The Major League draft hit the late rounds Tuesday afternoon and the Mariners have now selected 16 total players in the 15 completed rounds. After choosing C Mike Zunino with the 3rd overall pick on Monday, the M's went with SS Joe DeCarlo in the 2nd, RHP Edwin Diaz in the 3rd, LHP Tyler Pike in Compesation Round B, 3B Patrick Kivlihan in the 4th, SS Chris Taylor in the 5th, and SS Timmy Lopes in the 6th. You can see full coverage of all these selections at our MLB Draft 2012 StoryStream, here.
In the 7th round, the Mariners took 1B Taylor Ard out of Washington State. According to CougCenter, "There's really no better way to describe Ard than as a big, bad masher -- at 6-foot-1 and 230 pounds, the righty hit .332 with 12 home runs, compiling at .412 on-base percentage and .577 slugging percentage for a .989 OPS. Despite his size, he's a solid defender as well, having been a shortstop in high school before growing into a first baseman."
In the 8th round, the M's went with 1B Nick Halamandaris, a left-hander from Stevenson School in Carmel, California. In the 9th round the M's took Jamodrick McGruder, a second-baseman out of Texas Tech. According to Geoff Baker, the speedster "ranked among the NCAA Division 1 leaders in triples (eight), walks (45), on-base percentage (.500) and steals (39 out of 44 attempts). Baseball America says that he has little power, and there is concern about his hands at second base."
From there, the Mariners chose RHP Grady Wood out of Western Oregon State, 1B Kristian Brito of Ramon Quinones Medina, CF Michael Faulkner of Arkansas State, RHP Blake Hauser of Virginia Commonwealth U, 2B Brock Hebert of Southeastern Louisiana University, and OF Dario Rosario of Columbia U in rounds 9-15.
For updates and perspective on the Seattle Mariners, head on over to Lookout Landing.
