Burress opened up on the lessons his dad instilled in him and joining a roster that already includes a familiar face — Jacob Dudan, who he faced in March. Scouting director Eric Kubota also weighed in on why Burress's size isn't a concern.
The Athletics started draft day by selecting outfielder Drew Burress No. 8 overall out of Georgia Tech, and wrapped up day one by taking one of the best value picks of the day in Roman Martin out of UCLA.
In between those two, the A's selected three college pitchers — LHP Mason Edwards out of USC, RHP Gabe Gaeckle out of Arkansas and RHP Jacob Dudan out of NC State.
The outfielder has been extremely consistent in his college days, swatting a school record 60 homers, which surpassed Jason Varitek's 57. Over the course of his three years, he not only graduated from Tech, but he batted .357 with a .484 OBP and a 1.204 OPS.
He burst onto the scene as a freshman with 25 homers, 67 RBI, 58 walks and 37 strikeouts, all while batting .381 with a .512 OBP. The impressive part of his journey is that he roughly maintained that level of production all three years, becoming one of the best bats in college, despite his smaller stature.
Burress is excited to join the A's.
"The A's team and organization, where it's at right now, is actually in such an exciting spot," Burress said after the draft. He then rattled off some of the key players on the A's, his buddy Devin Taylor in the minors, and Jamie Arnold, who he faced numerous times in college. "It's a really, really exciting group of guys for sure, and I'm ready to be a part of it."
Andy Burress, Drew's dad, was a sixth-round pick of the Cincinnati Reds back in 1995 out of high school, and got as high as Double-A Chattanooga. Athletics Roundtable asked Drew what lessons his dad instilled in him that have helped get him to this point.
"I would say the biggest thing that my dad told me was how you do anything is how you do everything," Burress said. "Whether that was shagging or hitting BP or lifting or eating right or sleeping right. He kind of instilled that into me that you should do things the right way, and I think that's been probably a huge part of the reason I've been as successful as I have so far."
Analysts have some concerns that his power won't translate to wood bats, given Burress is listed at just 5-foot-9, 185 pounds.
We asked A's Scouting Director Eric Kubota about those concerns, and why the scouting department felt comfortable with him with the No. 8 pick.
"We don't have any concern about that," Kubota said. "I mean, his metrics match up with the best power hitters that have come out of college the last few years, so we're not concerned about that. I think people say that probably because he's not tall, but he's really strong, so we do think the power will translate."
Burress also faced A's draftee Jacob Dudan back in March, going 2-for-4 with a pair of singles and a strikeout. Dudan went six innings, gave up nine hits, four earned runs, walked four and struck out 10, throwing 114 pitches. A couple of weeks later he ended up needing Tommy John surgery.
"All the analytics point to him being an extremely good big-league hitter," Kubota said. "We feel very fortunate he got to us."
