Round 7, Pick 230: Nick Martini
Posted by azruavatar in 2011 MLB Draft, tags: Nick MartiniNick Martini, CF
Kansas State
Height: 5′ 11″
Weight: 193lbs
DOB: 06/27/1990
Throws: L
Bats: L
Baseball America has him as the 172nd overall prospect:
Martini set an NCAA Division I record by reaching base in 93 straight games in 2010-11, and that’s what he does best, as he’s a gifted lefthanded hitter with quick hands, a line-drive swing and good command of the strike zone. He works counts, makes consistent contact and uses the opposite field well. His instincts allow his solid speed to play up on the bases. Martini is 5-foot-11 and 192 pounds, and most of his power comes to the gaps. He has played both left and center field for Kansas State, and though he gets good jumps, his range fits better in left field. His arm is average. Because Martini doesn’t have a plus tool besides his bat, he may profile better as a fourth outfielder than as a big league regular. Nevertheless, his hitting ability should get him drafted in the first five rounds or so.
Excellent LH hitter, shows some power potential, very good player.
“That’s what he does,” said K-State baseball coach Brad Hill. “He’s one of the most mature kids I’ve seen for his age in 23 years of coaching. His knowledge of the strike zone is tremendous. You never see him swinging at bad pitches, and the few times he does you know exactly when he’s losing focus or trying to get big.”
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Skip Schumaker….the outfield version
If this guy doesn’t swing at bad pitches, then he’s no Skip Schumaker: Schumaker swings at more balls per at bat than any player I can remember.
We’ve cornered the market for small OFers.
Sounds a bit like a Matt Carpenter-type in the OF. Not a bad piece to have at all. After a pretty underwhelming 4th and maybe 5th round, the 6th and 7th are looking more like it. I guess we’ll see how this guy gets on, but he’s obviously ripe for some “shaken not stirred” puns, and it sounds like he and Ehrlich are maybe better talents than the guys we got 4th and 5th…
OTOH, this report kinda says “pretty much zero projection”. This guy really needs to hit (at QC I guess?) straight away.
Another thought – Tyler Henley?
He looks like Joe Mather in the face
As long as he keeps up his +400 OBP, I’m cool with him.
Jon jay?
Great value. Could reinforce Quad Cities this summer.
Too many outfielders IMO. Who gets cut?
Go with Taveras, Longmire, and Martini. Hill and Swinson step down to Batavia.
Not sure you can send Swinson down to Batavia after 2 years already in QC.
Teams can do anything. Swinson had success at Johnson City. They have tried force feeding him since and its not working. He could use time at Batavia, if there is roster room.
why not just cut him? He’s a non-prospect.
Swinson has tools and hit well two rungs lower. No reason to give up on him, yet.
I agree Swinson shouldn’t be got rid of yet. He’s really really talented and is one of the guys who was a football player, he doesn’t have much basbeall experience.
Swinson runs well, is strong, and has a good arm. He has potential and needs at bats to improve hitting for average. He might do well at Batavia.
It looks like we’ve cornered the market in every undersized position player or pitcher available. What gives. Year after year I look at the Chicago White Sox picks and wish that was how Cardinals drafted. They don’t draft undersized players. Take a look at all their picks again this year. No midgets.
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/events/draft/y2011/draftcaster.jsp
Why covet the White Sox? They have one of the worst systems. Do you really judge a system by the size of picks an not talent produced?
An what is your resoning the cards only draft little guys?
the more i look at these picks
the more it looks like another year of stocking the minors, not drafting people who have much chance of being a mlb regular
Exactly!
I guess what amazes me the most is when I look at how other teams draft like the Marlins, Atlanta, Washington and Chicago White Sox. It seems that when their pick comes up they can most always draft someone that has ML projected size for their position. Such as size, FB speed, etc. Whole on the other hand we can’t seem to get guys over 6-1 with 88 mph fb’s. I get the idea that the Cardinal are trying to draft 50 pitchers over the last two year that are the size of Tim Lincicum and hope that one of them can turn into him. Just a piece of advice or fact. None of the guys we are drafting are 6-1 with 96 mph heat.
Lance Lynn, Seth Blair and Tyrell Jenkins are little with 88 MPH fastballs?
Look at the size & potential. I don’t see much potential in drafting pitchers with 88 or 89 mph fb’s this early in the draft.
And the pitchers you are mentioning are the exception & not the norm. IMO they are drafting too many pitchers with no ml projected fb. The fb is where you start. Then go to the off speed pitches.
They changed their strategy since they let Jockety go.
Last year’s draft…
of the 52 picked, only 12 were under 6 feet.
21 were 6’2 or taller.
Last year’s
11 under 6 feet
22 over 6’2.
I am guessing the White sox system isn’t filled with 6-1 guys bringing 96 MPH eat. If they did, they wouldn’t be at the bottom of the prospect list.
Just as a thought experiment we could have drafted Johny Eierman at 3, Nick Delmonico at 4, Derek Fisher at 5, Josh Osich at 6 and still drafted Cj McCleroy, Peoples and Adam Ehlrich at 7-9. We could have also drafted Kyle Winkler over Tyler Mills.
So essentially we passed on Eierman in the 3rd, Delmonico in the 4th, Derek Fisher in the 5th, Joel Osich in the 6th, Kyle Winkler in the 9th and Phillip Evans in the 14th. In those picks we pass on 4 Top 100 guys and 1 Top 200 guy and get 0 Top 200 guys in those rounds.
A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.
I think Eiermann went to the Rays before us in rnd 3 didn’t he? Not sure Fisher was signable, either. That said I’d still have taken Osich or Delmonico with that pick, and your possible draftees are a stark suggestion that we passed on a lot of talent this year to get underwhelming scouty guys. McElroy and Peoples in particular look like real reaches.
There were lots of crybabies when we drafted Mortensen in 2007. He pitched a shutout the other day for the Rockies.
And having perfect hindsight you can say a lot of things. There is no way to know when our picks would have been drafted and there is no way to know what effects us making different picks have on the rest of the draft.
I know this Martini kid, and they are underestimating his skills. I have personally gunned his arm at 91MPH. He runs a 6.5 – 60, while the average MLB player runs a 6.8 to 6.9. Most importantly he hits very well. He can hit to any field, and that is the way he has been taught to swing – he is very effective with the bat.
The bad part is that by the time we have the answer to how well these picks, or the clamored for alternatives, perform over their careers these posts will be gone and no one will remember.
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