Ian Kinsler - Draft and College

Draft and College

Kinsler was drafted by his home-state Arizona Diamondbacks after high school in 2000 (29th round), but did not feel ready for the pros. He opted instead to take a college tour. First (because he had not been recruited by any Division I programs) he attended Central Arizona College, where he hit .405 with 17 doubles, 37 RBIs, and 24 stolen bases, was named second-team All-ACCAC, and played shortstop alongside future major leaguers, Scott Hairston and Rich Harden. The Diamondbacks drafted him again in 2001 (26th round), but he declined to sign because he felt that playing college baseball a little longer would help him develop his game.

Arizona State coach, Pat Murphy, then convinced him to transfer to ASU in his sophomore year, promising that he would play shortstop for the Sun Devils. But while he started briefly alongside fellow middle infielder, Dustin Pedroia, he ended up spending much of the season on the bench. He was also teammates with Andre Ethier.

University of Missouri Tigers coach, Tim Jamison, spotted him in a summer league, and convinced him to head east for his junior year. Jamison said: "I saw him take ground balls and thought, defensively, he was as good a middle infielder as I had ever seen. As for his bat, I didn't really care." While there, Kinsler had a .335 batting average/.416 on base percentage/.536 slugging percentage, with 16 steals in 17 attempts. He was named to the All-Big 12 Conference second team. Jamison noted, "From the day Ian stepped through the doors here, you could see it on his face: He was on a mission." Playing for the Tigers during the 2002 Fall World Series, he led all hitters with a .619 average (13-for-21).

Kinsler was then drafted a third time, by the Texas Rangers in the 17th round (496th overall) in the 2003 Major League Baseball Draft as a shortstop, at the urging of area scout Mike Grouse. Grouse liked Kinsler's tools, makeup, desire, and gritty approach. In Grouse's scouting report, he wrote that Kinsler had a great feel for the game, athleticism, solid defensive skills, intensity, and leadership qualities. Grouse knew that Kinsler was probably being underrated by rival scouts, who did not know that Kinsler had played with a foot stress fracture while at Missouri, "so really couldn’t run like I knew he could. I’d seen him in Wichita the year before, so I knew he was a plus runner. Most people ... didn’t know that, so they probably downgraded him. But I knew it, and I wasn’t telling anybody." Kinsler, for his part, says: "I thought I was a lot better than a 17th round pick. I thought I belonged in the top 10 rounds." Kinsler nonetheless agreed to sign with the Rangers on his 21st birthday, for $30,000.

Five years later, John Sickels wrote: "Only a handful of players from the 2003 draft are as good as Kinsler, and he's certainly outperformed many more heralded talents. Scouting and drafting will always be an inexact science/art." The pick was later lauded as "one of the greatest 17th round picks of all time."