After months of anticipation, it's finally time for MLB's amateur draft. This year's draft may not have the depth of last year’s class or the star power of a Bryce Harper or Stephen Strasburg, but it’ll likely produce its share of MLB talent in the coming years.
Last year's draft saw the Pirates select UCLA right-hander Gerrit Cole with the No. 1 overall pick. Early reports this year suggested that the Astros would select Stanford righty Mark Appel first overall, but Houston shocked most pundits by selecting Puerto Rican shortstop Carlos Correa. We'll use this post to track the news as it breaks.
Here's the draft order, from MLB.com, to be updated whenever a player agrees to terms:
- Houston Astros - Carlos Correa, SS, Puerto Rico Baseball Academy – signed for $4.8MM
- Minnesota Twins – Byron Buxton, OF, Appling County High School (Ga.) – signed for $6MM
- Seattle Mariners – Mike Zunino, C, Florida – signed for $4MM.
- Baltimore Orioles – Kevin Gausman, RHP, Louisiana State – agreed to sign for $4.32MM
- Kansas City Royals – Kyle Zimmer, RHP, San Francisco – signed for $3MM
- Chicago Cubs – Albert Almora, Mater Academy (Fla.) – agreed to sign for $3.9MM
- San Diego Padres – Max Fried, LHP, Harvard-Westlake High School (Calif.) – agreed to sign for $3MM
- Pittsburgh Pirates – Mark Appel, RHP, Stanford – did not reach an agreement
- Miami Marlins – Andrew Heaney, LHP, Oklahoma State – agreed to sign for $2.6MM
- Colorado Rockies – David Dahl, Oak Mountain High School (Ala.) – agreed to sign for $2.6MM
- Oakland Athletics – Addison Russell, SS, Pace High School (Fla.) – agreed to sign for $2.625MM
- New York Mets – Gavin Cecchini, SS, Barbe High School (La.) – agreed to sign for $2.3MM
- Chicago White Sox – Courtney Hawkins, OF, Carroll High School (Tex.) – agreed to sign for $2.475MM
- Cincinnati Reds – Nick Travieso, RHP, Archbishop McCarthy High School (Fla.) – agreed to sign for $2MM
- Cleveland Indians – Tyler Naquin, OF, Texas A&M – agreed to sign for $1.75MM
- Washington Nationals - Lucas Giolito, RHP, Harvard-Westlake High School (Calif.) – agreed to sign for $2.925MM
- Toronto Blue Jays – D.J. Davis, OF, Stone County High School (Miss.) – signed for $1.75MM
- Los Angeles Dodgers – Corey Seager, SS, Northwest Cabarrus High School (N.C.) - agreed to sign for $2.35MM
- St. Louis Cardinals – Michael Wacha, RHP, Texas A&M – agreed to sign for $1.9MM
- San Francisco Giants – Chris Stratton, RHP, Mississippi State – signed for $1.85MM
- Atlanta Braves – Lucas Sims, RHP, Brookwood High School (Ga.) – signed for $1.65MM
- Toronto Blue Jays – Marcus Stroman, RHP, Duke – signed for $1.8MM
- St. Louis Cardinals – James Ramsey, OF, Florida State – agreed to sign for $1.6MM
- Boston Red Sox – Deven Marrero, SS, Arizona State – agreed to sign for $2.05MM
- Tampa Bay Rays – Richie Shaffer, 1B/3B, Clemson – signed for $1.7125MM
- Arizona Diamondbacks – Stryker Trahan, C, Acadiana High School (La.) – agreed to sign for $1.7MM
- Milwaukee Brewers – Clint Coulter, C, Union High School (Wash.) – signed for $1.675MM
- Milwaukee Brewers – Victor Roache, OF, Georgia Southern – signed for $1.525MM
- Texas Rangers – Lewis Brinson, OF, Coral Springs High School (Fla.) – agreed to sign for $1.625MM
- New York Yankees – Ty Hensley, RHP, Santa Fe High School (Okla.) – signed for $1.2MM
- Boston Red Sox – Brian Johnson, LHP, Florida - signed for $1.575MM
for awhile i’ve been expecting this year’s draft to be pretty uninteresting. that changed quick
should still be allowed to trade draft picks though
MLB draft day is always interesting to me.. Especially when Boston and the Fish have several high picks.. Just hope both don’t make wasteful picks.
