Right-hander Gavin Stone was selected by the Dodgers in the fifth and final round of the 2020 First-Year Player Draft. He was the penultimate selection in the draft at No.159 one pick before the 160th and final selection. He was rated the 303rd best-prospect in the draft by Baseball America.
He is third-highest Central Arkansas MLB draftee in school history, and highest since 1992. He is the 23rd Bear to be selected in the MLB Draft and is the first ever Bear to be drafted by the Dodgers’ organization.
Stone was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas and played his high school ball at Riverside High School in Lake City which is part of the greater Jonesboro Metropolitan area.
Following graduation from high school he headed off to the University of Central Arkansas for a three-year college career which he thought could be extended if he was not selected in the reduced 2020 draft. During the 2018 and 2019 seasons he pitched primarily in relief with 2019 being a signature season out of the pen in which he made 20 relief appearances sporting a 1.52 ERA along with a 1.12 WHIP and 58 strikeouts in 47.1 innings pitched. He walked 11.
He transitioned to a starting role for the 2020 college season having made only two starts in 2019, one of them a complete game. In the current pandemic shortened season he made four starts before the season came to an end but in those starts certainly raised his draft options.
The 6’0”/175 lb. right-hander was on track for a banner season posting a 3-1 record and a 1.30 ERA in 27.2 innings along with a 0.76 WHIP. He also struck out 31 and walked six, with teams hitting him at a lowly. 161 clip. (Note – his height and weight are listed differently on different sites so I went with the more common one).
Gavin Stone’s piece de resistance came on his final start of the season on March 6th in which he tossed a complete game no-hitter against Southern Louisiana. He was one walk short of perfection. Following the walk he retired the final 14 batters he faced, including getting his 13th strikeout in the final at bat of the game.
His recipe for success in that game was quite simple, a game in which he spoke quite modestly after the Bears’ third no-hitter in team history.
“So before the game I really had a feel for two-seam,” Gavin said. “And I knew that I was going to use it a lot. And so I just stayed two-seam in, slider away and they never adjusted, and it ended up working out for us.”
https://www.kait8.com/2020/06/11/riverside-alum-gavin-stone-selected-by-dodgers-mlb-draft/
Not surprisingly his performance earned him the week’s Southland Conference Pitcher of the Week award.
One has to suspect that Stone was on the Dodger radar prior to the no-hitter but that event perhaps sealed the deal. One also suspects that going forward relief will be his calling in due course, after testing out a starting role.
The 21-year-old Stone had a suspicion he could be drafted but also, because of five rounds, was on the cusp as was fourth round selection Carson Taylor. He was prepared to return to Central Arkansas if he did not hear his name called.
“There’s a couple of analytical things that have placed the top 250 to 400 draft prospects and I mean my name was up there. They did slim the draft down this year and if I was lucky enough to have my name called, then that’s something I would definitely do, but then if not, having that year of eligibility back would be huge.”
Perhaps, as many youngsters did, during the time after the shutdown of his season he stayed busy working out with his brother Kollin who is also a member of the Central Arkansas Bears and with a friend who is a catcher. He had done what he could do to stay in contact with teams/scouts by using the social media and posting videos of bullpen sessions.
During a post-draft interview on, “Drive with Brad Bobo”, Stone indicated the Dodgers had called him early in the fifth round with an offer he was willing to accept. Yet, if called, he would be the second from last selection.
The first phone call he received after his name was called was from his high school coach, Buster Campbell, to whom Stone gives much credit for his development and indicated he strives to be like his former coach every day.
As for his Central Arkansas head coach, to whom he also gives credit for his continued development, coach Gum was elated with Stone’s selection.
“It’s a really big day for our program, having a top five round draft pick,” said UCA head coach Allen Gum. “And as far as Gavin, man it’s been fun to watch him develop, seeing his dedication and his hard work.”
“Good things come to those who work hard,” Central Arkansas head coach Allen Gum said. “Gavin has put the time in and worked hard with Coach Harlan working on a process instead of results. He shows up each day ready to get better at his craft, and he’s the type of guy who always puts the team first.”
The Dodgers will be getting an all-around complete player in Stone, according to Gum, who feels the sky is the limit.
“The thing with Stone was he always put his team first. He just wanted to help his team win,’ he said. A really, really great teammate. Those are the things we’ll remember about him for a long time. If he makes it to the big leagues, or he doesn’t, I’m going to remember how good a teammate he was. He’s just a joy to be around, he’ll make you smile every day.”
“I tell you what, the Dodgers got a very mature, emotionally stable young man. There are just so many plusses with him. He’s just scratching the surface. I’m just proud I got to coach him.”
