In baseball, the draft is something of a polar opposite compared to those of their counterparts in football and basketball. While those sports have large TV deals and grand spectacles for their player entry drafts, Major League Baseball is a mere conference calls in which players can get drafted more than once and more often than you think, interesting side plots surface.
This was the case with shortstop Stephen Drew, who kept up the family tradition of draft drama before settling into the Arizona Diamondbacks? system when he was drafted 15th overall in 2004.
Drew, like his brother, J.D., played 3 celebrated years at Florida State University, where he won Baseball America Freshman of the Year in 2002. Drew was considered one of the top prospects in the 2004 class, but fell all the way to 15th because of financial demands made by himself and his agent, Scott Boras.
?It was kind of a new situation,? Drew said. ?We told teams what we wanted and what it was going to take.?
Drew said it never really bothered him and that he just tried to trust his talent through the process. ?I was just trying to stay in shape and ended up playing independent ball,? Drew said. Drew played for the Camden Riversharks of the Atlantic League.
Drew quickly was compared again to his brother, who decided to wait past the June 1st deadline and reenter the draft the following year after not being able to reach a deal with the Philadelphia Phillies.
?I kind of saw J.D. when he was going through the process,? Drew said.
Now, Drew is at the triple-A level with the Tucson Sidewinders, where he is playing shortstop and batting .307 on the season. Drew was also able to go to camp with the big club this spring and learn from two pretty good middle infielders.
?It has been a good experience for me to develop,? Drew said. ?Going to the big-league camp and getting help from Hudson and Counsell.?
Drew also said that the hitting will always be there for him, but he has to work on his fielding to get to the big league level, which he hopes is soon.
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