8th Round Pick- Brett Bateman OF (University of Minnesota)
Bateman is about as different from Melendez as you can get. He’s played three college seasons and across more than 500 at-bats he has 0 home runs. He’s quick on the bases going 42-for-54 in stealing bases in his career and his batting average and OBP have increased each season only striking out more than he walked in his freshman season.
That being said, the power is completely non-existent, even in the form of extra-base hits. He had 153 hits in his career at Minnesota, of which only 22 went for extra bases. He has a career total of 30 RBI. He’s just the kind of player that is going to need to be an absolute on-base machine and an 80-grade defender in centerfield to justify having him in an MLB lineup.
Keith Law of the Athletic had this to say:
"Outfielder Brett Bateman seems like a modern-day Jason Tyner — he never homered in three years at Minnesota, with just one in summer ball according to the stat sheet, although I can’t find video of it. He can run, he rarely strikes out, and he was hitting .500/.519/.587 in 13 games on the Cape before the draft, but it’s soft contact all day long."Keith Law
Good teams have guys that can get on base, play good defense and steal bases. But this pick looks like a fourth/fifth outfielder type to me as a best case scenario.