Edit:
Agreed on trading picks.. They had no trouble adding the useless slotting system, but no trading?
Gammons did a jam up job slamming the new slotting system and hope many here caught it.
I can’t believe Appel hasn’t gone yet. Hope he slips to 6 – I’d love to see him on the Cubs.
He’s still there at 5! One more spot to go!
Wow. I wonder if they get him now.
All the teams must have agreed that he’s unsignable.
Why do you think that? I hope he falls to Boston though.
I just hope that Appel didn’t get bruised too badly by his fall.
Do you have a writer helping you with your responses?
He’s there!
Shocking but the cubs will probably pass I WAS RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
yup interesting draft no doubt
Twins have a WIDE open chance to pick the best college pitcher available (whoever they think that is, in their evaluation) and they go with another “projectable, toolsy HS outfielder”.
You already have Span, Revere, Hicks, etc. WE NEED FREAKING PITCHING HELP YESTERDAY!!!
Ummm – by 2016, they may not need pitching. You take the best player available in the first round. You don’t draft a pitcher just because your current team lacks it. Span will be gone by July 31, let alone 2016. Hicks may never rise above AA. There are NO college pitchers in this draft who can make it to the major leagues before 2014.
Also – there are no flame-throwers available. Twins always draft pitch-to-contact types. Yes – we need MORE Blackburns and Pavanos. How’d the last two college pitcher #1s work out? Wimmers? Hurt and/or lost. Gibson? Tommy John surgery – never was going to be an ace anyway.
Gausman, Appel, and Zimmer can throw in the upper 90’s so I am unsure what a “flame-thrower” is to you. Also Pitch-to-contact means an ability throw strikes (command) not just sinker ball types like the name suggests. Most teams use a pitch to contact philosophy but the Twins pitchers just generate too much hard contact.
Of those three – only Zimmer reaches upper 90’s, and yet does not project to be a number 1 starter. No reason to waste the number 2 overall on a number 2 starter. You always take the best player on your board.
This is from KLaw on Appel: He’ll sit 94-97, touching 99…
he has No. 1 starter upside. Now Gausman:sitting 93-97 mph and touching 99…Gausman could be a No. 1 starter.
In fact Zimmer has the slowest speed according to Law and also the least consistent with his Velocity so I do not know where you got that Zimmer is the only one who reaches the high 90’s.
Of course you take the best player on your board and Buxton may have the highest upside but his bat is a big question mark. He is a high risk/high reward guy.
Wow Billy f is totally off board in what he is saying
Toolysy outfielders are overrated in my opinion. I’m sorry if this is harsh, but by seeing Buxton in his interview, his IQ didn’t look much higher than 50. Not like that is the biggest factor in evaluation but I often see these guys tools fail to develop.
I didn’t get a very good first impression of Buxton’s personality either. But then again, he’s just a kid on the biggest day of his life, who was basically handed a check for about 5-6 million dollars, and then was being asked to give an interview on national television while sitting in a sweltering hot room packed to the brim with family and friends. If we were put in that position, we’d likely clam up and sound dense, too. But we’ll never know.
Appel has to go to the Orioles or Royals. He’d be in the Royals starting rotation today.
Shows how much I know
Don’t feel too bad. I was hoping Correa was going to fall to the Orioles. That idea was quickly extinguished.
Also, I am disappointed that the Orioles took Gausman, I am not a big fan. The Orioles could have had the pick of the litter because no pitcher was taken till they did and they still picked Gausman.
Oh well..
