Tyler drafted again??

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By Jason Nitschke

Now that the Major League Baseball first year player draft is done, I was bummed out that scouts around the league didn't think any Montana boys were good enough to be taken this year. (2010 is the second straight year no Montanans were selected.)

I spent part of my Wednesday afternoon updating my MLB Draft archives and scouring through the final 20 rounds of the 50 round draft. I came across the name Tyler Graham. Ironic, I thought, because the Tyler Graham I know was drafted twice, signed once.

The Tyler Graham drafted this year is a 6'5" right-handed pitcher out of Nevada-Reno.

The Tyler Graham from Great Falls was drafted first by the Chicago Cubs in 2005 (14th round). But he signed a year later out of Oregon State after the San Francisco Giants selected the 6'0" 180 pound outfielder in the 19th round. He likely would have gone higher in the 2006 draft were it not for injuries.

Until this year, injuries have really held Graham back as he's climbed through the Giants minor league affiliates. But since coming off the disabled list at the start of this season (strained oblique) and being sent to Triple-A Fresno, Graham has been one of the best players on the Grizzlies roster.

Since my last update on Tyler, he slumped a bit. But over his last 10 games, the CMR grad is on fire again. The 26-year-old went 4 for 4 against Sacramento on Sunday, June 6. He went 3 for 3 against Sacramento on Saturday, June 5. He also had 3 hits against Salt Lake City on May 30.

Up through the off-day on Wednesday, June 9, Graham is hitting .407 in 32 games at Triple-A. From the looks of it, 34 games is the minimum number of games needed to qualify for the league leaders. If he did qualify, he'd be leading the Pacific Coast League in hitting. He'd be seventh in the PCL in on-base percentage plus slugging percentage. His 10 stolen bases do rank him eighth, in a third fewer games than most of the guys ahead of him.

Point is, Graham is actually getting a shot to play full time. And were it not for the Giants signing 1998 first overall pick Pat Burrell, perhaps Tyler would be patrolling the Giants outfield even now.

But like Tyler told me before spring training: "All you really need is a good half of a season to get on the 40-man roster." Looks like he's well on his way to at the very least, getting the phone call he's worked his entire life to get.

JN 6/9/10

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