Try, try, try
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The FL draft is basically a crapshoot. There was a time when teams stocked their rosters through the draft. Now, they put the rosters together before the draft expecting to get nobody out of the tryout who can help. If you find a diamond in the rough, it's a pleasant and unexpected surprise.
Washington has had some luck in the draft. Among the players they plucked from the annual tryout include second baseman Kyle Werman and outfielder Jack Headley. Each was a key contributor to the Wild Things' success during the early days of the franchise.
There have been more misses than hits in the draft. One such miss was in 2012, when Washington took an outfielder named Mike Miller with the sixth pick in the first round. Washington selected Miller in part because he had played the 2011 season in the Pecos League and was known to Tim Ferguson, who was the Wild Things' pitching coach at the time of the draft.
Miller made the opening day roster but was released before getting a single at-bat. After Miller, the next outfielder taken in the draft was a guy named Sean Mahley, selected by Scahumburg in the second round. Mahely, you might recall, was the MVP of the Frontier League all-star game last summer at Consol Energy Park and was a key player for the Boomers the last two seasons. Mahley batted .312 last year and helped Schaumburg to the league championship.
More than 400 players showed up in Florence yesterday for the tryout's first day. The league's coaches invited 176 players back for today's workouts that will conclude with the draft.
posted by Chris Dugan at
8:17 AM
7 Comments:
Ohhhh the tryout. One of my favorite tryout stories happened a few years ago when it was held in Washington. Due to rain, one portion of the tryout was held at neighboring Ross Memorial Park, home of W&J baseball.
The coaches were hitting grounders to the infielders for them to throw to first. As you would expect, not every throw was on target. Some were high and sailed over everything. Some were low and bounced before reaching the first baseman.
One of the first basemen really struggled with picking the throws off the short hop. After a couple of misses, he declared loudly "This is ridiculous! I can't scoop off this dirt!"
Needless to say, I do not think he was drafted, as the demand was low for first basemen that cannot play on dirt.
The player listed by anonymous would be an ideal fit with the Washington all turf field.
I wonder who ran the tryouts.
I remember at one of the tryouts at Falconi Field, Gregg Jelks, while the manager of Evansville ran the tryouts.
The kid in the above story also couldn't hit a lick. So, yes, probably an ideal fit based on recent Washington teams scouted by Steve Zavacky.
Steve Zavacky is the worst thing to ever happen to the WT. He does a great job of being Stu's grunt though. Steve has earned all the disrespect people have for him. Nobody likes a brown nose.
Be nice to Steve. In the good old days, he was the head grounds keeper.
He actually never did any work on the field. Give credit to the people that worked for him, not him.
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