2015 MLB Draft

[Maclowery]

18th Round (#551): Joshua Rolette C Shawnee HS (OK) - HS
19th Round (#581): Ryan McCarvel C Howard College (TX) - J2
20th Round (#611): Luke Doyle 2B Yavapai Col (AZ) - J2
21st Round (#641): Cadyn Grenier SS Bishop Gorman HS (NV) - HS ... Ranked #136 by MLB.com

Nevada high school powerhouse Bishop Gorman has produced more than its fair share of prospects, the most recent being Rangers slugger Joey Gallo. Grenier doesn't have that kind of upside, but his combination of tools and makeup will have many teams interested in the top five rounds. An athletic shortstop in high school, Grenier does have a pretty solid feel to hit. He makes consistent hard contact and can spray line drives to all fields. Power isn't a part of his game, but he has some extra-base ability. The Oregon State commit has very good speed that should allow him to be a threat on the bases as well as give him good range in the infield. He's a solid defender with an average arm, though whether he's an everyday shortstop in the future remains to be seen. All of Grenier's tools play up because of his instincts, his aggressiveness and his work ethic, a combination many teams will want to add to their organization.

Little bastard has to become Edgar Renteria with so much grit you can light a match on him for me to have respect for a professional named Cadyn.

[Swirls]

31st Round (#941): Aaron Coates LHP Glasgow HS (DE) - HS

[MrCrowesGarden]

Get one of Brown, Molnar or Grenier to sign and its a good haul.

[phins]

Grenier has the best chance to sign- also the lowest ceiling. We also took Carson Kelly's little brother Parker, who most expected to hit, as a pitcher. Of course that's hilarious because many expected Carson to pitch, and we had him hit.

Molnar is not signing. Get that pipedream out the window. He's a comp round arm that fell, along with Hooper, because they're going to UCLA.

Traver is a guy who just might sign, and that's an awesome grab for them in my mind. He's got legitimate major league stuff and can really help a bullpen if he stays healthy. Mountain of a man as well. I really like him.

[phins]

Vierling is a very good two-way player. He's a better bat, but he loves to pitch. I think there's next to no chance he doesn't make it to Notre Dame. He's rated the #1 recruit in the state, though he didn't win the Gatorade POY award (Missouri State recruit Jeremy Eiermann did).

Brusa is a kid that will most likely sign, though it's not a lock or anything.

Chinea is a solid player, though I don't think he's actually a C at the big league level. Am I wrong in that LSU has another guy actually catching now? I thought they did and Chinea was more of a DH etc. I do almost all of these types of posts off memory, so I could just be completely off here.

Ryan Merrill is a kid committed to TCU and has a ton of talent. Iowa Western is the LSU of Juco baseball and he performed very well there. I like that kid a lot. He's a very tough sign though.

Salazar, Schlesener, Brusa, Merrill, Vierling, Traver, Molnar, Rolette, Grenier, and Parker Kelly. There is just no way they sign even half of these guys. No way to do it.

I've been impressed with what they're doing though, they are not simply going cheap after the 12th and trying to horde money. They have taken a bunch of guys that they're going to have to give the full 100k to just to sign even as college players. Brusa, Traver, Chinea are all going to take at least that much to sign, and possibly quite a bit more.

Vierling wants to go to school. Schlesener is a kid dreaming of Arkansas. Rolette is a kid said to want to go to school. Molnar is not signing. Kelly might've been just to get him off the board as a favor to his brother. Salazar will sign.

We took a lot of talent in this draft. A LOT of talent. July 15th will be the date that makes or breaks this draft, but from a talent standpoint, we took a lot of guys with the actual ability to get to the big leagues a lot more often than we generally do. That's all well and good, but now we have to get them signed.

[MrCrowesGarden]

You aren't joking about Iowa Western. I loved watching the Reivers when I lived in Omaha.

Anyhow, like phins said, we grabbed lots of talent potential in a thin draft. If we get lucky and sign a third of these guys, we did very well.

[a_smith]

One random thought (Note: I dont think they are doing this, but it could be interesting if they did)
One explanation for why they took a whole crap ton of talented guys who need money to sign is that they are planning on signing them all. They say screw the budget sign them all. They pay the fine and lose picks.
The cost is the lost picks and extra money. The upside is that they get a whole bunch of talent into the system.

[JCShutout]

One random thought (Note: I dont think they are doing this, but it could be interesting if they did)
One explanation for why they took a whole crap ton of talented guys who need money to sign is that they are planning on signing them all. They say screw the budget sign them all. They pay the fine and lose picks.
The cost is the lost picks and extra money. The upside is that they get a whole bunch of talent into the system.

True. If you think these guys are worth the expected lost pics and money, then you go for it. Infuse the minors with some talent that hopefully produces the next core contender 5 or so years from now. (5 ish, right?)

I don't know what next year's draft or whatnot looks like, but it all sounds exciting.

[phins]

The 2016 draft is looking like the best of the past five years for college talent. The high school talent looks outstanding, and that's before these guys pop up on the radar (some high school kids literally popped up on the radar a few weeks ago).

This isn't the draft to go bat shart crazy on signing guys and blow the budget. At least, IMHO.

[JCShutout]

Then I back off on that assumption. Get whatever talented guys you can on budget, and call it a draft.