Youth is Served in Rangers Draft

The Rangers like the high school kids.

For the sixth time in seven years, the Rangers made a high schooler their first pick of the draft on Monday when they took outfielder Lewis Brinson of Coral Springs, Fla., with the 29th overall pick.

Like most kids who are thinking about prom, Brinson is all potential and little achievement which makes him exactly the kind of player the Rangers love to draft.

By taking players with more upside and less certainty, the Rangers have built a system that pulses with talent at every level. There are bound to be some big misses along the way, but that's just the cost of doing business when you're shooting for the moon. Given the track record of Jon Daniels and his staff, you can deal with those odds.

The other bit of wisdom involved in building a team this way could be seen with the Rangers' second and third picks. They took third baseman Joey Gallo, who doesn't seem to be related to late New York mobster and Bob Dylan song subject "Crazy" Joe Gallo, and right-handed pitcher Collin Wiles with picks in the compensation round. Both of them are also coming out of high school and posess similar portfolios to Brinson.

Those picks came to the Rangers as compensation for C.J. Wilson and Darren Oliver signing with other teams as free agents. By building a deep and versatile system, the Rangers can be firm with how much they are willing to pay players because they know that they will be able to replace them if they walk away. 

Brinson, Gallo and Wiles might be players that make it easier for the Rangers to say goodbye to expensive veterans down the road or they might wind up falling short of the expectations associated with their draft positions.

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