As a major league team that only has one left arm in the bullpen (Tanner Banks), taking a strong, left-handed pitcher in the first-round makes sense.
Insert Noah Schultz.
The White Sox drafted the 18-year old from Aurora's Oswego East High School. He turns heads with his size, standing at a rare 6-foot-9 on the mound.
“You just don’t see these guys every day,” Sox' director of amateur scouting, Mike Shirley, said of Schultz. “He’s a unique talent.”
Even though he stands tall on the mound, Shirley reiterated that he can move like a smaller pitcher through arm rotation and body speed. Currently, he has three pitches in his arsenal, all of which he isn't afraid to throw.
“I have a four-seam fastball, a slider and a changeup,” Schultz said. “Those are three pitches that I’ve been working on and I’m confident in all of them. I’m excited to see how they can take off and become the best they can in the future.”
Before Colson Montgomery's selection in the last MLB draft, the White Sox were keen on taking players out of college. However, they were clear about their intentions to go the pitcher route and the high school route this year, if the draft trended toward doing so.
MLB
“I think, you know, the pitching thing is really critical," Shirley said before the draft. "So it's something I think every major league team in every room presently is probably trying to figure out the pitching landscape, most importantly. And then you got to weigh those position players against that. So I think it's a preference may be a pitcher, but that doesn't mean that if the right position is available that we will not walk down that road.
“I believe that these younger players are closer to the major leagues than what you realize. So I do feel like it's not something we should be afraid of with the high school play.”