Red Sox select Brian Brown with their ninth round pick

It’s been all college players for the Red Sox in Day Two of this draft, and that continued in the ninth round when they took left-handed pitcher Brian Brown from North Carolina State University with the 280th overall pick and their seventh selection of the afternoon. Brown just wrapped up his senior year and is in his age-22 season. Unlike the other pitchers taken by the Red Sox today, Brown has been a starter throughout his collegiate career. This season, the southpaw made 16 starts for NC State and tossed 98 ²⁄₃ innings over those outings. The results were impressive as he finished with a 2.74 ERA with 98 strikeouts and 26 walks.

There’s not a ton in the way of scouting reports for Brown that I can find, but Baseball America did do a preseason write-up of ACC players and mentioned in passing that the lefty gets by more on feel than pure stuff. That seemed to work, however, as he struck out about a batter per inning in his senior year. Of course, that’s a lot easier to do in college than in pro ball. Still, he seems relatively polished and as a senior sign should come for well under slot.

Brown was not ranked by any of Baseball America, MLB Pipeline or Fangraphs.