ARLINGTON -- Adrian Rodriguez is a 6-foot-5 right-hander who went to the Florida Virtual School, an internet-based public high school that draws students from around the nation.

Rodriguez actually lives in Yonkers, just north of New York City. Rangers scout Takeshi Sakurayama found him pitching in a men’s league in the New York area.

“He got a tip from somebody that the kid was pitching there and he went there,” Rangers scouting director Kip Fagg said. “That’s what scouts do.”

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The Rangers took Rodriguez in the 39th round of the of the 2019 MLB Draft, one of an avalanche of pitchers the club took this year. The Rangers drafted position players with four of their first six picks, and then focused almost exclusively on pitching over the final two days of the three-day event.

When the Draft finally ended on Wednesday, the Rangers had taken 31 pitchers with their final 35 picks, and 33 out of 41 picks overall.

“Well, we picked from the strength of the Draft,” Fagg said. “Obviously there were a ton of pitchers, and we got a lot of good ones. We got a lot of athletic guys with good stuff, a lot of guys with a chance to start with impact pitches on the mound. We are very excited. We had a lot of guys we targeted, and a lot of the targeted guys we got. We feel really good.”

The Rangers’ 11th and 14th-round picks included two standout football players who can also pitch. Right-hander Nicholas Lockhart was a 6-foot-6 defensive end/tight end from the Woodgrove (Va.) High team that won the Class 4A state championship. Adam Berghorst played defensive end for Zeeland (Miss.) High and has committed to play football and baseball at Michigan State.

“We feel we have a good opportunity to get both those kids in a Rangers uniform,” Fagg said. “The guys we take we feel we have a good chance to sign and we’ll see how it goes.”

Mason Cole, a 6-foot-6 right-hander from Texas A&M, is another big strong pitcher who could have an impact if he can overcome some health issues. The Rangers took him in the 27th round.

But the Rangers also plucked some players from schools not in the mainstream of collegiate baseball.

Right-hander Ben Anderson, the Rangers’ 13th-round pick, is the brother of pitcher Ian Anderson, the No. 3 prospect in the Braves’ system. The Rangers found him from SUNY-Binghamton.

The Rangers also took right-handed pitcher Jake Hamilton (21st round) from Rose (Okla.) State College, Ross Carver (23rd round) from Crowder (Mo.) College, shortstop Jake Hoover (28th round) from Hillsdale (Mi.) College, right-hander Nicholas Yoder (34th round) from Rowan (N.J.) College at Gloucester County and right-hander Jamarcus Lang (38th round) from Enterprise (Ala.) State College.

They will all be competing with a young man from Florida Virtual School.

“That’s a testament to our group,” Fagg said. “These guys work their tails off. They go to the ends of the earth to find talent. We feel we beat other teams because we do that, and it shows with the kind of players we draft out of those schools. They go to places where the scouts won’t go and obscure schools so to speak and they end up being good players.”

The Rangers took catcher Raphael Xavier Pelletier from Edouard Montpetit High School in Mascouche, Quebec in the 25th round. That pick was dedicated to the memory of Gerry Fraley, the long-time Dallas Morning News baseball writer who passed away last month after a long battle with cancer.

“He’s a self-made kid who we think has a good chance to stay behind the plate,” Fagg said. “It felt right to honor Gerry in that way.”