King Koepka
By: Kipp Branch
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
For the first time since Curtis Strange in 1989, Brooks Koepka has won the United States Open in consecutive years.
Koepka fired a final round 68 to beat Tommy Fleetwood by a stroke and World #1 Dustin Johnson by two strokes. Fleetwood who played earlier in the day on Sunday shot a record low round of 63.
Koepka with the win jumps to number 4 in the world rankings and looks like at age 28 he will be a force in American golf for at least the next decade.
Shinnecock Hills hosted another memorable US Open. Rounds 1 and 3 brought the best players in the world to their knees. Johnson was running away with the title after 36 holes but fired a 77 on Saturday to come back to the pack.
Phil Mickelson hit a moving ball and took a lot of criticism from the golfing media.
The USGA took a lot of heat from media and players regarding pin positions and baked out greens that made good approach shots into bad shots.
Shinnecock is a beast when the wind blows and after Koepka won at Erin Hills at 16 under in 2017 who did not see this coming? The US Open is regarded as the toughest test of golf in the world and the USGA likes the winning score to be around par.
Koepka has now won the toughest golf tournament in the world in back to back years.
Born in West Palm Beach, Florida, Koepka was raised in Lake Worth and attended Cardinal Newman High School in West Palm Beach. He played college golf at Florida State University, where was a three-time All-American.
Koepka started his professional career on the European tour, where he won three times before coming to the PGA tour.
Koepka now has a reputation for being able to win on the toughest courses in the world. The Open is being played at Carnoustie this year, which is also known as the toughest course in Scotland so expect Koepka to contend there as well.
Some players just are built to compete for major titles. Koepka at 28 has won two, has 5 top five, and 7 top ten finishes. He has made the cut in straight majors dating back to the 2013 PGA Championship.
When you can do that you build a reputation as being a closer and that was evident in the final round at Shinnecock when he stuffed a short iron to 4 feet and drained a birdie putt to pretty much seal the deal playing alongside Dustin Johnson.
Willie Anderson of Scotland is the only man to ever win three consecutive US Open titles in 1905. Koepa can become the only American to accomplish that with a win at Pebble Beach in 2019.
Life is pretty good for Brooks right now, back to back US Open champion, top 5 golfer in the world, and a beauty pageant winner as a girlfriend.
Look for Brooks Koepka to help lead the US Ryder cup team this fall to a much needed victory on European soil. Something that has not happened in 25 years.
The future of US golf is pretty bright currently.
My First Game
By: JJ Lanier
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
I’ve been fortunate over my lifetime to see a number of collegiate and professional games. Out of all the ones I’ve seen- including tickets 13 rows up at the ‘94 Orange Bowl where FSU defeated Nebraska to become first time champions- there are two that stand out.
The first one was a routine summer baseball game back in 1990 between the Atlanta Braves and San Francisco Giants. I was a Giants fan because the Braves were horrible and Kevin Mitchell had hit 49 home runs during the previous season.
So, for my 10th birthday my family made the 4-hour trek from Asheville to Atlanta and my Dad and I went to the game. I can remember almost every detail of that weekend because it was my first professional game.
I remember the anticipation I had on the ride down and being nervous that there wouldn’t be any tickets available. Not only did we get tickets, but they were $3 for the upper deck.
I remember the two players I desperately wanted to see, Kevin Mitchell and Will Clark; both took the game off. Any disappointment I had was quickly erased after a Robby Thompson home run in the 2nd inning put the Giants up for good. San Francisco went on to win 2-0.
I even remember my Dad driving back to the hotel and going the wrong way down a one-way street after the game. And no, he wasn’t drinking; we were just so caught up in talking about my first experience at a professional baseball game, we kind of lost track of where we were.
I’ve been to a few baseball games since, but I honestly could not tell you anything about them outside of who the home team was.
The second game took place on New Year’s Eve of 2014 when my daughter- roughly the same age I was during the Atlanta trip- and I went to Cameron Indoor Stadium to see Duke play Wofford.
