Indians select lefty Allen with their third pick

The Indians continued to build for their future on June 11 in the second day of baseball’s amateur draft, first by adding to their pitching staff and then by fortifying the outfield with their first two picks.

The Tribe took shortstop Milan Tolentino of Santa Margarita Catholic High School in the fourth round with the 124th pick.

The Indians used their second-round pick, choice 56 overall, on left-handed pitcher Logan Allen from Florida International. Coincidentally, the Indians acquired another Logan Allen, also a pitcher, from the San Diego Padres last summer in the three-team trade that sent Tribe starter to the Cincinnati Reds.

The Logan Allen drafted on June 11 struck out 246 batters in 183 2/3 innings in college. He was a member of the 2019 national team and did not allow a run pitching 15 innings in the Cape Cod League last summer. He is 6-foot, 180 pounds.

“You can put Logan in Double-A right now, “FIU pitching coach Willie Collazo, who pitched in six games for the Mets in 2007, told the Miami Herald. “He will dominate because he has three pitches (fastball, slider, changeup), he’s not afraid to throw inside, and his mechanics are excellent.

“Usually, a lefty’s mechanics are funky. But Logan is smooth. I’ve worked with a lot of guys who are in the majors now, and Logan has that ‘it’ factor.”

Allen made four starts this spring before the novel coronavirus shut down college baseball. He was 2-1 with a career-low 2.45 ERA and a career-best 14.6 strikeouts per nine innings. Batters hit just .183 against him.

The Indians used their third-round pick, pick 95, on center fielder Petey Halpin from Mira Costa High School in California. Halpin has committed to playing college ball at Texas. The Indians have until Aug. 1 to convince him to forego college to turn professional now.

“The draft for me is a little bonus,” Halpin said in a story posted on baaseballprospectjournal.com. “Getting drafted and becoming a professional baseball player is obviously my main goal and a dream of mine. The senior season would have helped with that.

“But at the same time, I couldn’t be happier if I go to college and getting to the national championship with the Texas Longhorns. For me, what happens, happens, and I’m going to be stoked either way.”

The 95th slot the Indians used on Halpin has an assigned value of $610,800, according to MLB.com.

The baseballprospectjournal.com story offered this scouting report on Halpin:

Halpin has an impressive set of tools. The lefthanded hitter makes consistent, hard contact to all fields. Although he’s more of a gap-to-gap hitter right now, he’s shown power potential and believes he will add more power as he matures physically.

He has above-average speed, which he featured at last summer’s PDP League when he went 6 for 6 on stolen-base attempts. He also uses that speed in center field. He covers a lot of ground in the outfield and has a very strong arm.

Tolentino has committed to UCLA. He has a pick value of $460,000 if he bypasses college to sign with the Indians.

“Tolentino is a twitchy athlete with a 6-foot-1, 180-pound athletic build with more room to grow and mature as he gets older,” according to the scouting report on prospectslive.com. “His approach at the plate is more contact oriented, owning an opposite field approach with some slap tendencies and just grinds out at-bats.

“Defensively, Tolentino has the actions of a big league caliber shortstop and his glove will likely carry him through the professional ranks. He’s going to have premium defense at a premium position for a long time and his plus arm would allow him to eventually move over to third with success if he needs to.”

One day before picking Tolentino, the Indians drafted high school shortstop Carson Tucker in the first round with the 23rd overall pick.