Sox add college righty Stankiewicz in Round 2

BOSTON -- When the Red Sox grabbed right-hander Teddy Stankiewicz with their second-round pick (45th overall) in the First-Year Player Draft, they were able to take a player they had plenty of history with.

"He was a draftee last year," said Red Sox director of amateur scouting Amiel Sawdaye. "We spent some time in the Dallas area with Team USA [tryouts]. I'm not sure he was on Team USA his high school year, but I know we saw him at the Team USA trials, so we've had a lot of history seeing him and watching him progress."

This was the second straight year Stankiewicz was drafted. The Mets took him out of Fort Worth (Texas) Christian High School a year ago.

Instead, Stankiewicz went to Seminole State, a junior college in Oklahoma.

"He's a big, physical pitcher. He's got, probably for me, one of the best deliveries in the Draft," said Sawdaye. "His arm works really well. He throws three pitches, and he really commands his fastball. I think one of the interesting things about Teddy is he's 19 years old as a junior-college pitcher, but you can kind of almost consider him pitching like a college junior.

"We felt like if this kid were at an SEC school like Arkansas, where he was slated to go last year, there's a chance this kid would be pitching like a college junior. He attacks the strike zone. His changeup has really improved from last year to this year."

The 19-year-old was 4-5 with a 2.52 ERA and 70 strikeouts, walking 10 over 60 2/3 innings.

Stankiewicz is known for his fastball. His secondary stuff is a work in progress -- and likely the key to how good a pitcher he can become.

"His breaking ball has gotten better," said Sawdaye. "We've kind of seen a little bit of the improvements from year to year, and his fastball was up to 96 this year and really consistently sitting in the low 90s. I think he's a guy we really felt comfortable with and we trusted. He had really good mound demeanor, and [he's] a guy that was going to go out and throw a lot of strikes and compete at the lower levels right away."