Keeping with the theme of starting pitcher, the Sox picked Hudson White's Arkansas teammate right handed pitcher Brady Tygart in the 12th round. Tygart was 4-3 with a 3.94 ERA in 13 starts for the Razorbacks and Breslow is banking on that translating to the pros. If a pitcher with a sub 4.00 ERA was available in the 12th round, why the hell did they pick Brooks in the 11th? Oh well.
In the 13th round the Sox took a local star, Hanover's own Shea Sprague. The left handed pitcher went to BC High and spent 2024 at North Carolina. He went 3-2 with a 4.25 ERA in 15 starts for the Tar Heels. Breslow is taking a whole team worth of starting pitchers in hopes one or two of them stick.
Continuing the string of pitchers, the Sox took right handed pitcher Alex Bouchard out of Lehigh University in the 14th round. This will be a crapshot because Bouchard got hurt and missed almost the entire 2024 season. He had a strong 2023 by going 4-2 with a 3.65 ERA in 12 starts and that's what Breslow is looking for moving forward.
Breslow kept the starting pitching train rolling in the 15th round when he picked Portland University right handed pitcher Joey Gartrell. Just like Bouchard, Gartrell got hurt and missed all but two starts this past season. He had a miserable Junior season going 5-5 with a 5.17 ERA in 14 starts but he might have been turning the corner before he got hurt. Hopefully he can bounce back when he's healthy.
Rounding out the seven pitchers in a row drafted, the Sox took right handed pitcher Griffin Kilander out of Wayne State University. Kilander has some of the finest hair and mustaches you'll ever see and his sophomore year he was 7-3 with a 2.44 ERA shuffling between starting and the bullpen. Unfortunately he had a mediocre junior year going 6-3 with a 4.00 ERA in 12 starts. The concern is if he had trouble getting batters out at little known Wayne State, how's he going to get guys out at the pro level who were studs in D1 schools? We'll find out soon enough.
Deviating from the script, the Sox took Puerto Rican high school outfielder Yan Cruz. He may not play for the Red Sox as he's committed to Gulf Coast State, and since he's an unknown high schooler, this is definitely a low risk, high reward pick. If he doesn't sign or flops, oh well.
Going back to the mound, the Sox took right handed pitcher Cole Tolbert out of Ole Miss in the 18th round. This is one of the rare "what the hell were they thinking" picks as he only pitched in 18 innings the last two years for Ole Miss and allowed 15 runs. Maybe Breslow thinks he can fix him with the staff he has in the minors. If they don't, oh well, just another failed 18th round pick in a sea full of them. If they do, good work.
In what was a running joke on social media for years, the joke became a reality when the Sox used their 19th round pick on D'Angelo Ortiz....yes, THAT D'Angelo Ortiz aka the son of Big Papi himself, David Ortiz. D'Angelo spent 2024 at Miami Dade Community College and unfortunately doesn't have his father's power, as he hit .328 in 48 games but only with one home run. This is definitely a nepo pick since Big Papi is his father, but hey, its the 19th round.
With the 20th and final pick in the draft, the Sox took Brigham Young University right handed pitcher Ben Hansen. They scraped the bottom of the barrel with this one as Hansen had hideous stats his freshman year going 0-5 with a 6.71 ERA in 16 games and followed that this year going 5-7 with a 6.63 ERA in 14 starts. Going 5-12 with an ERA near 7 in college is a bad sign but by the 20th round, the top tier talent is already gone. Good luck to Hansen.
As we conclude Day 3 its apparent that the Sox had a mission and that mission was starting pitching. 14 of their 20 picks were pitchers and the ones that weren't were a Puerto Rican high school outfielder, a college catcher, the son of David Ortiz, a college outfielder, their 13th round pick from 3 years ago and Braden Montgomery who slipped right into their hands. A lot of these guys won't be making the majors but hopefully law of averages says ONE of them should be decent. Good luck to them all moving forward.
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