Tonight is Major League Baseball's amateur draft. Who will the Mets take, and is he any good? We'll discuss that and more tonight.
Happy Rule 4 Day, everyone!
Tonight is Day 1 of baseball’s amateur draft, with Days 2 and 3 coming tomorrow, June 6, and Saturday, June 7. Tonight’s action covers the first, the supplemental, and second rounds of the draft, though the Mets have just one pick--number 10 overall--during those rounds thanks to the Curtis Granderson signing. The tenth pick is nothing to sneeze at and could mean another impact addition to the Mets’ minor league system.
For those who don’t know, the following amateur players are eligible to be drafted:
- All college juniors and seniors
- College freshmen and sophomores at four-year programs who are at least 21 years of age at the time of the draft
- All junior college players, regardless of age
- High school seniors
All draftees except college seniors need to sign by July 18 before they become ineligible for signing and automatically re-enter the draft.
Furthermore, teams are all limited in how much they can spend on their draft classes. Each team is allotted a recommended spending pool based upon where they’re picking and how many picks they have. Any team that exceeds its spending pool by less than five percent will face a tax. However, overspending by more than five percent results in the forfeiture of a future first-round pick, overspending by more than ten percent results in the forfeiture of a first- and a second-round pick, and overspending by more than 15 percent results in the forfeiture of two first-rounders. In other words, no one will overspend. The Mets have been allotted $5,308,300.
The draft begins at 7:00 p.m. EST, but you’ll find coverage on MLB Network beginning at 6:00. I’ll be hosting a live draft chat here in this open thread around the same time, which will extend throughout the draft and perhaps beyond. Please join us!
But in the meantime, we’ve featured plenty of draft content over the past two weeks for your perusal, including numerous draft prospect previews. You’ll find all of it below, along with my final top 30 draft prospects for 2014.
Alex’s Top 30 Draft Prospects
- Brady Aiken, LHP, Cathedral Catholic H.S.
- Carlos Rodon, LHP, North Carolina State
- Tyler Kolek, RHP, Shepherd H.S.
- Alex Jackson, OF/C, Rancho Bernardo H.S.
- Nick Gordon, SS, Olympia H.S.
- Kyle Freeland, LHP, Evansville [AA Profile]
- Max Pentecost, C, Indiana [AA Profile]
- Jeff Hoffman, RHP, East Carolina [AA Profile]
- Touki Toussaint, RHP, Coral Springs Christian H.S. [AA Profile]
- Kyle Schwarber, C/1B, Indiana [AA Profile]
- Aaron Nola, RHP, Louisiana State
- Grant Holmes, RHP, Conway H.S.
- Trea Turner, SS, North Carolina State [AA Profile]
- Sean Newcomb, LHP, Hartford [AA Profile]
- Luis Ortiz, RHP, Sanger H.S.
- Erick Fedde, RHP, UNLV [AA Profile]
- Michael Chavis, 3B/2B, Sprayberry H.S.
- Michael Conforto, OF, Oregon State [AA Profile]
- Derek Hill, OF, Elk Grove H.S.
- Braxton Davidson, OF/1B, Roberson H.S.
- Bradley Zimmer, OF, San Francisco [AA Profile]
- Brandon Finnegan, LHP, TCU [AA Profile]
- Tyler Beede, RHP, Vanderbilt [AA Profile]
- Casey Gillaspie, 1B, Wichita State
- Monte Harrison, OF, Lee’s Summit West H.S.
- Scott Blewett, RHP, Baker H.S.
- Bryce Montes de Oca, RHP, Lawrence H.S.
- Sean Reid-Foley, RHP, Sandalwood H.S.
- Jacob Gatewood, SS/3B, Clovis H.S. [AA Profile]
- Forrest Wall, 2B, Orangewood Christian H.S.
Additional Profiles: Kodi Medeiros
Personally, I’d be reasonably happy--or perhaps I should say I wouldn’t be particularly unhappy--if the Mets took anyone at 14 or above on my list. And I probably wouldn’t scream very much if they took Ortiz, Fedde, or Chavis, but I don’t think there’s any chance of that happening. I’d be able to swallow the Mets taking Conforto, but it would take some time.
Check out Chris McShane’s draft primer. Additionally, Chris and Jeff Paternostro wrote a truly outstanding draft retrospective of the Sandy Alderson front office’s drafts.
I co-hosted a draft preview podcast with fellow draftniks Jeff Paternostro and Steve Sypa.
Finally, if there’s anything I missed, you can always find it on Amazin’ Avenue’s MLB draft page, where you’ll also find past scouting reports and analysis.
Remember to please come back here if you’d like to talk draft--unfortunately the draft happens during the Mets game this year, so we’ll be running two open threads at once. And either way, I’ll have my scouting report on the Mets’ first pick up shortly after the pick is made, with 38 other scouting reports to follow over the next week or so.