2015 Compilation MLB Draft Board #2

by: Ben Embry

This compilaton board is something I like to do to stay up on who the big names are in the draft pool. What I do is take rankings from 6 different sources that I trust the most on the subject of draft prospects and I compile them into one board. And honestly, it is very difficult to find a lot of information on the MLB Draft on the internet, at least compared to the more popular NFL and NBA Drafts. The MLB Draft is more niche-y, so if anything I'd like to consider what I do a service to those other MLB draftniks out there who are looking for some good information.

Rnk	Name	Pos	School
1	Brendan Rodgers	SS	H.S.
2	Dillon Tate	SP	UC Santa B
3	Dansby Swanson	SS	Vandy
4	Alex Bregman	SS/2B	LSU
5	Kyle Funkhouser	SP	Louisville
6	Mike Nikorak	SP	H.S.
7	Walker Buehler	SP	Vandy
8	Kyle Tucker	OF	H.S.
9	Ian Happ	2B/OF	Cincinnati
10	Kolby Allard	SP	H.S.
11	Trenton Clark	OF	H.S.
12	Daz Cameron	OF	H.S.
13	Nick Plummer	OF	H.S.
14	Kevin Newman	SS	Arizona
15	Nathan Kirby	SP	Virginia
16	Carson Fulmer	SP	Vandy
17	Michael Matuella	SP	Duke
18	Brady Aiken	SP	IMG Acad
19	Phil Bickford	SP	JUCO
20	Jonathan Harris	SP	Mo. State
21	Ashe Russell	SP	H.S.
22	Cody Ponce	SP	Cal Poly P
23	Tyler Jay	RP	Illinois
24	Garrett Whitley	OF	H.S.
25	Chris Betts	C	H.S.
26	James Kaprielian	SP	UCLA
27	Dakota Chalmers	SP	H.S.
28	Donny Everett	SP	H.S.
29	Justin Hooper	SP	H.S.
30	Cornelius Randolph	3B	H.S.
31	Ke'Bryan Hayes	3B	H.S.
32	Beau Burrows	SP	H.S.
33	D.J. Stewart	OF	Fla State
34	Kyler Murray	SS	H.S.
35	Richie Martin	SS	Florida
36	Kyle Cody	SP	Kentucky
37	Juan Hillman	SP	H.S.
38	Austin Smith	SP	H.S.
39	Alonzo Jones	2B/OF	H.S.
40	Jalen Miller	SS	H.S.
41	Riley Ferrell	RP	TCU
42	Alex Young	SP	TCU
43	Mitchell Hansen	OF	H.S.
44	Eric Jenkins	OF	H.S.
45	Demi Orimoloye	OF	H.S.
46	Chandler Day	SP	H.S.
47	Triston McKenzie	SP	H.S.
48	Scott Kingery	2B/OF	Arizona
49	Kep Brown	OF	H.S.
50	Chris Shaw	1B/OF	Boston Col
51	Bryce Denton	OF/3B	H.S.
52	Jacob Nix	SP	IMG Acad
53	Drew Finley	SP	H.S.
54	Tyler Stephenson	C	H.S.
55	Joe McCarthy	OF	Virginia
56	Kyle Molnar	SP	H.S.
57	Blake Trahan	SS	La Lafayette
58	Donnie Dewees	OF	UNF
59	Andrew Benintendi	OF	Arkansas
60	Tristan Beck	SP	H.S.
61	Cole Sands	SP	H.S.
62	Chad Smith	SP	H.S.
63	Luken Baker	SP/1B	H.S.
64	Brady Singer	SP	H.S.
65	Jacob Woodford	SP	H.S.
66	Josh Staumont	SP	Azusa Pac.
67	Kyle Holder	SS	San Diego
68	Ryan Cole McKay	SP	H.S.
69	Nick Neidert	SP	H.S.
70	Mikey White	SS	Alabama
71	Tyler Nevin	3B	H.S.
72	David Thompson	3B	Miami
73	Thomas Eshelman	SP	Cal State F
74	Andrew Suarez	SP	Miami
75	Jahmai Jones	2B/OF	H.S.
76	Blake Hickman	P	Iowa
77	Gio Brusa	OF	Pacific
78	Peter Lambert	SP	H.S.
79	Kevin Collard	OF	H.S.
80	Brandon Koch	P	Dallas Bapt
81	Mitchell Traver	SP	TCU
82	Brendon Little	SP	H.S.
83	Jake Lemoine	SP	Houston
84	Marcus Brakeman	SP	Stanford
85	Justin Garza	RP	Cal State F
86	Josh Naylor	1B	H.S.
87	Harrison Bader	OF	Florida
88	Andrew Stevenson	OF	LSU
89	Greg Pickett	OF	H.S.
90	Joe DeMers	SP	H.S.
91	Nick Shumpert	SS	H.S.
92	Cadyn Grenier	SS	H.S.
93	Luke Lowery	C/1B	ECU
94	Doak Dozier	OF	H.S.
95	Ryan Johnson	OF	H.S.
96	Michael Hickman	C	H.S.
97	Skye Bolt	OF	UNC
98	Ryan Mountcastle	3B	H.S.
99	Tate Matheny	OF	Mo. State
100	Mac Marshall	SP	JUCO
101	Ryan Burr	SP	Ariz St
102	Cole Irvin	SP	Oregon
103	C.J. Hinojosa	SS	Texas
104	John Aiello	SS	H.S.
105	Steven Duggar	OF	Clemson
106	Grayson Long	SP	Texas A&M
107	Justin Looper	SP/1B	H.S.
108	Brett Lilek	RP	Ariz St
109	Christin Stewart	OF	Tennessee
110	A.J. Simcox	SS	Tennessee
111	Jonas Wyatt	SP	H.S.
112	Taylor Ward	C	Fresno St
113	Thomas Szapuski	SP	H.S.
114	Corey Zangari	SP	H.S.
115	Daniel Reyes	OF	H.S.
116	Garrett Wolforth	C	H.S.
117	Nolan Kingham	SP	H.S.
118	Eric Hanhold	RP	Florida
119	Tyler Ferguson	SP	Vandy
120	Kyle Twomey	P	USC
121	Kyle Dean	OF	H.S.
122	Kyri Washington	OF	Longwood
123	Mark Mathias	2B	Cal Poly P
124	Ryan Perez	SP	H.S.
125	Gray Fenter	SP	H.S.

