Draft Tracker
June 03, 2008 11:46 AM | General
June 3, 2008
 |
 |
 |
| Agreste | Kuhn | Whitlock |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Tyler Kuhn and Joe Agreste have been through this before and they know what to expect when the First-Year Player Draft for Major League Baseball begins Thursday afternoon.
Kuhn was taken in the 34th round by the Cleveland Indians last summer but chose not to sign and returned to West Virginia University for his senior year. Agreste has been drafted twice, in the 38th round by the Seattle Mariners following his senior year at Greenbrier Christian High School and then in the 32nd round by the Mariners after two years at Potomac State.
Kuhn decided not to sign because he thought another year in college could improve his draft position.
“The money wasn’t going to be good last year and it probably won’t be good this year but I felt like a higher round would definitely be better for me,” Kuhn said. “The higher they take you the longer they are going to keep you around whether you do well or not.”
Kuhn had a fantastic senior season, leading the Mountaineers with a .424 batting average and earning first-team all-Big East honors. He was the first player in school history to record more than 100 hits in a season (101) and also collected 32 extra base hits while driving in 55 runs.
Although he played shortstop in college Kuhn believes his position in the pros will be second base.
“I feel like I can play shortstop. I don’t have a great arm, I’ll be the first to admit that, but I thought I played pretty well at shortstop this year,” Kuhn said. “It’s just really what they need.”
Agreste turned down pro baseball twice because he simply felt he wasn’t ready for the professional lifestyle. Now he does.
“My goal is to eventually play professional baseball. Being drafted twice was like a dream come true but at the same sense I really felt the mature decision for me was not to go,” Agreste said. “I didn’t feel that I was mentally ready or completely mature enough to step in and play professional baseball.”
Agreste hit .369 with six home runs and 15 doubles while driving in 45 runs for the Mountaineers in 2008. The first baseman had a .620 slugging percentage. Agreste said his decision to return to college after being drafted the second time was a much tougher one for him to make.
“It was a hard decision because I was drafted higher than I was out of high school,” he said. “I put up good numbers but one more year of school or two more years of school wouldn’t kill me. It’s only going to make me better.”
Agreste said he has had individual workouts with scouts from the Braves and Brewers organizations. Kuhn said he has not been invited to any workouts but he has had more frequent contact with professional teams this year.
“I would assume I will go higher than I did last year,” Kuhn said.
Both Kuhn and Agreste have friends playing professional baseball. West Virginia teammates David Carpenter and Adam White have given Kuhn advice, while Agreste is friends with B.J. and Josh Upton.
“I’ve got to talk to these guys and they all talk about the little things in the game,” Agreste said. “The work ethic and the time you have to put in. It’s not things that you wouldn’t expect but it’s the little things that make you the best.”
Being a junior, Agreste has the ability to return to school for his senior year if he doesn’t get an offer to his liking. Kuhn does not have that luxury.
“I am comfortable at West Virginia and I like playing there but at the same sense I really want to take that next challenge if it’s presented to me,” Agreste said. “I’m not planning on anything. There are only 1,500 kids that get drafted a year. You can’t sit there and plan that you are going to be the one that gets drafted.”
Kuhn is the 11th-rated player in the Mid-Atlantic Region, according to Baseball America, while righthanded pitcher Josh Whitlock is rated 13th. The junior posted a 7-7 record for the Mountaineers in 2008 and has won 14 games in two seasons. The Ripley High School product began his collegiate career at Surry (N.C.) Junior College where he went 6-1 with a 1.52 ERA.
Whitlock has already had workouts with the Reds and the Nationals earlier this week.
Other draft-eligible prospects for the Mountaineers include junior outfielder Austin Markel, who batted .313 with nine home runs; junior outfield Justin Parks, who hit .378 and senior lefthanded pitcher Matt Yurish, who posted a 6-2 record with a 4.27 earned run average.
WVU football player Pat White was selected in the fourth round by the Anaheim Angels following his senior year in high school and he was drafted in the 27th round last year.
West Virginia had four players drafted in 2007 and have had 18 players taken since 2000.
The draft begins Thursday afternoon at 2 pm at the Milk House in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. The first round and compensation picks will be televised live on ESPN2. The entire draft will be carried on mlb.com.
