2014 MLB Draft Compilation Board #3

by: Ben Embry

It's been a while since Spring has sprung and we're starting to head into the home stretch of amateur baseball seasons.  Some HS teams' seasons are already over and the college offseason will be here soon.  The MLB Draft is a little over a month away and draft boards are taking shape...kinda. While it's becoming more clear who the best 50 to 100 to 200 players are, the order in which they'll be picked in the beginning is VERY unclear. The consensus #1 player heading into the year, NC State LHP Carlos Rodon, has been kinda disapointing.  He ceded the top spot to young high school LHP Brady Aiken from the San Diego area not long after my last comp board was published.  Since then, he's had 2 pretty good outings and suddenly it's a race between him, Aiken, and Texas RHP Tyler Kolek.  East Carolina RHP Jeff Hoffman had been in the mix but some arm troubles has taken him out of that mix (for now).

 

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.

My previous board can be found here.  Here's the third board for the 2014 draft:

 

Rnk	Name	Pos	School
1	Brady Aiken	SP	H.S.
2	Tyler Kolek	SP	H.S.
3	Carlos Rodon	SP	NC State
4	Jeff Hoffman	SP	E Carolina
5	Alex Jackson	C	H.S.
6	Tyler Beede	SP	Vandy
7	Nick Gordon	SS	H.S.
8	Aaron Nola	SP	LSU
9	Grant Holmes	SP	H.S.
10	Bradley Zimmer	OF	San Fran
11	Brandon Finnegan	SP	TCU
12	Trea Turner	SS	NC State
13	Sean Newcomb	SP	Hartford
14	Kyle Schwarber	C/1B	Indiana
15	Michael Conforto	OF	Oregon St
16	Michael Chavis	3B	H.S.
17	Touki Toussaint	SP	H.S.
18	Max Pentecost	C	Kensaw St
19	Jacob Gatewood	SS	H.S.
20	Luis Ortiz	SP	H.S.
21	Luke Weaver	SP	Florida St
22	Sean Reid-Foley	SP	H.S.
23	Michael Gettys	OF/SP	H.S.
24	Erick Fedde	SP	UNLV
25	Kyle Freeland	SP	Evansville
26	Braxton Davidson	1B	H.S.
27	Derek Fisher	OF	Virginia
28	Monte Harrison	OF	H.S.
29	Kodi Medeiros	SP	H.S.
30	Scott Blewett	SP	H.S.
31	Marcus Wilson	OF	H.S.
32	Foster Griffin	SP	H.S.
33	Mac Marshall	SP	H.S.
34	Casey Gillaspie	1B	Wichita St
35	Mike Papi	OF/1B	Virginia
36	Jacob Bukauskas	SP	H.S.
37	Cameron Varga	SP	H.S.
38	Derek Hill	OF	H.S.
39	Nick Burdi	RP	Louisville
40	Forrest Wall	2B	H.S.
41	Alex Verdugo	SP/OF	H.S.
42	Spencer Adams	SP	H.S.
43	Matt Imhof	SP	Cal Poly
44	Matt Chapman	3B	CS Fuller.
45	Alex Blandino	3B	Stanford
46	Michael Kopech	SP	H.S.
47	Ti'quan Forbes	SS	H.S.
48	Dylan Cease	SP	H.S.
49	Jackson Reetz	C	H.S.
50	A.J. Reed	1B/SP	Kentucky
51	Taylor Sparks	3B	UC Irvine
52	Milton Ramos	SS	H.S.
53	Chase Vallot	C	H.S.
54	Jack Flaherty	SS/P	H.S.
55	Chris Oliver	SP	Arkansas
56	Zech Lemond	SP	Rice
57	Justus Sheffield	SP	H.S.
58	J.J. Schwarz	C	H.S.
59	Joey Gatto	SP	H.S.
60	Andrew Suarez	SP	Miami (FL)
61	Matt Railey	OF	H.S.
62	Jacob Nix	SP	H.S.
63	Jake Godfrey	SP	H.S.
64	Jake Stinnett	SP	Maryland
65	Jacob Lindgren	SP	Miss. St.
66	Sean Bouchard	3B	H.S.
67	Garrett Fulencheck	SP	H.S.
68	Keaton McKinney	SP	H.S.
69	Jordan Brink	SP	Fresno St
70	Sam Travis	1B	Indiana
71	Michael Cederoth	RP	SD State
72	Brian Anderson	2B/OF	Arkansas
73	Greg Deichmann	3B	H.S.
74	Keith Weisenberg	SP	H.S.
75	Chris Ellis	SP	Ole Miss
76	Brett Graves	SP	Mizzou
77	Evan Skoug	C	H.S.
78	Bobby Bradley	1B	H.S.
79	Ryder Ryan	3B	H.S.
80	Cody Reed	SP	H.S.
81	Spencer Turnbull	SP	Alabama
82	Josh Morgan	3B	H.S.
83	Turner Larkins	SP	H.S.
84	Bryce Montes de Oca	SP	H.S.
85	Cobi Johnson	SP	H.S.
86	J.D. Davis	SP/1B	CS Fuller.
87	Dylan Davis	SP/OF	Oregon St
88	Austin Davis	SP	CS Baker.
89	Jeren Kendall	OF	H.S.
90	Tate Blackman	2B	H.S.
91	Stone Garrett	OF	H.S.
92	Kel Johnson	OF	H.S.
93	Luke Bonfield	SP/OF	H.S.
94	Lane Thomas	OF	H.S.
95	Chad Sobotka	SP	SC Upstate
96	Grayson Greiner	C	South Car
97	Travis Jones	OF	H.S.
98	Dillon Peters	SP	Texas
99	Jake Cosart	SP	JUCO
100	Scott Heineman	OF	Oregon

The Yankees currently have the 55th pick, with a slot of about $1.02 million.  In theory, they should wind up with 2 guys off this list.  In the 50-60 range, you see a few high school kids, which I don't think would be a bad way to go.  Based on what talent they have in the system, a HS OF would work.  HS pitchers are never a bad way to go.  I'd advocate for some college pitching because our pitching depth has been shrinking, but generally the pickings get slim in that area after the first round, (if not sooner).  They can afford to stay away from advanced catchers and outfielders, and young infielders based on what they did last year and what they're working on in the international free agent class, (although it never hurts to get a good young SS if they're available).

I want to make sure I give credit where credit's due, that being the six writers/publications I use to assemble my board.  Some are subscription based, some are free.  I encourage everyone to check them all out.  They are:

Big League Futures (Kevin Gallo, Matt Grabusky)

Baseball America (various writers)

ESPN (Keith Law)

MLB.com (Jim Callis, Jon Mayo)

Scouting Baseball (Kiley McDaniel)

MLB Draft Insider (Chris Crawford)

My next board will be available at the end of May.  At that point I'll have enough info to do a deep dive on some of the top prospects and some guys that are being predicted for New York.  You can expect a lot of changes and the board will get to 250 at that point; I actually have 123 names now but I don't like odd numbers like that so I cut it off at 100.

Email me or hit me up on twitter with any questions: info@thebronxempire.com or @thebronxempire.  Have a good day!