Baseball
Update: Five Rebels Selected In 2017 MLB Draft
Update: Junior Kyle Watson has been selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 37th round with the 1,108th pick. Watson has shown his versatility during his time at Ole Miss having played all three outfield positions, second base, third base and shortstop.
UPDATE: Junior RHP Brady Feigl has been selected by the Los Angeles Angles in the 35th round with the 1,045th overall pick. Feigl finished the 2017 season with a 4.08 ERA and 2-2 record.
Five Ole Miss Rebels got the call that every baseball player dreams of from a Major League Baseball club. Juniors LHP David Parkinson, 2B Tate Blackman and senior 3B Colby Bortles have been selected in the 2017 MLB Draft.
Parkinson was selected by the Philadelphia Phillies in the 12th round with the 353rd overall pick, and Blackman was selected by the Chicago White Sox in the 13th round with the 387th overall pick. Bortles was been selected by the Detriot Tigers in the 22nd round with the 665th overall pick.
Parkinson finished the season with a 3.38 ERA and a 6-3 record. He worked a total of 77 innings in 2017 giving up 36 runs on 75 hits. Parkinson finished with a strikeout/walk ratio of 76/24.
Blackman was drafted by Milwaukee Brewers in the 20th round coming out of high school in 2014, but chose to come to Ole Miss instead. At the end of his junior season, he had a .302 batting average with a total of 61 base hits, ten doubles, four triples and nine home runs. He drove in a total of 30 runs this season. Throughout his career, Blackman hit a consistent .287 for Ole Miss.
Bortles, one of just two seniors on this year’s team, finished the 2017 season with a .269 average but led the team in RBIs with 42. Bortles finished his Ole Miss career with 27 home runs and 184 total hits.
The five Rebels selected helped lead the Rebels to an overall record of 32-25 this season before suffering a 5-4 loss to Auburn in the SEC Tournament. The Rebels failed to qualify for the NCAA tournament.
According to MLB.com, Parkinson, Blackman, Feigl and Watson have until August 15th to either sign with their big league ball clubs or return to Ole Miss for their senior seasons.
“A club generally retains the rights to sign a selected player until 11:59 PM (EDT) August 15, or until the player enters, or returns to, a four-year college on a full-time basis. A player who is drafted and does not sign with the Club that selected him may be drafted again at a future year’s Draft, so long as the player is eligible for that year’s Draft. A Club may not select a player again in a subsequent year, unless the player has consented to the re-selection.”
HottyToddy.com staff report
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Barbara Summers
June 14, 2017 at 2:35 pm
Please correct last sentence in second paragraph. It currently reads…. “Bortles was been selected”