Jason Place thrilled with being the Sox 1st rounder

[Fishercat]

Place, 18, is the first high school player the Sox have taken with their first pick since Jon Lester -- currently the organization's most prized starting pitching prospect -- in 2002.

"It's the greatest day of my life, up to this point," said an ecstatic Place from Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he is participating in a high school All-American game.

Just 72 hours removed from smoking a batting practice homer over the Green Monster in a pre-draft workout, Place can now have dreams of doing it for real.

"I got to take some hacks there, it was pretty awesome," Place said. "I put one out of the stadium, over the Monster. It was pretty awesome. I just turned around and smiled, and all the scouts were looking at me. That was pretty cool."

Place was asked what kind of player Red Sox fans will see.

"They're gonna see a guy with an outstanding work ethic and I'm never going to stop. I'm relentless," said Place. "I'm going to try to bust into the Majors and try to help them win another World Series as soon as possible."

Though there are many steps along the way before that can happen, Thompson for one doesn't question Place's ambitions.

"This kid works so hard and had a dream of one day being a first-round draft pick, and it's just a steppingstone for him for him to reach his lifelong goal of being in the Major Leagues," Thompson said. "He'll reach it. He's the type of kid that, don't tell him he can't do something because he's going to prove you wrong. It's exciting to have that organization be the Red Sox, because it's such an outstanding organization."

My guess is, that as a high school player, he's still pretty far away. However, his attitude seems to be great and the fact that he seems so happy is encouraging.

http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/NASApp/...=.jsp&c_id=bos

[BoSox34]

I'm ecstatic that we landed both OF Jason Place and SP Daniel Bard. Bard was projected as a top 10 pick by some people. Really like what the BoSox managed to do with their picks.