There are two common themes with this draft right now:

 

1. Injuries, Injuries, Injuries

So far Brady Aiken, Michael Matuella, Kolby Allard, Nathan Kirby, and Gio Brusa have sustained notable injuries. The first two, Aiken and Matuella, were possible 1-1 guys and Allard was probably the best HS arm in the draft. Aiken's rankings across the board were mostly hedges; he'll possibly still go top 10 if his medicals check out and if they don't, he could be out of the first round all together. Matuella's injuries are more straight forward, but his track record of just 141 IP in 3 yrs of college, (including summer ball), isn't much for scouts to hang their hat on. With Allard, his season-ending back injury could be enough to get him to 16, since he's been passed by at least 1 HS arm.

2. Lack of Consensus

The buzz you keep hearing is that draft boards are varying wildly.  The lack of consensus among teams could cause a lot of deal cutting in the early going.

Top of the Draft

The top 3 players seem to be Brendan Rodgers, Dillon Tate, and Dansby Swanson.  Among the various inputs, Rodgers was #1 on all of them, Swanson was #3 on all of them, and Tate was #2 on all of them except Keith Law's board where he was #4, (Law had Kevin Newman #2). Alex Bregman at 4 and Kyle Funkhouser at 5 were both consensus top 10 rankings.

Interesting Tidbits

- Kevin Newman is the most divisive player in the first round with rankings ranging from 2 to 28 and hitting all points in between.

