Three Tigers Taken On Final Day of 2015 MLB Draft
6/18/2015 11:20:00 AM | Baseball
COLUMBIA, Mo. - Mizzou baseball saw three more players taken during the final day of the Major League Baseball First Year Player Draft on Wednesday (June 10), moving the total number of players selected to five in the 2015 draft. Taken on Wednesday were juniors Josh Lester (Columbus, Ga.) and Alec Rash (Adel, Iowa) and sophomore Ryan Howard (St. Charles, Mo.). Under the direction of head coach Tim Jamieson, 75 Tigers players have been drafted.
Lester, the Tigers' starting third baseman, was the first Mizzou player taken off the board during day three, going in the 13th round (400th pick overall) to the Detroit Tigers. Lester is the highest drafted position player at Mizzou since 2012 when Blake Brown was taken in the fifth round by the Atlanta Braves. An All-SEC Freshman Team honoree in 2013, Lester was taken in the 30th round by the Indians out of high school and improved his draft stock immensely in three seasons at Mizzou. He is coming off of a career year in 2015 in which he led the team in homers (seven), RBI (42) and slugging (.436) while playing tremendous defense at the hot corner. One of Lester's biggest attributes is his versatility as he played all four infield spots for the Tigers in his career.
Lester's roots in major league baseball run deep as his father, Jimmy, is a national cross checker for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Lester also won the 2006 Little League World Series with Northern Georgia Little League.
Rash, a righty, became the third Tiger pitcher selected in the 2015 draft, going in the 23rd round (pick No. 704) to the Washington Nationals, the current home of former Mizzou standout Max Scherzer. Rash was 3-0 with a 3.21 ERA in 2015 and led the team with a 2.04 ERA in 2014. He limited batters to .222 hitting in 2015 and .238 in 2014. He started 12 games in his career as a Tiger and tallied 48 strikeouts in his career.
A draft-eligible sophomore, Howard rounded out the draft picks for Mizzou, going in the 31st round (pick No. 936 overall) to the defending World Series Champion San Francisco Giants. Howard played every game at short for the Tigers a season ago and led the team in batting (.308), hits (69), total bases (97) and at-bats (224) while scoring 29 runs and driving in 39 more on the season. He also stole six bases and fielded .972 in 273 chances. He was one of the toughest batters in the SEC to strikeout, doing so just 24 times in 224 at-bats. He is the highest drafted Mizzou shortstop since Eric Garcia went in the 20th round in 2012.
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