Draft Report: Ross Wilson

Bored of merely selecting baseball players in the first 9 rounds of the
MLB Draft, the White Sox turned to former reality TV “star” Ross Wilson
in the 10th round, with the 308th pick. Wilson starred in the MTV show
“Two-A-Days” as the starting QB for his high school football team at Hoover HS (AL).

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Spending so much of his time focusing on playing football during high school, Ross Wilson was somewhat raw as a baseball player when he started at Alabama. That didn’t stop him impressing as a freshman though, as Wilson hit .295/.355/.543, displaying great power by knocking out 15 home runs and 11 doubles in 258 AB’s. His power took a slight dip as a sophomore, but his overall line improved to .353/.454/.567 with his K% dropping from 16.3% to 14.5%. He took the summer off after breaking down physically late in the season. Wilson’s production as a junior took a massive drop-off and he suffered a hairline fracture in his wrist just to make things worse. He finished with a line of .269/.388/.426, suffering a further dip in his power output and seeing his K% rise to 19.3%. His park/schedule adjusted line does make for much better reading though at .301/.422/.481.

Scouts give a broad range of opinions on Ross Wilson. Some scouts have gone as far as to call Wilson simply “undraftable”, whereas others see him as a potential starting second baseman at the Major League level. At his best, Wilson is able to make consistent, hard contact and shows occasional power. He’s an average to slightly above average runner who has good instincts on the bases. Defensively he doesn’t have great range at second, but he makes all the plays he gets to and is very good at turning the double play. His arm strength is solid-average and is more than enough for second base.

Ross Wilson is a hard-nosed player, who plays the game the “right way”, and gets the job done despite lacking elite tools. His draft stock took a huge hit this year and Wilson may wish to return to Alabama for his senior season in an attempt to raise his stock next year, though the 10th round may be high enough to get Wilson to sign. He’s not a flashy player and he’s not going to wow observers, but he’s the type of player that this organization seems to love.