Mississippi State pitcher selected

The Giants, who live and die with their pitching, selected a power arm from Mississippi State with their only first-round pick in Monday’s amateur draft.

Chris Stratton, the SEC Pitcher of the Year, is a 6-foot-3, 198-pound righthander whom Giants scouting director John Barr feared would be gone when they picked 20th.

“John just called me not too long ago, and he was pretty fired up that Stratton was still on the board,” said Will Clark, a Mississippi State alum who watched Stratton strike out 17 in a game at LSU in March.

Stratton was 11-2 with a 2.38 ERA in 17 games as a junior for the Bulldogs. He struck out 127 in 1092⁄

3 innings.

“He has a four-pitch mix,” Barr said. “He can throw breaking balls for strikes. His fastball goes anywhere from 90 to 95. He really competes on the mound.”

Stratton was not drafted out of high school but developed physically and on the mound at Mississippi State. He has a chance to join a rotation stocked with first-rounders Madison Bumgarner, Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain.

“Those guys are outstanding pitchers,” Stratton said in a conference call. “Just to be on the same team with them is a blessing. This is the kind of organization I want to be a part of, which puts an emphasis on pitching. I hope I’ll be able to learn from those guys.”

Stratton also looks forward to celebrating with his aunt and uncle, Sharon and Gaines Dobbins, who live in San Francisco. Gaines is the chef at Eureka Restaurant in the Castro and bikes to Giants games.

Though draft-watchers assumed the Giants would select a college pitcher to replenish the system after losing 2009 first-rounder Zack Wheeler to the Mets last year, Barr said that was no slam dunk.

“Our board was mixed,” he said. “We had both high school and college pitchers and position players. Depending on how it went, if (Stratton) had not been there, whether we would have taken a pitcher or not, I’m not so sure.”