Including Monday’s first-round pick Zack Thompson, from Kentucky, eight of the Cardinals’ first 10 picks in this year’s draft have been college pitchers. Randy Flores’ fourth draft at the helm has become a continuation of a decade-long blueprint for the Cardinals’ organization that favors strong-armed, athletic, and, in many cases, college-proven pitching above almost all. What’s true for pitchers must be true when it comes to drafting them: Stick to your strengths.
Locey, 20, personifies so many of the traits the Cardinals have gravitated toward as they draft, develop, and deploy class after class of pitchers. The 6-foot-3 righthander started the year as Georgia’s Sunday starter and moved in the final two months of the season to the marquee night — Friday — for a record-setting Bulldogs club.