Four months ago, when the college season was getting started, Tanner Houck sat in a burger joint just off the University of Missouri campus and explained his approach on the mound.
“I’m going to be who I am,” Houck told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “No matter what the scouting report says, if it says they’re a good fastball hitter, it doesn’t matter to me. I’m not going to shy away.”
As of now, the Red Sox are banking on that fastball and that competitiveness. With last night’s 24th pick in Major League Baseball’s first-year player draft, the Red Sox selected Houck, the first time since Matt Barnes in 2011 that the organization went with a college pitcher for its first selection.