• Full name Drew C. Ward
  • Born 11/25/1994 in Leedey, OK
  • Profile Ht.: 6'3" / Wt.: 231 / Bats: L / Throws: R
  • School Leedey
  • Drafted in the 3rd round (105th overall) by the Washington Nationals in 2013 (signed for $850,000).
    View Draft Report
    Ward successfully lobbied Major League Baseball to make him eligible for the 2013 draft after his third year of high school, with the last step being graduating from Leedey High on May 17 (and thus exhausting his athletic eligibility). Scouts have had a difficult time evaluating him because they didn't bear down on him last summer, thinking he wouldn't enter the draft until 2014, and because his level of competition among Oklahoma Class B high schools (six levels below the top level, 6A) is so poor. He suffers in comparison to the last player to go into the draft after what would have been his third high school year: Bryce Harper, who passed GED tests and went to junior college to become eligible for the 2010 draft. But to be fair, almost any teenager would. Ward's best tool is his lefthanded power, and scouts who like him think it could make him a second-round pick. Skeptics think he generates his pop more with strength than bat speed and see him as more of a one-trick pony. There's also a difference of opinion on where the 6-foot-4, 210-pounder will fit in pro ball. Currently a shortstop with a strong arm, he's a below-average runner and athlete. The best-case scenario is that he can stick at third base, but some scouts believe he'll be limited to first base. He'd have an intriguing ceiling as a catcher if a team moved him behind the plate. Ward has committed to Oklahoma, though it's hard to imagine him turning down pro ball after working so hard to become draft-eligible.

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