MLB Draft Recap

Individually the Cowboy baseball team had a prolific season. Dane Phillips was 1st team All-Big 12, Zach Johnson was newcomer of the year, Jared Womack and Gabe Weidenaar were 2nd team All-Big 12, and a slew of players were named honorable mention All-Conference (six in all).

Unfortunately that didn’t translate to any measure of team success. 2011 was a much different overall narrative than the disastrous 2010 and yet the same emotional adjective can be used to describe both years: disappointment. It was a different kind of disappointment this year though since the Cowboys made the postseason, but disappointment nonetheless. After rising to as high as #15 in one poll, Frank Anderson’s squad dropped 12 of their last 16 before bowing out to the worst team at their regional, Brad Paisley’s alma mater – the Belmont Bruins.

Not that it would have mattered much anyway, awaiting OSU if they made it out of the losers bracket in Nashville was 8-loss Vanderbilt who just had four players selected in the top 100 of the MLB Draft.

OSU, on the other hand, didn’t have anybody go in the top 150. Let’s take a quick look:

Chris Marlowe, he of the flame-spewing right arm and 5.05 ERA was first off the board at 177th (round 5) to the Giants. Marlowe got taken in the 21st round last year out of Navarro Junior College so the bump up to the 5th round was probably nice. 2010 signing bonus at this spot: $125,000

Michael Strong followed him up at 311th (round 10) to the Brewers. Strong was good this year going 5-1 in 13 starts and striking out 70 in 72 innings. He was the de facto Friday starter for Anderson’s squad, a spot reserved for the ace of the staff, and might best be remembered in 2011 for going 8 1/3 against Texas surrendering 0 runs and striking out 9 in a game the Cowboys lost 1-0 in 15 innings. The highest he had ever been drafted was the 25th round. 2010 signing bonus at this spot: $125,000

Mark Ginther went 441st (round 14) to Q’s beloved White Sox after a solid junior season in which he hit .292 with 17 2B and 10 HR. Ginther was previously drafted in the 48th round out of Jenks after he was named Tulsa World player of the year. 2010 signing bonus at this spot: n/a

Zach Johnson went 460th (round 15) to my hometown Astros. Johnson hit .356 with 13 HR and a ridiculous OPS of 1.055. He too has been drafted in the 48th round previously. 2010 signing bonus at this spot: n/a

Finally Brad Propst and Devin Shines both got taken in the 38th round by the Astros and Dodgers respectively. Propst is a senior so he’s obviously going to ply his trade elsewhere next fall, but I’d be surprised if Shines left. he only hit .270 with a team-leading 6 (not a typo) stolen bases and it seems like there’s definitely some room to slide up the draft board and make a little more coin than the peanuts he’ll be handed if he signs now.

Interesting stat from okstate.com: OSU has had at least six players drafted in each of the last six years. That’s not gaudy, but it’s consistent — exactly the opposite of what the program has been the last decade.