Much like the Braves/Giants game, there wasn’t really anything on the line, but she was as excited as I had been 28 years ago. I imagine I felt like my Dad did all those years ago, too.
We talked about the game for the whole 3-hour ride back to our house and even though I didn’t go the wrong way on a one-way street, I did get a little turned around in a McDonald’s parking lot. (I promise these two incidents are not indicative of my family’s sense of direction.)
Normally at this point in the story is where you get the big emotional reveal, but that’s not the case.
My Dad is a 63-year-old triathlete that is better shape now than I’ve ever been at any point in my life. And while my daughter is 13 and has this growth at the end of her arm that resembles an iPhone, she still enjoys hanging out with her old man.
No Walk In The Dawg Park
By: Kipp Branch
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
It is never too early to talk UGA football. Here is a look at the Dawgs’ schedule from worst to best in 2018.
12. Austin Peay: The Governors roll into Athens on September 1st and roll out about three hours later with a beat down and big fat paycheck.
11. UMass: The Minutemen arrive in Athens in mid-November and will get hammered within minutes.
10. Middle Tennessee State: The Blue Raiders come to Athens in mid-September and depending on the outcome in Columbia, South Carolina the previous week will determine how badly they get pummeled.
9. Vanderbilt: Vandy won the last time they came to Athens in 2016, but that will not happen in 2018. Vandy will be scrappy but in the end get beat something like 41-17.
8. Tennessee: The Vols come to Athens where they won with a Hail Mary in 2016. Butch Jones left a huge mess in Knoxville and Jeremy Pruitt is there to clean it up. It may take 2-3 years to get the Vols back in contention if they give Pruitt enough time in Knoxville to do it. 41-0 at home last season really eats at the Vol nation.
7. Georgia Tech: The Jackets have won the last two times they have visited the Classic City, but that will not happen in 2018. UGA is too deep and talented for Tech in 2018. Did you ever think Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate would land here?
6. Missouri: The Dawgs travel to COMO on 9/22 with a young secondary and will face a Tiger team with Drew Lock, who throws the deep ball better than anyone in the country. Dawgs better be ready for this one. This game worries me.
5. Kentucky: Georgia travels to Lexington on 11/3 and I already know it will be a night game even before it is announced. This is sandwich game between Florida and Auburn and UGA better be ready. A loss to Kentucky would be disaster for UGA because UGA just flat out owns Kentucky in football.
4. LSU: A trip to Red Stick is never easy. The Dawgs will be coming off a Vandy win and LSU will be in the third leg of a four-game stretch with three of the Tigers biggest rivals. Ole Miss, @ Florida, UGA and then Mississippi State, who beat LSU 37-7 in Starkville in 2017.
UGA is catching the Tigers at a good time, but it will still be a toss-up game. Who will LSU’s QB be?
3. South Carolina: This game has been moved back to early September and let me go ahead and warn you that this will be a war.
Columbia, South Carolina may be the hottest place on the planet early in football season. This will be a great game to attend because the sights around Williams Brice stadium will be easy on the eyes because Carolina girls are sweet southern pearls just as the song says. Will Muschamp is building quietly a quality program in Columbia.
2. Florida @ Jax: With Dan Mullen arriving in Gainesville, promising a better offense and a more heated rivalry after saying of the Bulldogs winning the East in 2017, “Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while.” As Granny Hawkins said in Outlaw Josey Wales that big talk’s worth doodly-squat Dan.
This game will be more heated than in the past with 4th place Dan running things in Gainesville. 42-7 in 2017 could have been 63-7 it was that one-sided. I Have never seen a Florida team lay down like that Gator squad did that day.
1. Auburn: The DSOR (Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry) was played twice in 2017 with UGA winning the SEC Title 28-7 over AU. This game has all of a sudden become very heated with UGA taking 10 of the last 13 contests. This one in Athens on November 10th should be a classic.
