Russell Wilson Selected In 4th Round By Colorado -- Welcome To The Mike Glennon Era

First of all, congratulations and good luck to Russell Wilson.  He should get a solid offer as a 4th rounder, and he's got excellent leverage because of how good he is at football.  I can't imagine he would be able to improve on his draft position with another year in college, even if he devoted his summer and spring to baseball as he did this past year.  I suspect he'll take the money and go, and no one could blame him for doing so.

Tom O'Brien has made some very definitive statements about Russell's future throughout the off-season, has more or less said he feels certain Russell Wilson will be back in the fall.  However, those statements were no doubt predicated on the notion that Wilson wasn't likely to be selected anywhere near this high, and as such the money involved probably wouldn't have been enough to sway him.  The Rockies changed all of that.

No one expected Wilson to go this high, not even folks who do this sort of thing for a living.  This is the reaction from Baseball America's John Manuel:

Wow, stunned the Rockies pop NC State 2b/of Russell Wilson. He's also the QB, has flashed hitting tools, but that's a stunner

We know the Rox love QBs but . . . Wilson turned down $250k out of HS and has flashed hit tools, but hasn't played consistently

And there's this from ESPN MLB draft expert Keith Law:

Asked two area scouts how good Wilson was and I was told, "I don't know - he never plays" by both of them.

Wilson did have a pretty good year at the plate: he hit .306/.443/.490 overall and .286/.362/.429 in conference play in a reserve role.  But he had a tendency for some really clueless-looking at-bats, and he didn't hit particularly well in the wood bat league in which he played last summer.  And of course there's the whole "reserve role" thing.  So clearly Wilson is a project at the plate, his development hampered by football.  I guess the Rockies like his tools enough to overlook the deficiencies.

It's far from certain that Wilson decides to leave, but at this point I recommend assuming that his offer will be substantial enough to send him packing.  And so: welcome to the Mike Glennon era.