With draft spending limits Gausman was the right pick. A lot of experts will tell you he was the right pick regardless. Personally I liked Almora there, but for a pitcher, Gausman is fine.
Is money the reason he is falling with the new limitations on spending??
I think it might be the money or that there are other position players who have higher upside (see: Buxton, Correa)
Not surprised or disappointed the M’s went with Zunino, but one thing I do find interesting is have the Mariners given up on Montero as their future starting Catcher already?
Does this make him the future DH for sure now, or does this kick Smoak to the curb and throw Montero at 1st?
Anyway I’m seeing it, as of now, shows me that there are some interesting trades (from a fans POV) in the Mariners not so distant future.
Ideally Smoak keeps hitting like he is and Montero becomes the full-time DH while catching 20-30 games a year. If Smoak winds up not working out, we’ve got a contingency. Should be an exciting couple of years as a Mariners fan with all these young guys coming up.
In two years we’d ideally have something like this:
C Zunino
1B Smoak
2B Ackley
SS Franklin
3B Seager
OF Saunders
OF ???
OF ???
DH Montero
SP Felix
SP Hultzen
SP Walker
SP Paxton
SP ???
Like the position players you’ve listed, but I’m personally a bit concerned with Felix and have been for a while. I’m not saying he won’t be lights out again, but I tend to think there may be something more going on other than a sore back.
Time will tell and I hope I’m wrong. I’ve always been a fan of Felix and I hope he has a long and productive career in Seattle.
Liddi?
It’s going to be a little while until Zunino is MLB ready, so alot can happen in between now and then, but I think he’d be moved to DH like Billy Butler did for Eric Hosmer. Good pick by Z.
I’d have to hazard a guess then that Jack, Wedge, and any others involved have already had that conversation with Montero, but one thing I’ve noticed is that Montero (as of now) is hitting much better on the days he catches.
Scouts have always questioned Jesus Montero’s durability as catcher. They have projected that Montero would move to first base long term.
I like the pick for the Mariners.
I guess Theo would go Appel
Keith Law on MLB Draft during ESPN’s Baseball Today Podcast – “You’re not going to bang a guy just on that, you’ll bang a kid if he’s got (hears it)… ‘bang’ meaning take him off the draft board or drop him down.” rofl
Hey Selig, it’s 2012. Not 2000.
Did he do it again?
Yep, I’m very happy about how well the farm has been rebuilt.
Can someone please explain to me why the M’s took that bust catcher as the 3rd overall pick? I hear hes an above average defender, but hitting under .260 with some pop in college is not what I want to see.. I know Olivo is gonna be gone after this year and I am happy about that but why wouldn’t they get Appel? I know the M’s are deep in pitching in the minors but it never hurts to have an almost MLB ready college pitcher. So Montero is going to be forever installed as our DH?
Their thinking is probably that Montero’s bat is good enough that we don’t want him to break down too early in his career. If he were a great defensive catcher it’d be a different story, but his ceiling defensively is average.
Ummm….. calm down dude. He took the BPA and got a good bat in that. Remember last year when we took Hultzen, and look how well that is for us now. I trust Z and the scouts.
Agreed. A good hitting Catcher is obviously something to be coveted by any team, but playing Catcher has more to it and specifically would be leadership and controlling/calling the game. He’s shown to be an excellent leader/director in his young career and that’s something Hultzen, Walker, and Paxton (projected) will all need.
Im calm, just saying… all we need is another bust catcher after Clement, I hope he develops into an all around catcher with above average pop + defense and good on base skills. Time will tell, I just dont like drafting a catcher that high, too many things can go wrong, but thats baseball.
Go M’s
Plus considering the first two picks went the way I didn’t want it to (Would rather of had Buxton or Correa), we did good.
100% agreed. The M’s, IMO would much of rather settled with Correa or Buxton, 2 positions we DESPERATELY need.
Do you not think Nick Franklin can stick at SS?
He’s been good, but if Correa works out to full potential I’d rather have him.
