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MLB Draft Day 2 Recap

I'm not sure yesterday's 10 hour long conference call could have gone any better for us.

By Andrew VU '04
Rich Schultz/Getty Images

The MLB draft is often bittersweet, as fans are put through the emotional ringer of cheering for the junior and senior players who got drafted, knowing they'll likely not be back next year, and the frustration of having the jewels of the recruiting class snatched away by MLB teams before they can ever suit up at The Hawk.  Of course, for the Touki Toussaints and Justus Sheffields who never were, there are high profile players like Dansby Swanson, Carson Fulmer, Walker Buehler, Tyler Beede, David Price, Pedro Alvarez, Sonny Gray, and on and on who spurn the guaranteed money in favor of the best college experience in baseball.

For the TL;DR crowd, I'll allow our friend at When It Strikes Me to sum up the good news regarding the draft and our recruiting class:

Going into day 2 of the draft, Vandy had three players selected in the first round (Swanson #1, Fulmer #8, Buehler #24) and three commits chosen in the supplemental 1st round-2nd round (Watson, McKenzie, and Denton).  For a recap of Day 1, click here.

On Day 2, MLB teams chose risk/reward pitchers and under-slot college seniors almost exclusively.  Towards round 8-10, some MLB teams chose high school players viewed as mild signing risks (see the Phillies taking Mississippi State commit Greg Picket who now has "no idea what [he's] going to do"), but most continued to take low risk, low money college seniors so they would be able to afford the players selected in their top 3 rounds.

How does this affect Vanderbilt?  Let's go ahead and update my list...

Players who might be selected (BA Top 500 rank in parentheses):

1. OF Rhett Wiseman (88) *Chosen pick 103 of the 3rd round by the Washington Nationals

2. RHP Tyler Ferguson (186) *Chosen pick 168 of the 6th round by the Texas Rangers

3. LHP Philip Pfeifer (195) *Chosen pick 101 of the 3rd round by the Los Angeles Dodgers

4. LHP John Kilichowski (256)

5. 3B Xaver Turner (404)

6. Zander Wiel (NR) *Day 3 Update: Chosen pick 250 of the 12th round by the Minnesota Twins

Commits who might be selected (BA Top 500 rank in parentheses):

1. RHP Donny Everett (21)

2. SS Alonzo Jones (64)

3. RHP Chandler Day (78)

4. OF Darryl "D.J." Wilson (178) *Chosen pick 113 of the 4th round by the Chicago Cubs

5. OF Reggie Pruitt (200)

6. 3B Julian Infante (318)

7. LHP Evan Steele (319)

8. 2B/SS Ethan Paul (320)

9. RHP Matthew McGarry (364)

10. RHP Patrick Raby (389)

11. SS Connor Kaiser (NR)

12. OF Stephen Scott (NR)

13. OF Walker Grisanti (NR)

14. LHP A.J. Franklin (NR)

We're not completely out of the woods yet, as even though slot value for Round 11+ picks is $100,000 or less, there is a slight loophole - whatever money is left-over from the Rounds 1-10 bonus pool for signed players may be applied to anyone in Round 11+.  To make it more complicated, if a team does not sign any of their Round 1-10 picks, they lose the money attributed to their slot value from their overall bonus pool.  In simple terms, the only way a team could make a big run at one of our as of yet undrafted commits is if they signed pretty much all of their Round 1-10 picks at a deep discount.  For example, if a team selects RHP Donny Everett in, say, round 31, they could still throw $1,000,000+ at him, provided they have at least that much left by signing multiple players to below slot deals.  However, it is believed Everett's asking price is $2,000,000+, so that won't be easy.  Further, if this was a team's strategy, why not just pick him in rounds 8-10, after you've punted on the bulk of your draft class by signing enough <$10,000 college seniors to save up the $2 million or so needed to make a serious run at him?

In other words, though we're not out of the woods until July 15th, there's a really good chance most, if not all, of the as of yet undrafted commits will be suiting up at The Hawk next season.  This is something to be ecstatic about, people.  With Everett, expect something similar to what we got out of Jordan Sheffield.  With Day, expect another Kyle Wright.  And on and on...

You have to believe our Class of 2015 commits listened to the message of Coach Corbin and Cy Young winner David Price all along.

If it's not yet obvious to you that we don't rebuild, we reload, I don't know what to tell you.

**Update:

**Draft Update: Zander Wiel Chosen in 12th round (pick 350) by the Twins!

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