By Kevin Eckleberry

Sports Editor

He didn’t go in the first round, which seemed like a strong possibility just a few months ago.

Instead, former Troup High baseball standout Luke Bailey was selected in the fourth round of the Major League Baseball first-year player draft by the Tampa Bay Rays.

Bailey, a catcher, was slated to go much higher in the draft until an injury forced him to undergo Tommy John surgery in May.

Bailey has no regrets, though.

He’s thrilled to be a part of an organization that believes strongly in his abilities.

“Once I talked to them, that’s the team I wanted to go to,” said Bailey, a four-year starter at Troup. “They didn’t draft any other catchers. They said, ‘You’re the one we want.’ It’s awesome.”

The first day of the draft on Tuesday came and went without Bailey’s name being called.

Bailey did receive a call from the Rays that night, though, and they told him that if he was still available in the fourth round on Thursday, they would take him.

True to their word, the Rays picked Bailey in the fourth round with the 139th overall pick.

Rays’ scout R.J. Harrison told a newspaper in Tampa there’s some “risk” involved in signing a guy recently coming off surgery, but he feels that risk “is outweighed by the fact that the reward is he has the chance to be tremendous.”

James Andrews, who performed the surgery on Bailey, is the medical director for the Rays’ franchise, so the team obviously got plenty of input from the famed doctor before making the pick.

“This isn’t just something that happens,” Harrison said. “We’ve done some pretty good work on that guy, with the family and with Luke.”

Bailey said the Rays’ affiliation with Andrews weighed heavily in the decision-making process.

“Dr. Andrews is their team doctor. All their trainers trained under him,” Bailey said. “They weren’t as worried about it as some other teams.”

Bailey said he intends on signing with the Rays, and he plans on reporting to the team in August.

By the start of the 2010 season, Bailey should be at full strength.

Bailey said the Rays are one of the teams that showed the most interest in him, and that interest didn’t wane even when Bailey found out he’d have to have surgery.

“They came to the house right after the surgery,” Bailey said. “They made a lot of calls. They’re real confident I’ll be able to come back.”

Harrison figures the Rays got one of the steals in the draft.

“He’s got the bat, and he’s got power,” Harrison said. “We’ve got a chance to have a guy that’s going to not only be a defensive guy, but a guy who has a chance to hit in a fairly significant part of the lineup.”

Bailey hit more than 30 home runs in his final seasons at Troup, and in 2009 – despite dealing with the injury for much of the season – he hit nearly .600 in leading the Tigers to a second-place finish in Region 2-AAA.

Bailey also has one of the fastest pop times, which measures the time it takes for a catcher to make a throw to second base.

“We’re very excited,” Harrison said. “That’s the way you make your draft grow, to have the opportunity to get a guy like that.”

One of the things that makes the Rays appealing, Bailey said, is the franchise’s willingness to go with young players at the big-league level.

During their World Series run in 2008, the Rays were made up almost exclusively of guys who came up through the farm system.

“You look at their major-league team, they’re really young,” Bailey said. “They pick guys they think can get to (the big leagues).”