1st Round Pick: Reymond Fuentes CF
It seemed like everyone and their mothers were predicting the Red Sox to draft a catcher in the first round. Seems logical, right? Their current catcher is a walking fossil, so why not draft based on positional need? The problem is, that’s not the way most baseball organizations think when they draft, and it’s certainly not how the Red Sox have approached the draft in the past.
Ironically, they went with the least intuitive position, the position where they are youngest: centerfield. Why? Because they likely felt Reymond Fuentes was the best overall value available at the 28th pick.
There’s not a whole lot of information on Fuentes. Here’s what we know:
- He’s a left-handed hitter out of a high school in Puerto Rico, 18 years old.
- He’s fast.
- He’s the nephew of star veteran CF Carlos Beltran.
I’m sure there will be some more scouting information on him tomorrow morning, but strangely enough it looks like the scouts and pundits didn’t focus too much of their pre-draft anaysis on him.
Added by Jeff:
Ranked 54 by BA, and 32 by Keith Law.
I’ve read some aggregate scouting reports on him (basically the stuff you’d read on the internet from sources like Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus, and from MLB.com) and they basically say:
*”fastest guy in the draft
*covers a lot of ground in center
*left handed swinging
*should develop some power
*free swinger who should develop plate discipline
*has line drive, pole-to-pole swing
*poor arm in center
*potential leadoff hitter
*very similar to Johnny Damon
Ladies and gentlemen…Jacoby Ellsbury!!!
Jesus you got this up quick. I was just about to write pretty much the same thing.