A’s Top 20 Draft Picks Progress Report

It’s been about ten weeks since this year’s amateur draft and about two months since the first of the players picked by the A’s began playing with either the Class-A Vermont Lake Monsters or the rookie-ball Arizona League A’s. The A’s managed to sign all of their top 20 picks this year. The highest-drafted player Oakland’s front office wasn’t able to sign was 21-year-old right-hander Brigham Hill out of Texas A&M, whom the team took with its 21^st pick in the 20^th round. But the A’s were fortunate that they were able to ink all 20 of the players they picked before him and get those prospects into the system.

With about two months of play now in the books, I took a look this week at how some the A’s newest prospects have been performing down on the farm. You can stay up to date on the A’s top prospects and all the daily action in the A’s minor league system on my Athletics Farm site and you can get the latest on this year’s top 20 drat picks right here on Athletics Nation…

The A’s focused on pitching with their top 20 picks this year, taking 12 pitchers in the top 20 and 7 in the top 10. The team’s top pick, LHP A.J. Puk, has been the clear standout among the pitching prospects so far this season. The 6-foot-7 21-year-old has looked dominant at times for Vermont, posting a 2.16 ERA while striking out 32 over 25 innings of work for the Lake Monsters.

The A’s second overall pick, RHP Daulton Jefferies, just started seeing some action in Arizona and, in 3 brief appearances, the 21-year-old has shown off his pinpoint control by allowing just 1 run while walking none and striking out 10 over 5 2/3 frames for the AZL A’s. Oakland’s third overall pick taken in the 2^nd round was Puk’s teammate at Florida, RHP Logan Shore, who recently joined his friend and former college teammate at Vermont. And in his first 4 appearances, the 21-year-old has allowed 2 earned runs and struck out 8 over 9 innings of work.

The team’s top high school pick was RHP Skylar Szynski, who was taken in the 4^th round. Though he’s currently sporting a 8.10 ERA, the 19-year-old’s numbers aren’t really that bad, having allowed 16 hits and just 4 walks while striking out 8 in 13 1/3 innings for the AZL A’s. Three other pitchers from the top 10 rounds who are currently at Vermont have all been perfoming well. 6^th-round RHP Brandon Bailey, who’s primarily been used as a starter, has posted a 3.41 ERA over 29 innings since joining the system. LHPs Will Gilbert and Dalton Sawyer have both been working out of the bullpen, where 8^th-rounder Gilbert has notched 25 strikeouts in 22 1/3 innings while 9^th-rounder Sawyer has struck out 20 over 15 2/3 frames for the Lake Monsters.

Meanwhile, 10^th-round pick Mitchell Jordan has been solid while serving in a starting role in Arizona, putting up a 3.24 ERA while walking just 7 and striking out 30 in 33 1/3 innings of work for the AZL A’s. The fastest riser of this year’s draft class has been the A’s 14^th-round pick, RHP Nolan Blackwood out of the University of Memphis, who is the only member of this year’s crop to make it all the way up to the Beloit Snappers of the Class-A Midwest League. After looking solid in 5 relief appearances for Vermont, the 21-year-old has struggled a bit since joining Beloit’s bullpen, allowing 9 runs in his first 9 appearances for the Snappers.

When it comes to position players, the team’s three top 10 selections – 3^rd-round catcher Sean Murphy, 5^th-round third baseman JaVon Shelby and 7^th-round outfielder Tyler Ramirez – all did a brief stint in Arizona before joining Vermont. Murphy’s power has yet to show itself as he has just 2 extra-base hits over his first 70 at-bats, while Shelby’s shown himself to be a bit of a free swinger, striking out 41 times in 149 at-bats while putting up a .188 batting average. Ramirez has fared a little better, with a .254/.347/.389 slash line over his first 39 games since joining the system.

The two standouts among the team’s position player picks have been shortstop Eli White and second baseman Nate Mondou, who’ve formed a productive double-play combo for Vermont and who were both recently named New York-Penn League All-Stars. 11^th-rounder White already has 14 extra-base hits to go along with a .304/.364/.408 slash line, while 13^th-rounder Mondou currently has the second-best batting average and the fourth-best on-base percentage in the league.

