Baseball draft:
Cal’s Tony Renda and St. Mary’s Martin Agosta were the top Bay Area players taken on the second day.
Tony Renda, Cal’s pintsized infielder for three years, and Martin Agosta, the rapidly improving St. Mary’s right-hander, both were delighted to be taken in the second round of the Major League Baseball draft Tuesday.
“I’m thrilled,’’ Renda said after being taken by the Washington Nationals with the 80th overall pick. “I’m ready to get going.’’
Agosta’s joy was heightened by the fact he was taken by the Giants with the 84th pick. The Sacramento native said he has seen “millions’’ of Giants games and Tim Lincecum is his favorite player.
“I can’t believe my hometown team selected me,’’ Agosta said. “I was joking with my dad: ‘I’ll probably get drafted by the Dodgers.’ And to be selected by the Giants is just a total dream come true.’’
Three more Stanford players were taken on a day that included 14 rounds. Pitcher Brett Mooneyham was chosen by the Nationals in Round 3 (111th pick), shortstop Kenny Diekroeger by the Royals in Round 4 (133rd) and center fielder Jake Stewart by the Tigers in Round 9 (304th).
Renda, a Serra High grad, hit .373, .332 and .342 in his three seasons in Berkeley. He made first-team allconference all three years and was Pac-10 Player of the Year in 2011. This year, he was an All-American.
“The time flew by because I was having so much fun,’’ said Renda, a junior who briefly considered transferring to Oregon last year after it appeared the Cal baseball program would be a casualty of budget cutters.
To his relief, it was restored. “I wouldn’t trade the years I had at Cal for anything,’’ he said. Like most of the college juniors who are picked high in the draft, he is expected to turn pro.
At 5-foot-8, he’s the same height as Dustin Pedroia and says he never tires of hearing commentators bring up the Boston second baseman while discussing him.
“We’re both little guys who get the most out of our bodies,’’ he said. “I’d love to thank him. He helps guys like me get drafted.’’
The Nats would love for Renda to develop into something approaching the three-time All-Star.
The only other Cal player drafted through the 15th round was catcher Chadd Krist by the Cubs in the ninth round (284th). Krist, a senior, could have signed with the White Sox, who drafted him in the 13th round last year, but decided to return to finish his degree and play one more year with his pals.
Mooneyham said he expected the Nationals to take him because they had drafted him last year in the 38th round. He had missed that season after tearing a flexor tendon in the middle finger of his pitching hand — while opening a can of black beans — and chose to come back to Stanford to improve his stock.
He was a 15th-round pick out of high school by the Padres. He probably would have been a second- or third-rounder, but teams probably were reluctant to expend a high pick on a pitcher who had committed to Stanford and didn’t show the desired consistency.
He cited another factor Tuesday, the fact that as a high school player, he had Scott Boras as an adviser. “It might have’’ pushed him down the list, he said.
Boras is also advising Stanford right-handerMark Appel, who dropped to the eighth pick in Monday’s first round after being touted as a possible first pick. Appel again declined to address the subject Tuesday.
In Monday’s compensation round, the Cubs made Paul Blackburn of Brentwood’s Heritage High the 56th overall pick. The 6foot-2, 185-pound righthanded pitcher had a 10-3 record with an 0.93 ERA.