Florida Marlins selection: Chad James in the 1st round

The Florida Marlins selected Chad James in the first round of the First-Year Player Draft.

Who knew?  Oh sure, by draft week ESPN and BA predicted the Marlins would select Chad James, however, I think someone else beat them to the punch and can prove it.  But enough about that.  

The Marlins took the lefty out of Oklahoma.

With the 18th overall pick in the First-Year Player Draft on Tuesday the Marlins selected James, a left-handed pitcher out of Yukon High School.

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Being from Oklahoma certainly helped James' visibility with the Marlins, an organization with deep ties to the state. Fleming, and director of scouting Stan Meek, each live in Oklahoma.

"We had our eye on Chad from the very beginning," Meek said. "He is a young, projectable lefty who has the makings of a solid middle-of-the-rotation starter."

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As a fallback plan, James has signed a letter of intent with Oklahoma State. According to the Collective Bargaining Agreement, all players must be signed by Aug. 17, or they can make themselves eligible for the 2010 First-Year Player Draft. Teams who don't sign their players will be awarded compensatory picks.

"That's definitely what I want to do, getting my career started early so I can make it to the top earlier," James said when asked if he intended to sign with the Marlins.

James is regarded as a power pitcher, and he's drawn comparisons to Boston's Jon Lester.

 

 

If you read the other articles about James they will say how he has a great change up but, his curve ball could use some work, most of this was reported by BA on draft day and I think they got a little confused.  James has a good curve ball but the change needs some work.  But really all of that doesn't matter, the organization will soon learn everything there is to know about his pitches.

In the second round of the draft the Marlins selected Bryan Berglund, RHP, Royal H.S. CA.

Berglund is an interesting selection and I think a good one.  He is at the moment a stuff pitcher but he is a big boy,  6-4, 190, and growing.  His best pitch is a slider and he has good movement on all of his pitches.  Berglund was born in Sweden and played on the Swedish national team.  So if we need an interview with the people who knew him when he was a kid, Architect is our reporter on location.

In the third round the Marlins took Marquise/Marquis/ Da'Shon Cooper, CF, Edison H.S. CA.  I have no idea what his first name really is.  If you do a search you will learn the California media thinks it is Marquise, however the Florida media is using Marquis and MLB is listing him as Da'Shon.  Maybe he can clear it up for us.

Cooper is a small fast guy (5-9, 165) who played football as well as baseball.  At this point in his career he doesn't possess much power and is more of a slap hitter.  Now here is the really interesting thing about him:

Cooper also starred on the Tigers football team, starting at running back and middle linebacker.

 Middle linebacker at 165 pounds?  He must be as tough as nails.  So I guess what we are looking at here is cross between Juan Pierre and Cody Ross.