UGA’s conference schedule is tough with trips to LSU, Missouri, Kentucky, South Carolina, and UF in Jax.
Dawgs need to win four of the five contests to get back to Atlanta and play for another SEC Title. Hey Bama, see you in Atlanta.
2018 Sting
By: Kenneth Harrison Jr.
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Georgia Tech is coming off another subpar season after 2017. They finished the year under .500 and missed a bowl game for the second time in three years.
For whatever reason Tech gave Paul Johnson a two-year contract extension in January. Maybe the program has accepted mediocrity or they may really feel CPJ is a genius.
Georgia Tech athletic director Todd Stansbury noted that, despite the strength of Tech’s schedule – Tech played two of the four teams in the College Football Playoff (Clemson and Georgia) as well as 10-win Miami and nine-win Virginia Tech – “you could look at it and say we’re three plays away from playing for another ACC championship,” he said.
Stansbury referenced Tech’s last-minute losses to Tennessee, Miami and Virginia. Had the outcomes against Miami and Virginia been reversed, the Jackets would have played Clemson for the ACC title. Instead, along with the heartbreaking loss to Tennessee, the Jackets finished 5-6.
One of the lone bright spots for the Yellow Jackets in 2017 was quarterback TaQuan Marshall. He led the team in rushing with 1,218 yards and 18 touchdowns. He passed for 936 yards, 10 touchdowns and 5 interceptions. He only completed 37.6% of his passes. He needs to work on his accuracy but Paul Johnson also needs to develop an intermediate passing game.
Tech ranked 33rd in total defense, allowing 354.3 yards per game. That ranking is misleading because they had one game cancelled. If they played a full 12 game schedule, they would have been ranked lower.
Ted Roof was finally let go as defensive coordinator and replaced by Nate Woody. Woody is a 27-year coaching veteran and he turned Appalachian State into one of the best units in college football.
After installing an attacking 3-4 scheme, Woody oversaw the transformation of an App State defense that ranked eighth in the nine-team NCAA Division I FCS Southern Conference in total defense the season prior to his arrival (2012) into a unit that led the Sun Belt Conference in total defense three times and ranked among the top 30 in NCAA Division I FBS each of the past four campaigns (2014-17).
Hopefully the defense will drastically improve in 2018. They have been the weak link of the team for most of Johnson’s tenure.
The schedule for the upcoming season seems favorable. The first game is September 1st against FCS Alcorn State. That will be an easy win.
The next game is at USF. The Bulls were 10-2 last year so I expect them to still be pretty good in 2018. I’m going to give the edge to Georgia Tech but this should be a tough game.
Week 3 is on the road at Pitt. The Yellow Jackets beat the Panthers 35-17 last season. I expect the same results this season.
The schedule gets significantly harder when Clemson comes to town. The Tigers will win by 20-plus points.
GT plays at home against Bowling Green the following week. This will be the last tune up game before the schedule gets more difficult.
They travel to Louisville for a Friday night game. Since Lamar Jackson departed, the Cardinals will have a new starting QB. For that reason, I give the edge to Tech.
The next three games are Duke, at Virginia Tech and at UNC. The only win should be against Carolina.
They close out the season against Miami, Virginia and at Georgia. The Hurricanes and Bulldogs will beat Georgia Tech. The UVA game should be a win for the Yellow Jackets.
They should be able to rebound and win 6-7 games and appear in a bowl.
Musical Chairs
By: JJ Lanier
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
After what amounted to a pretty exciting playoff, the NBA season finished just as most of us expected; with Golden State defeating Cleveland in the finals.
It was kind of like being lactose intolerant and eating ice cream; you enjoy consuming it, but you ultimately know what the end result will be.
With a regular season that has become somewhat mundane and a predictable postseason, you can argue that the best time of the NBA season is upon us; the NBA offseason.
As much as fans complain that “Super Teams” are ruining the NBA product, just the possibility that any player is willing to change teams- even if they happen to be one of the best players in league- has turned it into the most intriguing offseason of either of the three major sports.
