Texas Rangers 2016 Draft: Cole Ragans taken at #30

Texas Rangers 2016 Draft:  Cole Ragans, a lefthanded pitcher out of North Florida Christian High School in Tallahassee, Florida, is the Rangers' first round draft pick, being selected at #30 overall with the compensatory pick the Rangers received for losing Yovani Gallardo as a free agent.  Ragans is listed at 6'3", 190 lbs., and is ranked #55 in this draft both by Keith Law and by Baseball America.

Ragans is athletic and projectable, like most of the pitchers the Rangers take early, and the MLB Network folks praised his feel for pitching.  He doesn't throw real hard -- he tops out at 93 mph -- but ESPN has praise for the feel he has for both his curveball and his changeup, calling him the "platonic ideal" for a high school pitching prospect.  On MLB Network, they said Ragans compared himself to Cole Hamels in terms of his delivery.

Ragans is not one of the players we profiled leading up to the draft, and hadn't been mentioned in connection with the Rangers in the items I can recall.  Just reading about him, he reminds me a little of Brett Martin, the Rangers' 2014 4th rounder currently pitching in Hickory.

I would assume that Ragans will start off in the AZL, once he signs, although the Rangers could decide he's advanced enough to handle the challenge of pitching for Spokane in the Northwest League.