06-08-2010, 12:17 PM
Here's the Rogers stuff CC talked about:
<!--quoteo-->QUOTE <!--quotec-->The White Sox appear to have gotten lucky when lefty Chris Sale -- one of the best Division I pitchers this season -- slid to their spot with the 13th pick overall. I like the pick a lot. But the pick I love is the Cubs finding Division II stud Hayden Simpson at Southern Arkansas University and having the nerve to take him with their first-round pick rather than taking a safer pick and hoping that Simpson was still there in the second round.
You can find pitching in funny places. The White Sox landed Mark Buehrle as a draft-and-follow pick from Jefferson Jr. College, outside of St. Louis. The Cubs got Greg Maddux as a scrawny high school pitcher from Las Vegas. In Sale, the headliner for a start-up program at Florida Gulf Coast University, and Simpson they landed pitchers with better amateur portfolios than either Buehrle or Maddux.
The Cubs sort of stumbled onto Simpson on the reports of their area scout for southwest Arkansas, Jim Crawford -- or "Crawdaddy,'' as scouting director Tim Wilken calls him -- and every time a different scout looked at him he continued to look better. <b>He has a Tim Lincecum-style delivery, which roving pitching director Mark Riggins graded as a 100 on a scale of 1-100, and throws four quality pitches, including a fastball that hit 97 in games the Cubs scouted.
"You had to say, 'Hey, wait a minute, this is almost too good to be true,' " Wilken said.</b>
Simpson was 35-2 with a 2.39 ERA in his career for the Muleriders -- yes, the Muleriders.
"That shows you his competitiveness, his will to win,'' Wilken said. "His freshman year he was 10-0. I think that shows he has a really good feel for pitching.''<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--quoteo-->QUOTE <!--quotec-->The White Sox appear to have gotten lucky when lefty Chris Sale -- one of the best Division I pitchers this season -- slid to their spot with the 13th pick overall. I like the pick a lot. But the pick I love is the Cubs finding Division II stud Hayden Simpson at Southern Arkansas University and having the nerve to take him with their first-round pick rather than taking a safer pick and hoping that Simpson was still there in the second round.
You can find pitching in funny places. The White Sox landed Mark Buehrle as a draft-and-follow pick from Jefferson Jr. College, outside of St. Louis. The Cubs got Greg Maddux as a scrawny high school pitcher from Las Vegas. In Sale, the headliner for a start-up program at Florida Gulf Coast University, and Simpson they landed pitchers with better amateur portfolios than either Buehrle or Maddux.
The Cubs sort of stumbled onto Simpson on the reports of their area scout for southwest Arkansas, Jim Crawford -- or "Crawdaddy,'' as scouting director Tim Wilken calls him -- and every time a different scout looked at him he continued to look better. <b>He has a Tim Lincecum-style delivery, which roving pitching director Mark Riggins graded as a 100 on a scale of 1-100, and throws four quality pitches, including a fastball that hit 97 in games the Cubs scouted.
"You had to say, 'Hey, wait a minute, this is almost too good to be true,' " Wilken said.</b>
Simpson was 35-2 with a 2.39 ERA in his career for the Muleriders -- yes, the Muleriders.
"That shows you his competitiveness, his will to win,'' Wilken said. "His freshman year he was 10-0. I think that shows he has a really good feel for pitching.''<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
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