FIU 1B-3B Tyler Townsend

[Obando]

Are any of you familiar with this guy? He hails from Lewes, DE (Cape Henlopen HS) and is a junior at Florida International University in Miami. He is absolutely tearing it up this year, batting .434-24-77 and in the top 5 in college baseball in OPS. He is 6'3, 215, bats left, throws right and plays the corner IF positions.

It appears that Brandon Snyder is our future at 1B but since 3B is up in the air right now I am hoping the O's strongly consider drafting Townsend in the upcoming draft. The fact that he is essentially a local and actually played for the Orioleanders summer league team in high school, I'll bet he grew up an O's fan and would love to play here as a big leaguer. I have never watched him play and can only go by the stats, but it looks to me like this kid has some serious potential, at least hitting wise. I'm guessing he goes in the top 5 rounds with the year he's having. It wouldn't surprise me if the O's bring him to Camden Yards for a workout before the draft and I'll bet Dean Albany, our area scout, knows all about this kid even though he's been playing in Florida for the past 3 years.

Have any of you seen him play that could give us a scouting report? When you look at the stats you can't help but be intrigued by the O's drafting him, and on top of that the fact that he is from the area is just icing on the cake.

[Obando]

I checked some box scores and noticed he's actually been playing RF mostly this year, but also saw some 1B & 3B mixed in as well. I like that he's versatile but I don't know how strong his defense is. Regardless it appears that his best tool is his bat so I'm sure that is his meal ticket to the majors above all else and is what will get him drafted high. But versatility never hurts, that's for sure!