- Carson Fulmer was ranked 6-7 on every board except for Keith Law, who ranked him 43. So while you see Fulmer at 16, (Yankee territory!), I wouldn't bet on him making it there. Law has said Fulmer has "no chance" of starting in the pros due to his delivery and arm action. This reminds me of when Law left Luis Severino off his top 100 prospect rankings this year citing his opinion Severino is destined for the bullpen. He's been rumored with multiple teams in the top 10 including Boston at 7, who drafted him out of HS and almost gave him a million dollars then according to Kiley McDaniel.

- There are 17 starting pitching prospects in the top 30. I'll go into more detail about this below, but this is a good thing for the Yankees considering their organizational needs.

- The biggest risers from the first ranking are Kevin Newman, (49 to 14), Jonathan Harris, (53 to 20), Dillon Tate, (30 to 2), and Kyle Tucker, (28 to 8).

- The biggest fallers were Jake Lemoine, (21 to 83), Gio Brusa, (33 to 77), and Skye Bolt, (54 to 97). I believe injuries are all playing a factor here. Skye Bolt was a stud his freshman year at UNC and looked like a sure fire early pick. It'd be cool if NYY graves him in the 3rd and he was able to return to form.

- Kyle Funkhouser and Austin Smith were models of consistency, staying exactly where they were at from the beginning.  Pop up guys, (new to the board), include Dakota Chalmers, Jalen Miller, Eric Jenkins, and Scott Kingery.

Yankee Needs

Looking at my prospect rankings spreadsheet the other day, I realized just how position player heavy it was. There are 83 guys on that list right now and amazingly only 30 of them are pitchers. That's just a little bit better than 1/3, which is crazy. What makes it worse, in my mind, is that only 8 of those 30 pitchers were born in 1994 or later. So there are almost no good young pitchers in the lower levels, (except for Austin DeCarr). That's due to two reasons: 1. NYY didn't sign a single HS pitcher last year, (I don't count DeCarr bc he was post grad) and 2. Out of the 18 players they gave a bonus of $100,000 or more in last summer's IFA class, not a single one was a pitcher.

With that in mind, I would like to see NYY draft a lot of pitching this year. For the first 5 rounds it would still be prudent as always to draft best player available, but for the Yankees' sake I hope that happens to be pitching. And I'm hoping to see 2 or 3 late round over slot signings of young HS pitchers. Those kids are usually super volatile talent-wise but MAN they can they payoff big. By going just $100,000+ over slot they could unearth some diamonds like Brady Lail or Bryan Mitchell. 

First Round Possibilities

If the board above holds to form, it looks like Yankees will be picking between college pitching and HS OF'ers with the 16th pick. That's fine with me, though they did stock up on expensive OF bats last July 2 so the rookie league outfields could get a little crowded. I'm especially intrigued by the idea of taking Aiken, Matuella, or Allard, the possibility of which seems to keep growing.  The only caveat to that would be they shouldn't go over slot by more than $750,000 or so; that would probably cause New York to have to cut into their next two slots too much to prevent them from going chalk in these picks. It could also prevent them from signing some overslot pitchers in the later rounds that I previously advocated for.

The 30th pick is way more fluid obviously. They could possibly go with Florida State LF DJ Stewart there, who they've drafted previously. I also like Canadian HS OF Demi Orimoloye.  Texas HS OF Kyler Murray is a tremendous talent and athlete but was one of the top HS QB recruits this year and will be tough to wrangle away from Texas A&M.

For the 2nd round I love Arkansas CF Andrew Benintendi but I read today in Kiley McDaniels' chat he heard from a friend, (likely in the Yankees organization since he used to work there), that is convinced they'll take LSU CF Andrew Stevenson. Hopefully that's a second round pick because any sooner seems like a real reach.

Ok that's all for today. The draft is 34 days from today, so we're getting into that area where rumors of teams interested in certain players begin surfacing mocks start getting good. I'll do 1 more rankings right before the draft and will do my annual "Where are they now?" blog where I check in on former unsigned Yankees draftees. Have a good day!