The NFL Draft, with all of its’ uncertainty and build up, is better than the NBA Draft, but it’s free agency period falls well short of its basketball counterpart.
Yes, the NFL has its share of player movement in the offseason but the caliber of player involved in those moves doesn’t compare to that of the NBA. The decisions (no pun intended) LeBron (Cleveland-Miami-Cleveland-who the hell knows) and Durant (Oklahoma City- Golden State) have made would be like Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers leaving their respective teams, which just doesn’t happen very often in the NFL.
Well, if I’m going to spout about how the NBA’s downtime is superior to everyone else’s because of their free agency, I should probably mention some of the possible movement to look out for this summer.
The two big names are the two I just mentioned; LeBron James and Kevin Durant. It’s pretty common knowledge that Durant will stay in Golden State. In fact, I think he may have even stated that. As for James, I feel more comfortable trying to predict the end to Game of Thrones than I do trying to figure it where LeBron will wind up.
Besides those two, there are some other big name players on the free agent market.
Paul George, Chris Paul, and Demarcus Cousins, are the next tier of players, which is still pretty impressive when you consider two of those three could very well be with new teams next year.
I don’t think Paul is going anywhere. Houston could very well have been playing in the Finals had he not missed the last two conference final games and the Rockets have as good a chance as anyone to land LeBron. Kind of hard to walk away from that.
Paul George and DeMarcus Cousins, on the other hand, are different stories.
George is going to end up with either the Lakers or Thunder. He seems to have enjoyed his time in OKC and playing with Russell Westbrook. The allure of playing in LA, George’s hometown, may too much, especially in LeBron decides to head out west.
I have no idea about Cousins. I wouldn’t be surprised if he signs to play in Beijing because he likes Chinese food, he’s just that type of guy.
Then you have players like Aaron Gordon, DeAndre Jordan, and Jabari Parker, who could all opt for free agency.
The point is, even if you’re only an occasional fan of the NBA during the season it’s ok, the best part of the league is about to start.
I’m not sure exactly what that means for the NBA, but I know I’m as interested as anyone to see how the dominoes fall.
Braves Pitching The Draft
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The MLB draft is never as hyped up as the NBA or NFL drafts, and that’s somewhat fair because baseball has such an extensive minor league system that it is exceptionally rare that player makes the jump directly from the draft to a Major League roster.
There’s also far fewer safe bets in baseball. Top prospects often never go on to be All-Stars in baseball. It’s much more of a crap shoot. That being said, it is always interesting to see how teams draft, both on the level of individual players and on a macro level of what they were looking to do in a broad sense.
Despite the heavy penalties MLB slapped the Atlanta Braves with at the end of 2017, new GM Alex Antholopoulos had the task of drafting a new crop of talent to add to his already stocked pool last week.
Granted, most of the penalties involved were directed at the Braves’ ability to target international prospects (as that’s where former GM John Coppollela spent most of his illicit energies), but the Braves still lost their third round pick this year.
Those penalties did add a new wrinkle, however, as Atlanta needed to replace the 13 international prospects they had to release into the wild.
So, as to not lose years off of the farm system’s development, the Braves drafted 34 college players out of 39 total picks. Only Carter Stewart in the first round and Victor Vodnik in the 14th came out of high school before the last three rounds, where the final three were selected.
As a top 10 draft pick, all eyes will be on Stewart as he moves through the minors in the coming months and years. He is just the kind of player the Braves have coveted as of late, a prep school hurler with high upside.
Stewart’s prize possession is a nasty curveball, possibly the best in the entire draft class. He also has a fastball that sits in the low 90s, though he’s been clocked as high as 98.
At 6’ 6” and only 18 years old he has room to add muscle and apparently that process has already begun, as he has followed my lead and added on 30 pounds since last August.
He likely sealed the deal as the Braves’ choice with an 18-strikeout no-hitter earlier this year.
