Mariners confident they’ll get what they want with 11th pick in draft
Jun 8, 2016, 5:36 PM | Updated: 5:38 pm
Of all the major pro sports drafts, Major League Baseball’s is the outlier. It’s exceedingly rare for a draftee to go straight to the show, as teams add players that by and large will never sniff an MLB game. And in the cases that they do make it to the big leagues, it usually takes years of development to get there.
But that doesn’t mean the importance of the MLB Draft should be discounted.
If it weren’t for the draft, the Mariners wouldn’t have Kyle Seager (third round, 2009) or Taijuan Walker (first round, 2010), both key members of their current team who figure to be franchise cornerstones for a long time. And the draft is big part of how teams like the Kansas City Royals and San Francisco Giants, the last two World Series champions, have rose to prominence in recent years.
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The Mariners will open this year’s draft with the 11th overall pick in Thursday’s first round, and they’ll be looking to bolster a farm system that earlier this year was ranked 28th of all MLB franchises by MiLB.com, the official site of Minor League Baseball. Seattle has had a rough go with top picks in recent years, with players either struggling to produce with the big club (2009 first-round pick Dustin Ackley) or stumbling early on in their minor-league careers (D.J. Peterson – 2013, Alex Jackson – 2014).
Under new general manager Jerry Dipoto and manager Scott Servais, though, the Mariners have a more unified approach than in previous years to all aspects of the organization. Director of amateur scouting Tom McNamara gave 710 ESPN Seattle’s Shannon Drayer some insight behind what that means for the draft, as well as what the team is looking for and what it’s like in the draft room.
“You don’t just go into the room and pick the players you want. There’s so much behind each pick, and managing that information is what we’re doing right now,” McNamara said earlier this week. “You don’t take it personal when there’s someone else in the room that doesn’t see a player like you do. You just merge (the viewpoints) and listen to everyone’s opinion.”
Regarding this year, McNamara said the Mariners will be drafting more based on talent and less on positional need, which is common considering how difficult the path to the majors is for the common player – even supposed can’t-miss first-rounders. That being said, when it comes to their first-round selection, Seattle is confident it will find a player with a bright future in a Mariners uniform.
“Where we’re picking, we really feel good about getting a nice player at No. 11,” McNamara said, “and if you don’t have that attitude, you’re in the wrong business. … Where we’re picking, there’s not a shortage of talent, so we feel good about that. We just don’t know who’s gonna be there when we make our selection.”
And that can be the toughest part about the draft.
“A lot of times, the guy you think you’re getting, you never get. Which can be frustrating at times, but we’re putting ourselves in position (that) whatever happens ahead of us we’ll be prepared to make the best pick we can make.”
Rounds 1-2 of the 2016 MLB Draft will be held Thursday, beginning at 4 p.m. Starting at 10 a.m. Friday will be rounds 3-10, and the draft will conclude Saturday with rounds 11-40 beginning at 9 a.m. Check 710Sports.com throughout the draft to keep up with the Mariners’ picks.