Scouting Reports:
https://www.mlb.com/video/2020-draft-gavin-stone-rhp?t=mlb-draft
Baseball America: “Stone doesn’t have a true plus pitch, but he has three average offerings including a 90-92 mph fastball. He locates his changeup and breaking ball well, with his above-average control proving to be his best asset.”
From Coach Allen Gum:
“It was fun to see how he just kept getting better and better. And I still think his best days are way out in front of him. I think he’s going to be in the big leagues quicker than a lot of people think. Because even from where he ended (the season) to where he’s at now, he just kept working out and getting better, throwing bullpens. I think his last bullpen he was sitting 95-97 (mph). And his two-seam (fastball) just got better and better.“
Welcome to Dodger Blue Gavin.
https://www.kait8.com/2020/03/10/riverside-alum-gavin-stone-named-southland-conference-pitcher-week/
We are beginning to see AF’s draft strategy play out here. Stone was rated #303 by Baseball America and we picked him at #159. This enabled the front office to sign him at a big discount to the slot value. Slot was $327k and he signed for $100k. Now Andrew can put the extra $227k of savings into signing one of the other draftees.
I’m guessing we sign Knack and Taylor at a figure below slot also and then use the accumulated savings to give Beeter and Vogel above slot. Miller might be willing to sign for the exact slot number, but in any case I think Friedman had mapped this all out before and during the draft. When you only have 6 choices you want to make sure you sign all of them.
So the dodgers didn’t draft the best player available in Stone and instead signed the best player that would sign below slot available so they could sign all their draftees?
Sounds smart and they still got an intriguing and likeable player with Stone.
We drafted the intriguing and likable player over the BPA because we needed money to overpay other players we draftd?
Am I the only one that finds that odd?
We got a B for this draft. Would we have received an A had we drafted the best player available in all 6 slots?
Teams should not have to perform maneuvers like this.
This is the way you have to play the draft game because of the way the slots are set up. If they had drafted the BPA in round 6 he probably would have expected the full $327k.
It’s been pretty well established that either Beeter or Vogel or both would not be signing if they can’t get over slot.
Andrew is very good at these games. I guess you can say that when the 6th round pick came along he went BPATWSFUS (Best Player Available That Would Sign For Under Slot).
I understand how it works, what I don’t understand is why baseball allows it. The slot values are preset. They are, in my opinion quite generous. The Top 30 players in the country get top dollar. Because some narcissistic kid thinks he’s better than everyone else teams have to feed that ego? This could be stopped either by enforcing slot values are dropping them altogether.
I think I read that Stone agreed to under slot and would sign before he was drafted. I am guessing this happens in earlier rounds all the time especially with crap franchises/owners.
I think maybe he agreed to sign below slot because he’s intriguing and likable.
Likable and intriguing and without a plus pitch does not pay as well as a player with a 96+ mph fastball.
You know what I find likable and intriguing? A pitcher with a 96+ mph fastball. As a fan I don’t much care if he’s not popular. He won’t be coming to my house for dinner. Off the field he can hang out at Trump rallies for all I care. On the field I want to know if he can shape and hit his spots with that 97 mph heater.
I saw a special on Bo Jackson yesterday on 30-30. Bear Bryant wanted him at Alabama but Bear told him he wouldn’t play until his junior year. Pat Dye at Auburn told him if he was good enough he would start as a freshman. Yeah, Bo was good enough. I wonder if those 18 year old baseball egodonnas were promised they would skip A and A+ and go directly to AA if they go ahead and sign for slot it might make a difference. The team wouldn’t have to necessarily keep them there, but if they are as good as they think they are maybe they could stick there a couple years until they are ready. Maybe that’s a bad idea, I don’t know, but my guess is guys like Jared Kelly and Cole Wilcox, two guys we could have drafted, each could succeed in time at AA. They already throw closer to 100 They each dropped way below their projections because of signability issues. Draft them high, pay them high, place them high, then mold them into big leaguers by the time they reach 21.
No, we don’t do that. We sign the signable, a pitcher that most predict will end up in the bullpen and a couple guys every dad would want to date his daughter.
What do I know. I still believe majority rules. I’m a dinosaur.
I’ll admit that I threw in intriguing and likable because I didn’t want to throw cold water on the draft or other’s supporting comments already posted here but at the same time he does have a plus attribute and that is control and maybe that was all Greg Maddux had when he was drafted.
What Greg Maddux had was steely eyed mind control over Major League umpires. Through some kind of zeta reticulan hypnosis he had umps believing the plate he was throwing at was 24” wide. Every other pitcher in the league was throwing at a box 17” wide. Not Maddux.
Now if your saying umpires are going to find our picks as “likable” as Maddux was in that regard… I’ll change my opinion on them.
I wonder why the umps didn’t like his brother Mike as well?