There were also some fortunate draft picks by the rest of MLB, leaving a player like right-handed pitcher Tristan Beck available in the fourth round, especially after they had to skip the previous one.
They also adhered to the time honored ideal that there is no such thing as too much pitching. They picked up 22 pitchers in the draft, including five lefties, alongside four outfielders, 9 infielders, and 4 catchers.
That might frustrate some folks, and I can understand why. The Braves are going to need position players in the near future (and right now at third base) and they could have filled those gaps with college batters who will be ready for the majors much sooner.
A third baseman (or someone who could be moved for a third baseman) would have solved an immediate need in Atlanta and before too long the Braves will need to look to replace the likes of Nick Markakis, Tyler Flowers and Kurt Suzuki. However, Atlanta stayed true to their beliefs and picked up pitching in droves.
The last bit of business the Braves completed was a heartfelt one. In the 40th round the Braves drafted Mick Mangan, son of Braves groundskeeper Ed Mangan. Don’t sleep on this pick just because it was a nice gesture. The Dodgers once drafted somebody’s son as a favor in the last round too and Mike Piazza is in the Hall of Fame.
Tee It Up
By: Kipp Branch
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
If you are a diehard sports fan then you know with Father’s Day approaching next week that it is US Open time as the tournament always concludes on that special day for dads.
The 118th edition returns to Shinnecock Hills for the 5th time. Shinnecock Hills claims to be the oldest formal organized golf club in the United States (1891), to have the oldest golf clubhouse in the U.S. (1892) and to have been the first to admit women, which it did from the start. It is a links course just east of New York City. If the winds blow, then look out.
If there is a tie after 72 holes then a two-hole aggregate playoff, introduced by the USGA this year, will be used to determine the champion.
Previously playoffs at the U.S. Open were 18 holes, with sudden-death if needed. The last 18-hole playoff occurred in 2008 with Tiger beating Rocco Mediate at Torrey Pines. It was Tiger’s last win in a major.
Some memorable US Opens have unfolded at Shinnecock Hills.
1986: Raymond Floyd wins after shooting a final round 66 and beating the likes of Greg Norman, Lanny Wadkins, and Chip Beck. Norman held the lead after 54 holes.
1995: Corey Pavin won his only major with a two-shot win over Greg Norman who held another 54-hole lead at Shinnecock Hills.
2004: Retief Goosen beats Phil Mickelson by two shots.
The players to watch this year are: Phil Mickelson: The US Open is the only major lefty hasn’t won and he has finished runner-up six times in the US Open. Does he have a magical 4 days left in him at 47 years of age? Don’t count him out.
Tiger Woods: The three-time US Open champ has not won a major in a decade. Shinnecock is a monster to end a major championship drought. His game is coming around.
Justin Rose: Rose plays well at places like Shinnecock and he is a past US Open champion and his game is peaking right now.
Rickie Fowler: Fowler played well at Augusta and may get his first major at Shinnecock. Fowler has that dreaded best player to never win a major tag and let’s hope he gets rid of that soon. Fowler showed me something at Augusta down the stretch. His first major win is coming soon.
Jordan Spieth: Spieth won the US Open in 2015 and at 24 years of age will be a favorite in majors for probably the next decade.
Patrick Reed: The Masters Champ has the game to win a US Open but can he put together back to back great runs in a major?
Matt Kuchar: My gut is telling me the St. Simons Island resident Kuchar is going to contend at Shinnecock. Kuch has been close in majors before. Could this be the weekend?
Prediction: A Mickelson or Kuchar run would be heartwarming. A Tiger run would be ratings gold. At the end of the day I think it comes down to Fowler, Rose, and Spieth.
2018 US Open Champion will be Justin Rose. Fowler wins the PGA in August
Back To the Future
By: Kenneth Harrison Jr.
