Sports

Stone Mountain's Cone Drafted by Texas Rangers

Taken out of Georgia with 37th overall pick.

SECAUCUS, N.J. – Stone Mountain native Zach Cone was selected as the 37th overall pick by the Texas Rangers in this year’s Major League Baseball draft Monday night.

The Rangers selected Cone, a junior at the University of Georgia, in the compensatory round of the draft.

Cone was not immediately available for comment. He did not make the trip to the MLB Studios where the draft was held.

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At Georgia this season he hit .275 with four home runs and 35 RBI. As a sophomore he was the team’s Triple Crown winner, hitting .363 with 10 home runs and 53 RBI. He also had a .991 fielding percentage in the outfield and led the SEC with nine assists and one error in 117 total chances.

"The numbers were not very good this year," Rangers scouting director Kipp Fagg said on the team’s website. "It was a down year, but we think he has a big upside. If he had a big year, we wouldn't be talking about him. But we believe in our player-development system and with a couple of tweaks, he could be off to the race."

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Cone played high school ball at Parkview and was a third round pick in 2008 by the Los Angeles Angels out of high school. He was a First Team All-County selection after hitting .425 as a senior. He was also named 8-AAAAA Co-Player of the Year along with UGA teammate Chase Hawkins.


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