Jemile Weeks, 2B, University of Miami.
Shrug. We were one pick away from having Smoak drop to us, and instead, Beane goes ahead and picks a guy no one expected him to 24 hours ago.
The Good: Weeks is a switch-hitting two-bagger who sprays line drives to all fields and has pretty good speed. He's got big-league bloodlines as his older brother is Milwaukee Brewers star Ricke Weeks. He's athletic enough to possibly be moved to center field, where his offensive approach and speed would play better. He's got pretty good, but not outstanding, plate discipline as he's walked either as much or slightly more often than he has struck out each season at Miami.
The Bad: He's definitely the lesser of the family talent-wise. He's not a particularly adept defender at 2nd and will never have plus power.
Personally, I'm not really thrilled with this pick. Sure, the organization is lacking in impact middle-infield talent, but Weeks is not projected to be the next Pedroia or Tulowitski. The Cards just took Brett Wallace, a Bay Area native and superior offensive player to Weeks right after the A's pick, who I thought would have been a better pick.
We have to wait until the 2nd round for the next pick as the A's do not have any compensatory sandwich picks this year. It's gonna be a long wait.
UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE
With their 2nd round selection, 58th overall, the A's take:
RHP Tyson Ross , out of Cal!
I am very pleased that Ross fell into the 2nd round and that Billy made the decision to nab him. Tyson is an Oakland-native who has led the Cal Bear pitching staff the last few years. He's a tall (6'6) righty starter with good stuff. He had an awesome sophomore season but after dealing with some health issues at the beginning of this year, he's been kin of inconsistent. He's got awesome make up (as he was one of the leaders of the Team USA squad last summer).
I'm truly excited about this pick. Mechanically, some scouts have been put off by Ross's abrupt mechanics. However, others note that he is fairly new to pitching, is a tremendous athlete and has all the arm and lower body strength needed to become a top-of-the-rotation starter in the big leagues.
Plus, he was born and raised in Oakland. Can't get anymore local than that! Yippee!
...and in the 3rd round the A's took:
Catcher Petey Paramore out of ASU.
Solid pick there. Paramore was probably one of the to-5 catchers in the class. He's apparently a defensive stalwart, but he can switch hit and is another contact-oriented hitter that doesn't strike out much. He's also reportedly pretty good with runners in scoring position! Score!