BTW, Badger, you are on to something with the notion that players that might stay in school instead of signing would instead sign if they could have a spot in AA ball to lose to begin their careers. Or, maybe you are just on something. Beets maybe?
Mike was adopted.
Beet juice. Don’t say it three times.
Seems like another quality young man in our organization. With an upside! Great write up!
Oh, I think I am going to love this young man and can not wait to see what he can do with the Dodger organization. What a great teamate, you could not ask for anyone better. Much good luck, Gavin and, welcome!
I know Badger and I have been saying for a while that we have no faith players and owners to give us a 2020 season, and this article won’t change our minds one bit:
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29315408/mlb-commissioner-rob-manfred-now-less-confident-2020-season
Even if they come to an agreement, and I don’t see one, I’m looking at a scoreboard that reads Covid 19, MLB 0.
As a few of us have discussed, what happens if a player……………………………………………………….?
Turns out some players and staff have already tested positive. MLB isn’t saying who.
This will also happen to the NBA, NFL, NHL, etc.
It’s quite possible that no major sports league finishes its season this year, even the ones who manage to start.
We’ve discussed it yes, and nobody has an answer. I said a few months ago it could be we won’t have any sports until we have a vaccine. Nothing has been said or done that has changed my mind on that.
Tonight’s Dodger Zoom Party is on. It’s a special one, as it’s all guys from the 1988 team.
Again, Alana and Joe are running things, and the panel includes Fred Claire, Sax, Marshall, Hershiser, Shelby, Gibson, Scioscia, Hatcher, Stubbs, and Jay Howell.
Oh, and John Foggerty also joined for a bit. He shares a bday with Kirk Gibson
This Dodger Zoom Party was special. Great stories. You can tell those guys would have done anything as a team to win it all. Special group. They didn’t forget to bring up guys like Danny Heep, Tracy Woodson, Mike Sharperson (RIP), Rick Dempsey, Brian Holton, Ricky Horton…
May 28 was John Fogerty’s (75) and Kirk Gibson’s (63) birthday, and the Dodgers let Fogerty play Centerfield in CF for his family on his 75th b’day. How cool is that? Fogerty said he always wanted to play CF in the major leagues, and he got his chance…his way.
Jeff, did you see the link I had attached a couple weeks ago? It was Foggerty’s whole song at the stadium
Yes I did
Gotta go to Iowa if you want to see any baseball…….
https://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/29315340/iowa-high-schools-first-baseball-softball-return-amid-coronavirus
I’ve been to Iowa. I’m not going back.
AC, what did Kirk Gibson have to say on the Zoom Party?
I did not bring my notes with me to the office.
As I remember, at first he did not want to talk about the eye balck incident, but later he went into great detail. As he recalled it, Gibby was working in RF at the time, and the team was working on pitcher throws to 1B, and the pitchers missed 1B often enough that Gibby was getting a workout backing up 1B. The Jesse Orozco unleashed it into RF and Gibson was getting sweaty, took his hat off, and saw eye black on his hat and walked off the field. As we now know, it was Orozco that put the eye black in Gibson’s hat, so it looked more like a setup. But everyone on the Zoom Party acknowledged that the eye black incident was a season changer for them attitude wise.
They were showing Gibby’s walk off in Game 1 against Oakland, that also showed the A’s leaving their dugout. I believe it was Gibson who then stated,”Yeah, take your bats, boys”. He then saw Dave Stewart leaving (on film) and said that we may have won the game, but Stew got me back when he fired me at Arizona, and everyone had a great laugh.
They talked more about Game 4 of the NLCS than Game 1 of the WS. They knew after Game 4 of the NLCS, they were going to win the WS.
They talked a lot about Jay Howell getting ejected and suspended for having pine tar on his glove. Okay Jay Howell talked a lot about it. When the weather was as cold as it was in NY, the ball gets very slippery with rosin, so pitchers routinely had pine tar to help with their grip. Even the hitters acknowledged that the ball did not move any different with pine tar.
There were just a lot of stories about 1988.
Very interesting. Thank you AC.
That was about the gist of it Jeff…spell check my friend. Orosco….no Z. He was not Zorro…..lol..
Thanks. The Z was not a typo. I have always spelled his name that way. I have no idea why. Thanks for the correction.
No biggie. I forget what player it was, but I did the same thing, and I still sometimes spell Matt Beaty’s name, Beatty. Got used to seeing Warren Beatty I guess. Oh, I remember now, Johnny Cueto. I kept spelling it Queto, which is obviously wrong.
Disappointing to read Bobby’s post above.
Premier League Soccer starts again here tomorrow evening. All sides have come together to make this work as there were many reservations on all sides when the discussions began.
There have been concessions made for the greater good and although it will be very strange to watch a game with no crowd, it will be better than nothing.