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Here we go again, in the middle of the NBA Finals. For the fourth year in a row Cleveland and Golden State are playing. I expected the Warriors to dominate and win another championship and so far, they have not disappointed.
The first two games were in Oakland and the Warriors maintained home court advantage. They won Game 1, 124-114 in overtime. The biggest moment of the game came with 4.7 seconds left in regulation. George Hill missed a free throw and J.R. Smith grabbed the offensive rebound in the lane. He ran behind the three-point line and dribbled the ball out, expecting a teammate to call a time out.
“I just thought we were going to call a timeout. Because I got the rebound, I’m pretty sure I couldn’t shoot it over KD,” Smith said of Kevin Durant. “If I thought we were ahead, I would have just held on to the ball so they could foul me. Clearly that wasn’t the case.”
LeBron James played amazing, scoring 51 points, snatching 8 rebounds and 8 assists. Kevin Love also added 21 points and 13 boards.
Game 2 was a blow out win for Golden State, 122-103. Steph Curry was the star of the game hitting an NBA Finals-record nine 3-pointers and scoring 33 points.
”Pretty special night,” Curry said, ”and hopefully some more special things happen and we get two more wins.”
Kevin Durant scored 26 points to go with 9 rebounds and 7 assists while also mainly guarding LeBron. Klay Thompson added 20 points playing on a tender left leg. Surprisingly, JaVale McGee scored 12 points, making all six of his shots in his first career NBA Finals start as Kerr made a lineup switch that proved spot on.
James followed up his 51-point performance in Game 1 with 29 points, 13 assists and 9 rebounds in a far tamer finals sequel and a much more lopsided one.
Kevin Love had 22 points and 10 rebounds for the cold-shooting Cavs, who will now try to gain some momentum back home. Game 3 is Wednesday night in Cleveland.
”We want to continue to be uncomfortable,” James said. ”Just because we’re going home doesn’t mean we can relax.”
Cleveland has looked so overmatched that I know they cannot win this series. I think the best chance they have to win a game will be Game 3. The home court advantage should provide a boost to the team.
They only have two-star players, James and Love. The absence of Kyrie Irving is very apparent in this series. The Cavs honestly have a roster loaded with role players. I’m not sure how J.R. Smith is good enough to be the starting point guard on a playoff team but he consistently plays most of the games.
Maybe it’s premature to says that the series is over because we have seen strange things occur. If you recall back in 2016 Golden State was 73-9, the best record ever. They had a 3-1 series lead over Cleveland but the Cavs came back and won the championship.
I know that will not happen this time but hopefully they can steal a couple of games to make this series competitive.
Diamond Dominance
By: JJ Lanier
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
When it comes to sports in this country football is the top dog. The NFL is the most popular league and the only thing more fanatical than a college football fan is a southerner when asked “Ford or Chevy?”
Next in line is basketball. Even if you don’t watch any NBA regular season games, I imagine you’ve tuned into at least one playoff game this year, if not more. And is there a sporting event anywhere here that garners more attention and attraction from random people than March Madness?
After football and basketball comes baseball, of course. Major League Baseball may have seen a decline in overall ratings as it becomes a more “regional” sport, so they say, but I still watch every October regardless of who is playing.
Which leads me to college baseball; the one sport that is oftentimes ignored- especially compared to all the others I just mentioned- but where the SEC and ACC have seen even more success than, dare I say, football and basketball, respectively.
Over the past ten years an ACC or SEC school has won the College World Series six times. Ok, full disclosure, that’s a little misleading because five of those championships belong to the SEC. Over that same 10 year span, a team from either conference has made it to the finals in 9 of those years. The one time neither did was in 2015, when Coastal Carolina won the whole thing.
The dominance between both conferences is no different this year. Out of the 64 teams that made the regionals, 16 of those teams are from the ACC or SEC.
Out of the 16 site hosts for those regionals, half of them have been hosted by a team from either conference. (The split between the number of teams hosting their regional is actually four and four, just so you know that both conferences are carrying their weight equally.)
