Shortly after pitching phenom Stephen Strasburg was off the board with the first selection in the 2009 MLB draft, the Seattle Mariners made their highest draft pick since 1993, a year in which they selected a shortstop by the name of Alex Rodriguez with the No. 1 overall choice.
Following the Washington Nationals’ pick of Strasburg may have been like following the Cleveland Cavaliers 2003 NBA draft selection of Lebron James, but rest assured the Mariners did their best to come away with someone a little better than Darko Milicic.
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Dustin Ackley, first baseman/outfielder from the University of North Carolina.
Two picks into the draft, and everything’s going as expected. The number one selection was, naturally, Stephen Strasburg, who went to the Washington Nationals.
Ackley is the first three-time All-American baseball player in UNC history, and a possible five-tool player. He can hit for average (batted over .400 for UNC this year), has the potential to hit for power, has good speed, and plays good defense in center field. His arm is a question after surgery in 2008, which is why he shifted to first base in 2009.
If I had to compare Ackley to any player in recent MLB history, based on everything I’ve seen and heard about him, it would have to be Darin Erstad.
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Today is the big day.
Major League Baseball’s amateur draft will take place this afternoon and one can only speculate as to who the Mariners will receive as their consolation prize for sweeping the A’s in last season’s final series of the year. I mean, really, all we had to do was lose one game for God’s sake and we’d be talking about Stephen Strasburg, M’s ace.
Instead, most mock drafts have us taking CF/1B Dustin Ackley from North Carolina, which is essentially like ending up with Darko Milicic after Lebron was off the board. Okay, maybe it’s not that bad, but I wouldn’t go so far as to call Ackley the next Carmelo Anthony.
Either way, we’ll just have to wait and see who the M’s end up with. If it’s not Ackley, the next most likely scenario is that the team takes a high school pitcher, which is always a little bit frightening considering the risk involved.
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