You’ll find the A’s top 20 picks of the 2016 draft along with their current statistics through Sunday, August 21 listed below. The teams they’ve played for so far this season are noted, with the team they’ve appeared in the most games with listed first and their current team in bold…

1^st Round

A.J. Puk

Age: 21 / Left-Handed Pitcher

Vermont Lake Monsters

25 IP / 15 H / 6 ER / 6 BB / 32 K / 2.16 ERA / 0.84 WHIP

1^st Round Supplemental

Daulton Jefferies

Age: 21 / Right-Handed Pitcher

AZL A’s

5 2/3 IP / 7 H / 1 ER / 0 BB / 10 K / 1.59 ERA / 1.24 WHIP

2^nd Round

Logan Shore

Age: 21 / Right-Handed Pitcher

Vermont Lake Monsters

9 IP / 9 H / 2 ER / 3 BB / 8 K / 2.00 ERA / 1.33 WHIP

3^rd Round

Sean Murphy

Age: 21 / Catcher

Vermont Lake Monsters + AZL A’s

70 AB / 1 HR / 7 BB / 9 K / .200 AVG / .273 OBP / .257 SLG / .530 OPS

4^th Round

Skylar Szynski

Age: 19 / Right-Handed Pitcher

AZL A’s

13 1/3 IP / 16 H / 12 ER / 4 BB / 8 K / 8.10 ERA / 1.50 WHIP

5^th Round

JaVon Shelby

Age: 21 / Third Baseman

Vermont Lake Monsters + AZL A’s

149 AB / 2 HR / 19 BB / 41 K / .188 AVG / .280 OBP / .268 SLG / .548 OPS

6^th Round

Brandon Bailey

Age: 21 / Right-Handed Pitcher

Vermont Lake Monsters + AZL A’s

29 IP / 25 H / 10 ER / 9 BB / 27 K / 3.41 ERA / 1.17 WHIP

7^th Round

Tyler Ramirez

Age: 21 / Outfielder

Vermont Lake Monsters + AZL A’s

126 AB / 1 HR / 15 BB / 36 K / .254 AVG / .347 OBP / .389 SLG / .736 OPS

8^th Round

Will Gilbert

Age: 22 / Left-Handed Pitcher

Vermont Lake Monsters

22 1/3 IP / 16 H / 8 ER / 12 BB / 25 K / 3.22 ERA / 1.25 WHIP

9^th Round

Dalton Sawyer

Age: 22 / Left-Handed Pitcher

Vermont Lake Monsters

15 2/3 IP / 13 H / 6 ER / 9 BB / 20 K / 3.45 ERA / 1.40 WHIP

10^th Round

Mitchell Jordan

Age: 21 / Right-Handed Pitcher

AZL A’s

33 1/3 IP / 34 H / 12 ER / 7 BB / 30 K / 3.24 ERA / 1.23 WHIP

11^th Round

Eli White

Age: 22 / Shortstop

Vermont Lake Monsters + AZL A’s

184 AB / 2 HR / 18 BB / 47 K / .304 AVG / .364 OBP / .408 SLG / .771 OPS

12^th Round

Luke Persico

Age: 20 / Outfielder-Third Baseman

Vermont Lake Monsters + AZL A’s

145 AB / 2 HR / 16 BB / 33 K / .214 AVG / .290 OBP / .303 SLG / .594 OPS

13^th Round

Nate Mondou

Age: 21 / Second Baseman

Vermont Lake Monsters + AZL A’s

171 AB / 0 HR / 19 BB / 27 K / .327 AVG / .404 OBP / .368 SLG / .773 OPS

14^th Round

Nolan Blackwood

Age: 21 / Right-Handed Pitcher

Beloit Snappers + Vermont Lake Monsters

19 1/3 IP / 24 H / 11 ER / 6 BB / 16 K / 5.12 ERA / 1.55 WHIP

15^th Round

Ty Damron

Age: 22 / Left-Handed Pitcher

Vermont Lake Monsters

9 2/3 IP / 11 H / 6 ER / 6 BB / 11 K / 5.59 ERA / 1.76 WHIP

16^th Round

Anthony Churlin

Age: 19 / Outfielder

AZL A’s

69 AB / 0 HR / 9 BB / 23 K / .217 AVG / .316 OBP / .232 SLG / .548 OPS

17^th Round

Seth Martinez

Age: 22 / Right-Handed Pitcher

AZL A’s

2 1/3 IP / 3 H / 1 ER / 2 BB / 2 K / 3.86 ERA / 2.14 WHIP

18^th Round

Skyler Weber

Age: 21 / Catcher

AZL A’s

70 AB / 0 HR / 6 BB / 13 K / .171 AVG / .237 OBP / .200 SLG / .437 OPS

19^th Round

Sam Gilbert

Age: 22 / Right-Handed Pitcher

(Signed - Has Not Yet Played)

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