It probably goes without saying, but just in case you’re wondering, all eight of those teams finished the regular season in the Top 10. We haven’t seen this type of dominance since Joey Chestnut was introduced to hotdogs.
There are some great storylines among these teams, too. Can Florida, the overall number one seed, repeat as CWS champions for the first time since South Carolina repeated in 2010 and 2011?
You have Georgia, trying to get back to the CWS for the first time in a decade. And how about North Carolina, who is tied with Northern Colorado for the most World Series appearances (10) without a championship. Will this finally be the year?
Then there’s Duke, who hadn’t won a College World Series playoff game since what felt like the invention of baseball, until they defeated Campbell.
That doesn’t include teams like South Carolina or LSU, who have a long history of success.
Look, I get it; with all the other things going on in our daily lives it’s nearly impossible to keep up with every single sporting taking place. Up until a couple of days ago I couldn’t have told you anything about college baseball this year, not even the name of a single player on a single team. I wouldn’t have even known the playoffs had begun if someone hadn’t told me.
And shame on me, because as much as I love watching football and basketball, there may not be a sport our area dominates more than NCAA baseball. I mean, when was the last time a Coastal Carolina won a championship in either football or basketball.
Restocking The Pond
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
There has been more than plenty of hullabaloo about Derek Jeter’s teardown of the Miami Marlins in an attempt to shed money and begin a rebuilding process akin to the one the Royals and Cubs have had recent success with.
During the offseason, the Marlins shipped off the contracts of all their major players except for J.T. Realmuto, who begrudgingly remains a Marlin as of this writing. That was step one. Step two is fast approaching and it’s one the Marlins need to nail if they’re to keep whatever is left of their fanbase buying into Jeter’s vision for the future.
The Marlins will be picking 13th when the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft kicks off on Monday. They will have a fair few good options at that point, including one local prospect that may be a likely choice.
That prospect is Triston Casas out of Plantation, Florida’s American Heritage School. Caas is a first baseman/third baseman who may possess the rawest power out of any high school player on the board.
Casas hit to the tune of .446 his junior year and .387 his senior year, with 28 of his 52 hits combined those seasons going for extra bases.
Plus, there’s the added PR bonus of having a kid in your own backyard as your number one draft pick; it should provide some investment by the Miami community.
There’s also Mason Denaburg, a right-handed pitcher from Merritt Island High School on Merritt Island, Florida. He can touch the upper 90s with potential to develop a mean secondary pitch or two, though he was dealing with injuries during his senior year.
This might be a riskier pick since three or their last four first-round draft choices were pitchers who have been bitten by the injury bug after their signings. Adding a fourth to that list would do the Marlins’ front office no favors in the eyes of the public.
There are older prospects that could be considered for Miami at 13. Alec Bohm, a third baseman out of Wichita State; Jonathan India at Florida also at the hot corner; and South Alabama outfielder Jack Swaggerty all could be big-league ready much sooner than the aforementioned teens.
Bohm, for example, knocked out 16 home runs and drove in 55 while hitting .339 this season. India’s average and power numbers are even bigger. They are good options for Miami if they want players with a little more polish on them, but maybe a little lower ceiling and without the good optics a local high school player would provide.
The safer bets are those two Floridan high schoolers and if Miami does in fact select either one they would have gone with high school players first for five straight years.
It also means another thing: that whoever they pick, hometown prospect or not, he probably won’t be seen in the Majors for a long while. If this is the way the Marlins choose to go, then that rebuilding process may indeed take the better part of a decade.
Can the Marlins survive such a lengthy process? Or would they be completely abandoned by a fan base that only has a tenuous grip on caring as it is?
It would be a gamble, but Jeter and company need to make a statement with this draft one way or another. Half measures will do no one any good. They’ll need to draft the players they think they can build around for the long term and stick with them.
This draft is either going to be the new beginning for Miami, or the last straw before an MLB game is played with less than 1,000 spectators present.
