“Rizz is always on us,” Kline said. “ ‘There are big leaguers out there. You can find a big leaguer in the 30th round. Go do it.’ ” By 6 p.m., he wore his reading glasses over his shades, checking his phone and his notes. And in front of him, a Duke pitcher named Drew Van Orden stifled Georgia Tech, taking a 6-0 lead into the bottom of the ninth. “Finish it up, big boy,” Kline said. When Van Orden did, allowing five hits without a walk while striking out eight, Kline and Gonzales had added something to their file they didn’t have when the day began — a senior right-hander with slightly above-average major league stuff, working his way up their draft board.
“Learned something today,” Kline said. :DDuke and Georgia Tech played next. The Blue Devils don’t traditionally provide many players for the draft, and the Yellow Jackets endured a bit of a down year. Dozens of scouts left the stadium, maybe catching a break before Miami played Clemson in a sexier matchup at night. Kline grabbed a cheeseburger from the concession stand (a “30” of a burger on the scouting scale, he said) and he and Gonzales took seats behind the plate. Who knew what they might see?