With their fourth round pick in the 2014 MLB Draft, the Orioles selected right-handed pitcher Pat Connaughton from the University of Notre Dame. The 6'5" righty also plays basketball for Notre Dame. On the MLB.com draft coverage, the analysts immediately noted a similarity with Jeff Samardzija in the sense that he also came from Notre Dame and also played two sports there.
The MLB.com scouting capsule on Connaughton says:
Connaughton is far from a finished product on the mound. He lacks fastball command and doesn't miss as many bats as his velocity suggests he should. Connaughton has some feel for a changeup, but scouts aren't convinced he spins the ball well enough to develop an average curve.
Well, that's how you end up going in the fourth round, although they also note that he has a fastball that can touch up to 95mph with good sink. Everybody loves sink, especially when it's tall pitchers throwing pitches with sink.
Connaughton was rated as the #112 prospect on MLB.com's top 200 draft prospect list and rated #129 on the Baseball America 500.
At the end of May, Connaughton was reported to be telling MLB teams interested in drafting him that he planned to finish his business school degree at Notre Dame in the fall, playing his senior season for them in basketball too. Can you do that? I guess you can do that.
The slot value for this pick is $428,100.