6’02″ 215lbs 21st rounder — Reeves, Mike Florida Gulf Coast University (FL) C L/R SR 23rd rounder — Kalfus, Brendan St. Marys (CA) OF S/R SR 5’11″ 180lbs 24th rounder — Hurley, Sean Central Arizona College (AZ) OF R/R J2 6’03″ 225lbs 27th rounder — Florides, Andrew Holy Cross HS (NY) IF R/R HS 6’01″ 170lbs 29th rounder — Pickens, Garrett Delta State (MS) RHP R/R 5S 6’01″ 185lbs 36th rounder — Harris, David Southern Arkansas University (AR) IF/OF R/R SR 6’01″ 37th rounder — Barber, Brett Ohio University (OH) RHP R/R SR 6’01″ 180lbs
Gregor also has an interview with Scouting Director Brian Parker and with Alex Anthopoulos.
Confident in advance of Bickford in signability…
“I think it’s one of those things, especially higher in the Draft, the top few rounds, you really need to know on that kind of stuff before you take a kid. We did our research, we did our background on him and the other guys at the top of the Draft and we feel good, we started talking to him and his adviser, we feel good but obviously things happen. It’s of those things where we feel with where we’re going.”
Balance between selecting pitching/position players.
“There is. We didn’t set out to take nine arms in the first nine picks. But we didn’t want to force it. A lot of times you sit there going ‘well, do we need a shortstop? Do we need a third baseman?’ There’s so many failures in the draft. If you start trying to draft by needs, other than when you’re filling you’re organization, that’s where you make mistakes. You really have to take the best player available.
“Position players are tough, and not that many teams have success with it. And that’s why you’ll see most position players come in the first two round of the draft. There was a position player we would’ve loved to have, but he didn’t fall to us… There’s always players that we like. All of our draft picks in the past, I don’t think we’ve been able to select the first player on out board, but you do have to take the best player available. It worked out that way. …it just fell that way.”
Click over to read the full interviews, it's the same link as the list above.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20130613213557776