A's Take Grant Green with First Pick

The A’s selected USC shortstop Grant Green with the 13th pick of the 2009 Draft.  At the beginning of May, Green was generally regarded as the best college position player after Dustin Ackley.  However, Green cooled off, and he ended up being the third college position player taken after Ackley at No. 2 and Boston College catcher Tony Sanchez at No. 4.

Offensively, Green looks a lot like Jemile Weeks, the 2Bman the A’s took with the 12th pick last year.  In his three college seasons, Green had OPS numbers of .879, 1.082 and 1.004 this year, compared to Weeks’ college seasons 1.001, .882 (he was injured that year) and 1.093.  If things break right for the A’s, these two will be the A’s doubleplay combination for five or six seasons starting a few years from now.

Speaking of Weeks, he signed early for a first round pick last year, and was playing well at Class A Kane County in the Midwest League when he tore his hip flexor on July 29, 2008 and missed the rest of the season.  He’s only just come back from it.  However, he’s off to a great start in his first ten games at A+ Stockton in the California League with a 1.044 OPS in 44 AB’s.  For those of you who don’t already know, he’s Brewers’ 2Bman Rickie Weeks’ younger brother.

One thing that’s apparent looking at the picks in the 2009 draft so far is that there were not a lot of great college hitters this year like there were last year.  In fact, only 9 of the 49 players selected in the first round of this year’s draft were college position players.