The Phillies made a deep position even deeper in the second round of the MLB amateur draft late Thursday when they selected catcher Andrew Knapp with their second-round pick, 53rd overall. Knapp is 21 years old and comes out of Cali. Knapp is a switch-hitter. Knapp is coming off of a year in which he hit .350 with eight home runs and 41 RBI.
Baseball Sacramento offers this assessment of what Knapp can do from Phillies scout Joey Davis:
"Defensively, the hands work. Got toughness to play position and really improved his receiving and blocking. Just don't have a big cannon for the arm, but he has enough arm to play the position. And his bat makes up for anything he may be lacking defensively. He's a big-time switch-hitter."
The report says that Davis believes that Knapp is eager to sign and will receive just over $1 million to do so.
Knapp is no relation to former Phillies prospect Jason Knapp, but is the son of Mike Knapp, a former draft pick of the California Angels who played 12 seasons in the minor leagues.
The Phillies have catchers Cameron Rupp, Tommy Joseph, and Sebastian Valle in their system, but in baseball it may take a while to come up through the system.
Once again, a very happy player took to Twitter:
Couldn't be more blessed! With God all things are possible! #phillynation instagram.com/p/aPptBLvnhN/
— Andrew Knapp (@theknappyboy5) June 7, 2013
Check out Knapp's Cal Bears profile here.
Watch a video interview from Cal's student newspaper, The Daily Californian:
