As Last Pick in the Draft, Woods Taken by Surprise : Professional baseball: San Fernando right fielder batted only .214, but Marlins scout liked what he saw on a foul ball.

For James (Scoody) Woods, the news came better late than never.

He was, after all, drafted by a major league baseball team.

Not bad for a .214 hitter who played right field for San Fernando High.

Woods was claimed by the Florida Marlins, a first-year expansion franchise, with the final selection of the 50-round amateur draft that concluded Wednesday.

Were the sport football, he would be made a celebrity.

As it was, he wasn’t told by the Marlins in which round he had been taken.

“I was? The last choice?” he said when informed by a reporter.

But if Woods was surprised, at least he had company.

Gary Hughes, the Marlins’ director of scouting, admitted he knew little about his team’s final choice.

Ditto for Bob Hughes (no relation), a San Fernando Valley-based scout for the Marlins who said he had seen Woods play once. “I gave him a three (average) arm,” Hughes said. “Other than that, I have absolutely nothing on him.”

It was Grady Mack, a Marlins scout based in the South Bay area, who was Woods’ supporter. But Mack’s opinion was based on information that could leave Marlins officials screaming foul.

Mack attended one San Fernando game, and that was to take an early peek at El Camino Real infielder Dan Cey, a junior who is the son of former Dodger third baseman Ron Cey. It was there that Woods caught his eye--with a hard-hit foul ball.

“A foul ball? Grady is really on a flyer with that one,” Bob Hughes said, laughing.

Woods (6-foot-1, 180 pounds) is “a thoroughbred kind of athlete,” said Steve Marden, the San Fernando coach. “He looks like he’s a player. And he’s only 17 years old, so they look and say . . . maybe. You know, it’s not like they’re blowing a first-round pick.”

A receiver and defensive back on the San Fernando football team, Woods already has accepted an offer to attend Cal State Northridge on a football scholarship.

However, he said there is a “50-50” chance he would sign with the Marlins.

In other draft developments Wednesday, Northridge right-hander Kenny Kendrena, drafted in the 28th round, signed with the Marlins and was assigned to the club’s Class-A affiliate in Erie, Pa.

Kendrena, who was 11-6 for the Matadors, leaves for Millington, Tenn., Friday to take part in tryouts for the U.S. Olympic baseball team. He has received permission from the Marlins to stay with Team USA for as long as he survives the cuts.

Kendrena’s catcher at Erie will be former Thousand Oaks High standout Mark Skeels, a Stanford senior who signed with the Marlins after being drafted in the 18th round.

Northridge’s Greg Shockey has signed a professional contract too, but for the second consecutive year the Matador standout was bypassed in the draft. The Seattle Mariners signed Shockey as a free agent and assigned him to Class-A Bellingham, Wash.

The Milwaukee Brewers made opening offers to a pair of local players who could someday form the club’s battery.

USC catcher Bobby Hughes, a former Notre Dame High standout, received “an extremely generous offer” according to his father Bob, the Marlin scout. Hughes was the Brewers’ second-round choice.

Northridge pitcher Kevin Kloek, a fourth-round selection, said his initial talks with the Brewers “went well.”

Although he threw in only one game this season, Jeff Hook of Newbury Park High was drafted as a pitcher in the 28th round by the Houston Astros.

Drafted in undisclosed late rounds were Newbury Park catcher Robert Fick (Oakland), Granada Hills shortstop Gary Matthews Jr. (Minnesota) and Westlake pitcher Rico Lagattuta (Padres).