USF pitcher earns the Royal treatment
Mock drafts are even less trustworthy in baseball than they are in football. But it was a big surprise when Stanford pitcher Mark Appel slid to the eighth pick of the Major League Baseball draft.
The Bay Area’s top selection Monday was USF pitcher Kyle Zimmer, who was picked fifth by Kansas City, the highest pick in the 106-year history of baseball on The Hilltop.
Stanford’s versatile Stephen Piscotty was picked as a third baseman by St. Louis with the 36th pick, the fifth of the compensation picks that followed the first round. The Cards also took St. Mary’s third baseman Patrick Wisdom with another
Giants: No getting away from pitching-first philosophy. compensation pick, the 52nd overall.
Appel, a Houston native whose family moved to Danville when he was 12, had been expected to be one of the
top picks, if not the very first pick by his childhood team, the Astros. Instead, he had to wait until the Pirates took him. He was Stanford’s 11th first-round pick since 2000.
Appel declined to talk to the media. Instead, the Pirates issued a simple statement from him that said, “I’m currently concentrating on winning a national championship and finishing my academic endeavors at Stanford. I will address the possibility of a professional career in due time.”
Appel (10-1, 2.27 ERA) leads the Pac-12 in strikeouts with 127 going into this weekend’s NCAA super regional at Florida State.
As the MLB Network camera took in the celebration at the Zimmer household in La Jolla (San Diego County), Zimmer immediately donned a Royals cap.
He later said he wasn’t tipped that the Royals would take him. His aunt, Tina Boughton, had prepared for the moment by buying caps representing the teams with top 11 picks.
Zimmer was surrounded by his family, 10 of the USF senior players and a couple of former Dons when his name was announced.
“Everything was a surprise,’’ he said. “You don’t know what’s going to happen until they say your name. It was pretty crazy. I’m speechless. It’s always been a dream to be a professional baseball player.’’
The 6-foot-4, 220-pound junior right-hander said he was hampered in his last few starts by a pulled hamstring. “It was definitely bugging me,’’ he said. “I couldn’t get the lift from my legs I wanted.’’
Zimmer posted a 5-3 record with a 2.85 ERA as a senior and led the West Coast Conference in strikeouts with 104 in 881⁄
3 innings. Recruited as an infielder, he was converted to pitcher as a freshman but worked just 51⁄ innings that season. He
3 made so much progress as a sophomore that, in an NCAA regional game, he outdueled UCLA’s Gerrit Cole, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2011 draft.
Piscotty said it was “pretty nerve-racking’’ to wait as long as he did. He was talking to a couple of teams drafting below the Cardinals when St. Louis called. “I feel really good about it,’’ he said. “They’re a good organization. I’ve heard a lot of good things about them.’’ Super-regional schedule: Stanford and Florida State will play at 4 p.m. Friday, at 3 p.m. Saturday and, if necessary, at 4 p.m. Sunday, with all the games on ESPN2.