Brosher taken by Mets in draft’s final day
A historic 2013 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft for Hernando County concluded on Saturday with Springstead first baseman/pitcher Brandon Brosher getting selected in the 36th round (1,076 overall) by the New York Mets.
Brosher is the first former Eagle to earn a selection since Steve Livesey in 1991, and only the third overall. Livesey was also taken out of high school in 1986, and J.D. Noland out of college in 1988.
The same draft that saw the county’s first player taken in the first round (Hernando’s Christian Arroyo) and first Nature Coast player ever picked (Mike Adams) also set a new county record with three selections.
This is also the first time the county has had two players picked within the top 10 rounds. Adams went in the seventh round.
The 6-foot-3, 225-pound Brosher, a right-hander, signed with Division I Oral Roberts University prior to his senior season, in which he hit .451 with four doubles, two triples and four home runs. He drove in 29 runs and scored 27 times.
On the mound, he went 5-3 with a 2.42 earned run average, striking out 81 batters in 55 innings.
Springstead head coach Jim Diven admitted that Major League teams may have been scared off by Brosher’s strong commitment to Oral Roberts.
“I thought he’d go between 5-10 (rounds). I don’t know what happened,” Diven said. “It didn’t turn out the way I thought it would. But I think they knew he wasn’t going to go unless they gave him a substantial amount of money.”
Still, Diven looked at Brosher’s drafting as another positive chapter in a season that included a district championship and the program’s first two regional victories. It was marred by a controversial Elite Eight loss at Orlando-Edgewater, a 6-5 defeat in a game shortened by rain.
“It’s nothing to be ashamed of,” Diven said of Brosher getting drafted. “It was an absolute storybook year for Springstead High School, even with the way it ended. It’s a season nobody will forget.
“Brandon, I think, will wind up in the pros someday. Brandon Brosher is a special guy and I will miss him next year dearly and sorely.”
Hernando’s Brandon Lawson, who went 11-0 with a 0.27 ERA as a senior this past season after signing with USF, did not end up getting picked, though he said in an email to Hernando Today that the opportunity presented itself.
“I got the call (Saturday) from the New York Mets in the 17th round asking if I would accept their offer to become their draft pick,” Lawson said, “but I declined the offer and I am going to college.”
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By the numbers: All-time Hernando County Draft Picks (June Amateur Draft)
Year Name School Team Round (Overall)
1976 Charles Farmer Hernando Detroit 9 (194)
1984 Mike Walker Hernando Montreal 14 (353)
1986 Eddie Looper* Hernando St. Louis 21 (546)
1986 Steve Livesey Springstead New York (AL) 29 (725)
1988 Tyrone Woods Hernando Montreal 5 (128)
1988 J.D. Noland* Springstead San Diego 13 (318)
1989 Avery Duval Hernando Texas 54 (1,334)
1991 Steve Livesey* Springstead New York (AL) 35 (907)
1993 Brent Stentz Hernando San Diego 45 (1,258)
1993 Landon Hessler Hernando Houston 23 (644)
1994 Landon Hessler* Hernando Minnesota 43 (1,184)
1994 Brent Stentz* Hernando Detroit 33 (921)
1995 Bronson Arroyo Hernando Pittsburgh 3 (69)
1998 Bert Snow* Hernando Oakland 10 (285)
2005 Dee Brown* Hernando Washington 10 (294)
2005 Patrick Ryan* Central Milwaukee 19 (565)
2011 Brett Maggard Hernando Philadelphia 38 (1,171)
2013 Christian Arroyo Hernando San Francisco 1 (25)
2013 Mike Adams* Nature Coast Boston 7 (203)
2013 Brandon Brosher Springstead New York (NL) 36 (1,076)
* Drafted out of college
