Updated through Tuesday’s selections. Cox and Simmons scouting reports at bottom, links to stories on Cox and Broom included.

By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

Fairly tall, left-handed, and with a propensity to strike people out.

That’s Mercer pitcher Austin Cox, and that was pretty appealing to Kansas City, which picked Cox in the fifth round Tuesday of the Major League Baseball draft.

Cox was ranked 151st by MLB.com and went 152nd.

Central Georgia didn’t have to wait long for another familiar name to be called.

Tattnall infielder Logan Simmons went early in the sixth round, to Philadelphia with the 167th overall selection. It took awhile for the next one to go, with Cox’s Mercer teammate Robert Broom going to Cleveland with the next-to-last pick of the day.

Cox is the second Mercer player in three years to go in the top five rounds, joining Kyle Lewis, the 11th pick of the 2016 draft by Seattle. He is the 20th draft pick under head coach Craig Gibson.

The 6-foot-3, 205-pounder is 13-8 in 59 appearances in three seasons, with a 5.71 ERA. He has 234 strikeouts and 89 walks in 179.2 innings, but opponents are hitting .299.

A Royals website already has a scouting report posted.

Most of Cox’s numbers have improved yearly, including cutting home runs allowed in half from 2017 to 2018, but he had three times as many wild pitches in 2018 as 2017.

He helped FPD to a pair of GHSA Region 7-A titles, going 15-9 with a 2.19 ERA, also competing for the Vikings’ football team.

He is eighth nationally in strikeouts per nine innings for 2018 with 12.73, after ranking 11th last year with 12.04.

Cox became the seventh player from Georgia taken.

Simmons has been a key player in Tattnall winning two state titles in the GHSA since moving over from the GISA.

He was tied with Logan Fink for second in 2018 on the Trojans with a .360 average. He had three homers and 27 RBI, leading the Trojans with 44 runs.

The Georgia Tech commit stole 10 bases, and went 3-for-5 in the Trojans state title doubleheader win over Prince Avenue Christian.

Simmons has a career average of about .360, and was the No. 12 prospect in the state and 226th overall by Baseball America.

Mercer’s Broom had a superb year, going 10-4 in 31 appearances with a 1.70 ERA and two saves, an impressive 111 strikeouts in 74 innings and an opponents average of .209. He gave up only one homer.

The junior from Gordon Lee is 22-9 in three seasons, with opponents’ average of .202 and ERA of 1.86 the past two seasons.

He was recently named a third-team All-American by Baseball America, as well as first-team All-Southern Conference.

Indians Baseball Insider posted a scouting report.

Atlanta selected Stanford pitcher Tristan Beck (fourth round), pitcher Trey Riley of John A. Logan College (fifth round), outfielder Andrew Mortiz of UNC Greensboro (sixth round), pitcher Brooks Wilson of Stetson (seventh round), shortstop AJ Graffanino of Washington (eighth round), pitcher Ryan Shetter of Texas Tech (ninth round), third baseman Brett Langhorne of Carson-Newman (10th round).

Redan pitcher Taj Bradley was the first state player to go Tuesday, in the fifth round to Tampa Bay. Kevin Smith became the first Georgia player to go, to the Mets in the seventh round.

Other state players going Tuesday: Westlake outfielder Lawrence Butler to Oakland, sixth round; South Gwinnett outfielder Cabera Weaver to Chicago White Sox, seventh round; Georgia Southern pitcher Chase Cohen to Oakland, ninth round; Georgia outfielder Keegan McGovern to Seattle, ninth round; Georgia Southern pitcher Brian Eichhorn to Cleveland, ninth round; Kennesaw State pitcher A.J. Moore to Cincinnati, 10th round; and Kennesaw State infielder Grant Williams to Boston, 10th round.

Bleckley County pitcher/outfielder Carter Raffield was still unchosen.

MLB.com also lists Middle Georgia State’s Brent Burgess as a prospect, along with Mercer’s Kevin Coulter, J.T. Thomas, and Trey Truitt, and Brandt Stallings of Georgia College.

Tuesday’s action ended with the 10th round. It concludes Wednesday starting at noon on MLB.com with rounds 11 to 40.

Baseball America Scouting Reports

Austin Cox

A 6-foot-3, 205-pound lefthander with a pair of above-average breaking balls, Cox has posted big strikeout rates for Mercer in the Southern Conference. However, he’s been hit regularly and has a poor statistical record outside of the strikeout numbers.

A firm slider is his most consistent breaking pitch and it’s a current above-average offering, although at times he can get around the side of the ball. Cox also has curveball with more 1-to-7 shape that he gets on top of more regularly and with his arm slot, might be the best pitch for him in the future. Cox has been up to 94 mph this spring with his fastball, but that’s more of an average pitch that ticks lower as he gets deeper into games.

Cox also has feel for a solid changeup. The stuff is all there for an interesting back-end starter, but Cox has some work to do in his delivery. He gets rotational at times and also cuts himself in his landing.

He’s athletic enough to make the adjustments, but teams might also be leery of a small-school pitcher without much track record of success—elite strikeout rate or not.

Logan Simmons

Something of a split-camp player, Simmons has a few plus tools including 60-grade raw power and a plus arm, but teams are mixed on his ability to stick at shortstop, as well as his feel to hit.

He had a poor summer with a lot of swing and miss, but when Simmons does connect with balls they go a long ways and he’s driven homers with authority in front of the right people at times. The power comes more from natural strength than twitchiness, which doesn’t ease the concerns that he’ll always swing and miss too much to get the most of his juice in-game.

Defensively, Simmons has solid hands and defensive actions but again, he’s not super twitchy and he’s just an average runner, leading many teams to look at him as a third baseman.

His spring was inconsistent and he’d occasionally start to barrel balls all over the field, but scouts would also leave fields wondering if he would ever hit, in part because the competition he’s facing is not great.

There’s a good chance Simmons gets drafted higher than his ranking as some teams think he’s a shortstop with a plus arm, plus power and a chance to hit while an equal amount see a third baseman with raw power but no way to get to it consistently.