Flagstaff selects pitcher Ryan Nelson as only pick in Farm Draft

After spending much of the offseason overhauling their farm club, the Flagstaff Outlaws only had one official spot available and used it to select pitching Ryan Nelson out of the University of Oregon.

Nelson, a former infielder and reliever, will move to starting in his junior year at Oregon after displaying premium velocity in the Cape Cod Summer League.

“We are betting on the fastball here, which already grades out as plus,” Newgard told reporters on a teleconference. “Our scouts think he may have triple-digit potential there. He’s got a quality slider already that could also end up as a plus offering as well. He needs to work on a change-up, but we think he’s got the makeup to do so.”

When asked about the development of the farm club, Newgard offered a brief summary.

“When deciding to go this route, we felt we really needed to add some quality hitting to a farm stocked with what we think will turn out to be quality pitching,” he said. “Casas, Cozens Larnach, Frazier, Mitchell, Ray, Ruiz, Stott, Torkelson. That’s a long list of potential offense right there.

“Add that to landing Kopech and we’ve really balanced out the farm and loaded the farm roster and a significant chunk of our 35-man roster with young talent for the future.”

With their farm draft complete for Flagstaff, the front office’s attention turns to the Auction and Free Agent Draft.

“We’ve got almost 30M free and only 10 spots to fill, so we have a chance to really do some fun shopping here,” Newgard said. “We need to land a left fielders, a third basemen and a few starters, so we’re going to go out and try to do that. The key will be to make smart, calculated decisions.”