Five Texas baseball players chosen on first two days of Major League Baseball Draft

By Steve Lansdale

When boiled down to perhaps the simplest possible explanation, successful teams invariably have talented players. Such was the case for the University of Texas baseball team, which went 39-24 in 2017 and reached the final of the Long Beach Regional of the NCAA Baseball Championship.

Not surprisingly, Major League teams took notice of the talent in Austin, and [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]five Longhorns were selected during the first two days of the MLB Draft.

Redshirt junior pitcher Morgan Cooper was the first to have his name called when the Los Angeles Dodgers chose him in the second round, 62^nd overall. Cooper became the highest draft UT draft pick since the Detroit Tigers drafted Corey Knebel 39^th overall in the 2013 draft.

Cooper went 6-3 in 2017, with a 2.32 earned run average. He struck out 110 hitters while limiting opposing hitters to a .204 batting average in 89.1 innings of work. At the end of the season, he earned first-team All-Big 12 honors and third-team Collegiate Baseball All-America honors.

Fellow pitcher Nick Kennedy was next to get picked, going in the fifth round — 146^th overall — to the Colorado Rockies. The southpaw pitcher put together an 8-2 record and a 3.02 ERA in 19 appearances, including nine starts. He was named a semifinalist for the Gregg Olson Award, which is given annually to college baseball’s breakout player of the year.

The third Texas player chosen also was the third Texas pitcher to get selected when junior Kyle Johnston was selected in the sixth round — 193^rd overall — by the Washington Nationals. Johnston pitched 17 times, starting 12 times, going 3-2 this season with a pair of saves. He struck out 52 in 73.1 innings, posted an era of 2.90 and held opponents to a .224 average.

The Longhorns finally had a field player chosen when infielder Bret Boswell became the second UT player chosen this year by the Colorado Rockies, who picked him in the eighth round and 236^th overall. He and Kennedy are the third and fourth Texas players selected by the Rockies in the last three years, after the club nabbed right-handed pitcher Parker French in 2015 and left-handed pitcher Ty Culbreth last season. Boswell hit .273 this season with 13 doubles and seven home runs and 33 runs batted in. He committed just two errors in 2017 while helping the Longhorns turned 65 double plays — the fourth-highest total in the country.

Just 13 selections later, the Toronto Blue Jays selected Texas first baseman Kacy Clemens, the Longhorns’ 2017 offensive MVP. The Blue Jays were one of four teams for which his father, Roger Clemens, played during his 24-year MLB career.

Kacy Clemens led the Longhorns in most offensive categories, including batting average (.305), on-base percentage (.414), slugging percentage (.532), home runs (12, including a pair of grand slams), RBI (49), runs (48), walks (40) and hits (67).
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