[Hrycaj]

Round 6: With our pick in this round we went with another HS arm. Typically, I try to draft college arms but with the addition of another minor league level there is a place where these young players can get some legitimate playing time. The player we selected was lefty Lynn McKenzie out of Norfolk High. McKenzie showed vast improvement from his first to second seasons of HS ball. In 57.2 innings at Norfolk this last season McKenzie posted a 4-1 record with a 1.25 ERA. He struck out 61 batters and posted a .85 WHIP. He will be given every opportunity to pitch at Class C in 1929.

Round 7: Catching was a rather weak position this year in the draft. It seemed that guys could either hit a bit and not filed as well or field well but couldn’t hit their way into a “C” level lineup. However, we needed a catcher down at Hattiesburg so we needed to pull the trigger on someone. Once again, based on our system the guy that gave us the best all around game was St. Matthew’s College backstop Bill Holland. In three college seasons Holland owns a .310 batting average with an on-base percentage of .376. As a fielding catcher Holland is not the best in our system but he is pretty solid with plenty of room and time to improve. Look for Holland to be the starting catcher at Hattiesburg in ‘29.

Round 8: College standout Jim Hazeltine was our eighth round selection in the ‘28 draft. Hazeltine is projected to be a middle type change pitcher or someone you can go to in a tight spot. We typically try to stay away from such players. We are looking to develop pitchers that can pitch full games. However, by this point 42 other pitchers had come off the board, and we really liked his ability to strike out batters. Also, Hazeltine pitched 270 innings in college so we may still be able to develop him into a pitcher that can give us a full game.

Round 9: By this point in the draft we had not really addressed our Class C outfield. We did draft Miller 4th but he is going to pitch and play the field. We needed a true three position go get it outfielder. Ten left fielders were already off the board but we still had one of our top guys available and we didn’t want to chance waiting any longer. We selected 21 year old Doug Richardson from Lubbock State. Richardson is the speed contact guy we were looking for. In two college seasons his batting average is .367 with a .432 on base. He also stole 29 bases and was only caught twice. He is not a power guy but if he can use his contact to get on base and then his speed once he is on base we will be quite fine with that. Defensively he can play all three outfield spots giving us a lot of options with this player.

Round 10: SS was another thin class in our opinion this year. I really liked Bob Case out of Henry Hudson but I also knew that if I didn’t draft him with our first pick he would not be there for the second one and he wasn’t as he went 2-3 to St. Louis. Other than Case though, I wasn’t big on any one guy. So that is why we waited all the way to the 10th before we pulled the trigger on a player. We grabbed Tommy Hines out of Pittsburgh High School. Hines has hit better each of his three high school years culminating in a .361 average with a .427 on-base last season. My worry is with the glove. He rated at the bottom end of our evaluation spectrum. I should note that the bottom end of our spectrum is still considered statistically good to above average to others. However, we are a club that puts a premium on defense even at a young age. So being on the low end of our spectrum while playing a position that will see a lot of traffic is a concern. The hope is that he simply blossoms. He will certainly have the opportunity as we are weak at the position below AA.

Round 11: With this pick I wanted to address pitching once again. We went with 21 year old Bayou State Cougar Frank Nuse. Nuse is a gamble but at this point who isn’t? Nuse would be the 61st pitcher drafted so a lot of talent was already off the board. Here is the good. Nuse had a great final college season striking out 90 batters in 78.2 innings and posting an ERA of 1.72 and a WHIP of 1.03. So why didn’t he go higher with those numbers? Well in his second season a sore shoulder took 7 weeks off of his season and his first season in college ball was not very good. So this is a case of sample size. He is trending up, hopefully we hit on this.

Round 12: For this pick we went back to the outfield. There were a lot of quality CF’s in this draft and we were in on none of them. We figured we could grab someone later that could maybe do the job. We probably waited to long on addressing this position but you can’t fill everything. At this point we were looking for a young HS kid that we could try and develop. We selected Woody Meyer out of Decatur. Meyer has the glove we are looking for in a CF player. The bat is the question. I’m concerned that it may never develop. In three high school seasons Meyer never hit over .300. Although his average was a stable between .289 and .290 all three years. Still, it is a big jump to pro ball and I would not be surprised if the bat does not make the jump and ever develop.

Round 13: This was a mistake pick. No two ways around it. By this spot in the draft you go over your lists and see the diamond in the rough and think to yourself “how did this guy fall this far.” That was what I said when I saw HS kid Tracy Seitz still on the board. We had Seitz rated really high on our list but what we failed to do is make sure his family was on board. Shortly after being drafted we were hearing that his parents wanted their son to go to college instead of starting his professional career. 13th round pick or not we have to be better about this going forward. If the kid is on the fence about playing we cannot spend a pick on him. We will make a financial run at the young outfielder but I feel that it will all be in vain.