If he doesn’t, Liddi can play 3rd and Seager could play SS.
Appel to the Pirates
That rotation in 2-4 years… if all goes as planned it will be unfathomable as to how good it will be.
With pitchers all never goes as planned.
if the nats get appeal ill fall out lol
So much for hoping Appel slips miraculously to #24.. Now it’s hoping Strohman does…
You and I wanted the same thing and still want the same thing
How can you have an interview with a hot chick like that and not chat her up a bit..
Probably because you just got drafted and this is basically your intro to the baseball nation. Though I bet they are talking to her off camera.
Come on Shaffer to the A’s!
Shoot, Shaffer would’ve been a better pick
yepp, i would’ve liked schaffer to go to them in the compensation round but i knew that wasnt going to happen
I hope the Braves shake it up don’t want to see D.J Davis
Good for the Pirates, Steal pick, their going to have one hell of a rotation a couple years from now.
I still think Trevor Bauer is going to be better than Gerrit Cole.
They will all be pretty good barring injury.
Completely agree, although both will be good MLB pitchers.
Bauer won’t ever be good when he walks almost 5 per 9
They almost have a heck of a rotation right now Morton & Karstens need to stay healthy and boost performance and Correia needs to go for some good bats.
I don’t see any way the Pirates can sign Appel but I’d love for them to surprise me. I thought the new setup was supposed to prevent the best players from falling in the draft, and if he’s asking for their entire budget, I just don’t see how it will work out.
double post
This may be sort of a repost since my first got moderated. so it may or may not pop up later.
But, one of the reason these new rules are bad is that the player can hurt u if he signs and if he doesnt sign. He could ask for your entire budget, like you said. And if he does want that much, then u cant sign him and u lose his slots money and cant use it elsewhere.
It just doesnt make much sense to me.
Seems like we heard the same thing about Bell last year. The Pirates never fail to excite on draft day, that’s for sure.
Not sure how much leverage Appel really has though. Will he really want to go back for his senior year hoping to improve 4 spots next year? Seems like the draft is a little deeper next year too.
At least not lately. Remember when they signed Bullington pretty much because he was a cheap signing. It is nice to see the new regime is agressive.
However Bell was signed way overslot and with the new draft rules the Pirates may find that difficult.
Absolutely. I remember Bullington a little too well.. Him and Moskos over Wieters. Makes it hard to complain about anything Huntington does.
Will be interesting to see how everything plays out under this new system. Feels like the players shouldn’t have a whole lot of room to negotiate. Here’s what we’re allowed to pay you. End of story. Is it worth the gamble to try again next year to move inside the top 8? …but, it’s Boras – so who knows.
This whole draft is going to be a lot different than previous years. Over the last couple of years the teams with the best projected drafts were the ones who spent the most, we’re willing to give top 10 pick money to a guy picked in the supplemental round. However, with the new penalties…
Oh well, the truth is you never know who had the best draft until 3-4 years later.
Edit: Oh yeah, forgot about Moskos… there was NO rationale for that pick.
I saw little for Boston’s 1st 2 picks either.. Hope the #37 overall makes up for the 1st 2, otherwise this draft (top ones) could end up as rotten as 06.. Except there has not been any Bard type as was Bard who can throw hard selected.
Edit last time..
Seems have salvaged something with 1st 3 selections.. Pat Light is a very nice pick. Kind of surprised they didn’t go with Bard.. Maybe the injury was the issue.
“but, it’s Boras – so who knows.”
Assuming it’s a player who wants to make it to MLB, I don’t see Boras advising that kind of a move. Since there is only a couple million dollars of wiggle room PERIOD, I’d say in almost all cases the player would be better off starting their career a year younger. Maybe if we’re talking about a #50 who he thinks can be a top-10 talent or something along those lines, but moving up a couple positions probably isn’t worth it.
The real issue comes with multi-sport players, since they aren’t constrained by the system.
