Georgia ends MLB Draft with four more players picked on Day Three
Day 3, the final one, of the 2022 MLB Draft is in the books and four more Georgia Bulldogs came off the board. After Jonathan Cannon and Cory Acton were selected on Monday in rounds three and nine respectively, Dylan Ross, Shane Marshall, Garrett Brown and Jack Gowen rounded out the draft haul out of Athens on Tuesday.
Ross played in just two games during the 2022 season, starting both and posting a 1-0 mark with a 3.00 ERA before being injured. He notched the victory in his Georgia debut going five innings and allowing just one run on four hits with two walks and six strikeouts. After his second start was cancelled due to weather, he made it up in the midweek against Wofford but left after one inning due to injury. Ross would miss the remainder of the season.
Prior to being at Georgia, he attended Eastern Kentucky and Northwest Florida State College. He was projected as a top three round pick and ranked as high as No. 114 on Baseball America’s Top 500 prospects for the 2021 MLB Draft, participating in the MLB Draft Combine before going undrafted. Ross was invited to the combine once again in 2022 and was selected 389th overall by the New York Mets in the 13th round.
The next two players were both picked by the same team, the Chicago Cubs. Marshall went in the 14th round while Brown went in the 18th at No. 413 and No. 533 respectively.
Marshall spent four seasons in Athens, appearing in a total of 92 career games with 46 starts. He began his career as a catcher but slowly shifted into a role as a relief pitcher for the Bulldogs. Meanwhile, Brown only played two seasons with a redshirt and an injury keeping him out of two others. In 2020, he started four games on the mound, posting a 1-2 record and 4.96 ERA in 16.1 inning with four walks and 13 strikeouts. Those all came in the midweek, but after returning from elbow surgery in 2022, he worked his way into the weekend rotation. Brown started 10 games but struggled, walking 25 batters and allowing opponents to hit .311 against him in 25.2 innings with just 17 strikeouts to his name. He only had one decision in 10 starts, mostly staff outings.
The last Bulldog drafted was far from the one with the least impact this season. In fact, Gowen’s impact in 2022 certainly was more than that of his three third day draftees. Serving as the closer and a co-captain for Georgia this spring, Gowen threw 37.2 innings with 50 strikeouts to just 18 walks. He posted a 2-0 record with 10 saves, ranking ninth in Georgia history for a single season as he went a perfect 10-for-10. The year before, Gowen made a team-high 23 relief appearances. Gowen was named a First-Team All-American by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) and a Southeast All-Region Second-Team member by the American Baseball Coaches Association and Rawlings. He was also one of 10 finalists for the NCBWA’s Stopper of the Year Award. Selected No. 592 overall by the Miami Marlins in the 20th round, Gowen, like the other five Georgia draftees, has the ability to come back to school should he choose to do so.
Notable players that weren’t picked include outfielders Connor Tate, the team leader in batting average, hits, RBIs and home runs, and Ben Anderson, who posted the most putouts of the Bulldog fielders with a 1.000 fielding percentage. They both can come back to school next season, as can Nolan Crisp, Will Childrers, Michael Polk and Davis Rokose who also went undrafted.