Royal Ascot also started today – again behind closed doors – but the sport of Horse Racing needed it, so they made it happen.
Baseball I’m afraid is shooting itself in the foot. The Nation needs the National Pastime, at this time.
Glad to hear that everyone on here seems to be doing ok, and long may it continue.
Really enjoyed Michael’s posts from the last thread – and thanks for the guys for keeping the discussion going even without meaningful action.
Still the best site
Hey W. Good to see you again.
“ the Nation needs the National Pastime, at this time.“
The Nation needs a vaccine. And despite what some have suggested here, that ain’t happening this summer.
Ok, here’s an idea that I found laying WAY outside the box.
Steroids.
https://apple.news/AO634jY-mSkSNrpjqx5pmcA
To get games going this summer you just hand out these inexpensive steroids to all the players. In fact, for the next 5 months all steroids are legal.
Now, where are they gonna play?
9th inning will again belong to Gagne. His return is eminent.
Brilliant
As of last week I believed we would see baseball action again. Now I do not think that will happen. Millionaires and billionaires cannot agree on anything. Now Manfred could implement a season for as many games as he wishes, but, according to the rules, he needs 23 of the 30 owners to agree. Most say there are more than 8 owners who do not want the season to begin. As for me, I am done with all of them. They will never see another dollar out of my pocket, that is for sure. I love the game, not the players or the owners. Badger is right. we need a vaccine. And it definitely won’t happen this summer. Something else that won’t happen is that when they do get one, I won’t be taking it. Personal choice. I will find other pursuits to follow this summer. I have places I can go and things I can do. I absolutely refuse to live my life in fear of anything. Especially this disease. I am sick and tired of it all. As long as I am healthy and able to do things on my own, I am going to do so. About the only time I have contact with other people is when we play music together. We have even agreed that when we have our jam session on the 5th of July, we are going to limit the number of people on the porch so we do not get too crowded up there. Those of you in densely populated areas are affected a lot more by this virus than we are here. Businesses are reopening, people are still wearing masks, but going more places. I hope all of you stay well and healthy. Thanks Watford, I appreciate the comments.
Baseball has been a major part of my life since I was 7. That was the first time I played some type of ball related to a bat. I think the game we were playing was Over the line. The game came natural to me. I never had trouble hitting the ball or catching it. A natural righty, I had broken my right arm when I was 6. Throwing from that side after that felt un natural so I threw and hit from the left. I tried switch hitting later, and could make decent contact, but had no power. I did not play organized ball until I was 11. But the game was in my soul. Dodgers moved west, and I was hooked. I could play all the other sports, but this game was what I loved. Music and baseball. They were my main stress relievers. I could not be mad or depressed when I was doing either of those 2 activities. Baseball was first. I did not discover my talent for music until I was in high school and joined the choir. That came natural too. I had no training in either. For all of these years I have looked forward to the beginning of April and baseball. When they started televising spring games, I looked forward to seeing the new kids in blue. This spring was no different and i was excited when a kid like Cody Thomas showed some real hitting skills. McKinstrey and Graterol were impressive too and I was hoping to see them on the big league scene this summer. Then the virus came. I do not blame the players or the owners for the work stoppage that resulted. I blame them for not thinking of the millions who fund their careers. Take the precautions needed to protect the players and the fans, but denying them the game they love because of your greed to make more millions and billions, well that sticks in my craw. Right now there is so much uncertainty in the world and here in the US, and it makes me mad and sad at the same time. But I have to think about the well being of family members, and friends more than I do those who have gotten very wealthy because they play a child’s game. Campy said it best. It could not be better, getting paid to play a kids game and loving every minute of it. Those are not his exact words, but it was something along those lines. Most of us here would love to have been able to do that. I know I would, it was my childhood dream to wear that uniform. Instead, I wore Army green. So excuse me if I have no sympathy for the players or the owners. My heart is with the common fan. Those who miss reading the Sporting News, and perusing the box scores in the morning paper to see how their favorite Dodger did.
Can someone give me a brief explanation as to what NFL and NBA players have agreed to, salary wise, and how it differs from what MLB players are asking for?
Dodgers have signed one undrafted free agent. The other teams are jumping all over these guys. Taking chances for minimal cash. But AF obviously has some sort of plan.
Maybe they have all the likable and intriguing players allowed on a winning team already.
That’s possible I guess. But you can get likable and intriguing for under slot, so I reckon the plan is to stock up on it, and overspend on surly and objectionable. Who knows, someday likable might have value. But for now, let’s all get high on obnoxious and insufferable. That ain’t hard to find.
It is hard to predict whether a player would like to sign with the Dodgers because:
1. The Dodgers have a lot of success at developing prospects; or
2. The Dodgers have too much depth, which may hinder a prospect’s progress.
I guess it depends upon their perspective.