Bums Draft Bright Future, Trade Present June 17, 1999
Galena, IL (AP) - The Vero Beach Bums selected four position players and
one pitcher in last night's PVBL amateur draft.
Two of those position players were selected consecutively in picks #19 and
20, acquired along with 3B Mike Kinkade from Springfield. After two teams
defaulted on their picks -- a hard concept to swallow, considering the
depth of the talent in this draft -- the Bums chose 23-year-old LF Geoff
Jenkins with their first pick.
Jenkins, who bats left handed and throws right handed, was the PAC-10
player of the year in 1995 at the University of Southern California.
Since then, he has been playing on an amateur team in Milwaukee.
'Not many kids growing up in Olympia, WA were named Geoff. But his mother
thought handling the given name would add strength and character to her
son.
"It's a German way of spelling Jeff," he said. "My mother wanted me to be
different than the other Jeffs, so she gave me that spelling. When I was
growing up, I kind of didn't like it. I would get made fun of when I was
real, real little.
"My mom told me one day that I was special and that they were just jealous
because I had the spelling like that. After that, it didn't matter." '*
With pick #20, the Bums selected SS Neifi Perez, a switch-hitting
23-year-old from the Dominican Republic. Perez is as strong a prospect at
shortstop as Jenkins is in left.
Both picks answer huge question marks that were present in the future of
the Bums. "These guys will be huge additions to the team," said owner
Jason Gohlke. "I'm extremely pleased to have gotten two players to build
around. I think they're both about a year away from really playing at the
major league level, but they have excellent potential."
With last year's second round pick Harry Hoch developing faster than
expected, as well as the pickup of 3B Mike Kinkade, the Bums have the
potential to return to their winning ways in a relatively short time.
They will have a very strong infield, with Kinkade, Perez, Jim Lynch, and
Harry Hoch, and the outfield will feature Jenkins and perhaps Phil Nevin.
The Bums also picked up 3 other players in the draft, with their original
picks in the 2nd through 4th rounds. In round 2, the Bums acquired
18-year-old SS prospect Washington Irving "Wash" Leach, a recent
high-school graduate from Cambridge, Massachusetts. They acquired pitcher
Jesse Hernandez in round 3, a starter from Arizona. In round 4, the Bums
picked up 2B Howie Herring.
This is the first draft, free agent or amateur, in which the Bums did not
pick a pitcher in the first round.
Notes:
* The Bums appear to be satisfied with the results of the draft, and do
not appear to be in the market to trade their draft picks. However, they
still have a number of quality veterans on the block, including Jeff King,
Dave Hollins, Jeromy Burnitz, and Ron Gant.