Bullington was a very long time ago before the Pirates started drafting for performance instead of low money. The Pirates realized that they needed to rebuild their system, not get a big name player in order to win. Therefore, they will drop big money for Appel.
If the Pirates do sign him, do you think he can be in Pittsburgh by the end of the year. Or Midseason 2013?
Just curious because I didn’t read much about him.
I’d guess 2014. Will probably move about the same pace as Cole – just a year behind.
So I guess we can say he was a sour Appel of the bunch.
How long were you working on that one?
couple years.
At least you didn’t say the Appel fell far from the tree.
Appel probably fell because he’s got the personality of a wet paper towel. He’s not a number one starter anyway.
No deception in his delivery. To me, he’s a #2-#3 type starter and that’s not the guy you waste a #1 pick on. (not waste but you know what I mean).
I want Gilito to fall to 24
Interesting, of the first 13 picks, 7 are hs guys and then Correa from PR. Only 5 College guys, so teams are taking risks early on.
I think Zunino is going to be great. 150 home runs, .280 batting average. Hall of famer. Definitely the rookie of the year.
Wow, that would more than double the HR record. Nice.
Great pick by the nationals. He could be one of the best in the bigs. An injury won’t hold him that far back. He’ll average 16 wins, 3.50 ERA, and 150 Ks a year. What a rotation this will be.
I think he will be a great pitcher too, really hoping he fell to the Red Sox considering his high ceiling, but he’s the type of player the Nationals would go after.
It is sooooo nationals to take him. Especially with their history of arm injuries lately
Gotta believe the Nats plan to go over their cap and sacrifice next year’s 1st rounder with that pick.
I find that highly unlikely, and am going to flat out say that is not going to happen. If he wants too much, simply dont sign him and get the compensatory the next year.
With the rumors of Boras trying to get Appel to fall all the way down to the Nationals, then I have a feeling that they are prepared to bust their cap this year. The Gio pick still falls in line with that. With the Nats likely getting a later round pick next year anyway, it might not be a bad idea.
They were so impressed by the Gio they had, they were forced to go get another Gio
I don’t know why everyone is so surprised. Isaac Newton predicted Appel’s fall ages ago.
Amazing.
Dj davis, Rajai Davis. Great speed
Ladies & Gentleman, I present the great Logan White to perform his next act of magic…
Well both predicted for the Braves are out
I await Peter Gammons’ next article on Deven Marrero, a future first ballot HOFer
Lol, sorry Sox fans I had to. I remember Gammons making tweets a few months ago comparing Iglesias to the Wizard and Vizquel.
The Astros are quickly making a middle infield problem. Mier (who can become something good) at SS, Correa (possibly) at SS (I see 3B written all over him), DeShields at 2B, Altuve at 2B, Paredes at anywhere in the infield west of 1B. I like this problem.
Appel: “I’m currently concentrating on winning a national championship and finishing my academic endeavors at Stanford. I will address the possibility of a professional career in due time.” Per Jon Heyman on Twitter.
He can’t be thrilled. He lost millions tonight falling so far with the new system.
Think he’ll stay back another year?
I doubt it. I don’t think he has much to gain. Will still have the same slotting system next year and I think the talent pool will be a little deeper. Would be a big risk and wouldn’t gain too much unless he went top 3 next year.
I think the Pirates will get him signed, and I don’t think they will have to go much over slot if at all.
Also worth mentioning, this is what Appel tweeted after being selected:
“Just feeling completely overwhelmed by the love of family and friends and the grace of God right now. #TrulyBlessed#Undeserving”
I’m thinking the other statement came more from Boras than Appel.
Was really hoping Victor Roache would somehow slip to the Pirates at #45.
very many teams were appel’d by his signability jajajaa
MLB Network just had a good story about Albert Almora on, he seems like a hard worker & he seems dedicated to pursue a life in baseball
I’m happier with our Reyes compensation than our 12th overall pick.
When will Nelson Rodriguez get drafted?