What does it mean? You will be surprised!

The list is 1504 players long and it contains most of the top draft eligible prospects in high school and college baseball. However, as always it doesn’t have every top prospect listed and other than the very early rounds does it represent an accurate assessment of the true talent available?

When the very last player selected is a 93 mph big RHP with very good stuff and just three picks earlier a potential 5 tool player was selected, does it mean that this year’s draft was that strong? The pick before the 5 tool player had a tall 90+ mph RHP and overall the last round had several very talented players who could easily have gone 30-40 rounds earlier, even before that in some cases.

It’s always interesting to see the number of top players who do not end up on the draft list for one reason or another. Players like Chris Amezquita who was an Aflac All American and headed to UCLA. He was not alone, as many players and pitchers who are much better prospects than most of those drafted this year went undrafted. Guess what? That is the way it has always been!

Last year in the 2007 draft, Matt Wieters went early in the first round out of Georgia Tech and signed for 6+ million dollars. Wieters was a mid 90s pitcher and a catcher who was one of the top hitters in the country as a senior in high school. In our estimation he was a first round type before he went to Georgia Tech, where he improved even more. There are many cases where undrafted players out of high school ended up being drafted in the first round out of college. Some obviously improved tremendously while playing college ball and some just maintained their talent level and polished their game. Seeing that scouting is all about projection, in a perfect world wouldn’t the first rounder out of college have also been a first rounder out of high school? Of course, there is nothing perfect about scouting and MLB scouts will be the first to tell people that.

Players like Wieters were not missed, though. Often players are considered unsignable because of college commitments and other things. Many of these top talents are selected late in the draft and an attempt to sign them is made during the summer, sometimes at first or second round money. Those who follow prospects closely understand that there are many players selected this year that went much later than their talent dictated. However, this article is about the players who did not get drafted. That list is a very big one!

Let’s look at this year’s picks out of college in the first 3 rounds and see if or when they were drafted out of high school.

Players undrafted out of high school in Bold

1st Round

2nd pick Pirates - Pedro Alvarez (Vanderbilt) was drafted in the 14th round out of high school by the Red Sox

4th pick Orioles - Brian Matusz (San Diego) was drafted in the 4th round out of high school by the Angels

5th pick Giants - Buster Posey (Florida State) was drafted in the 50th round out of high school by the Angels

7th pick Reds - Yonder Alonso was drafted in the 16th round out of high school by the Twins

8th pick White Sox - Gordon Beckham (Georgia) was not drafted out of high school

9th pick Nationals - Aaron Crow (Missouri) was not drafted out of high school

10th pick Astros - Jason Castro (Stanford) was drafted in the 43rd round out of high school by the Red Sox

11th pick Rangers - Justin Smoak (South Carolina) was drafted in the 16th round out of high school by the A’s

12th pick A’s - Jemile Weeks (Miami) was drafted in the 8th round out of high school by the Brewers

13th pick Cardinals - Brett Wallace (Arizona State) was drafted in the 42nd round out of high school by the Blue Jays

17th pick Blue Jays - David Cooper (California) was not drafted out of high school

18th pick Mets - Ike Davis (Arizona State) was drafted in the 19th round out of high school by the Rays

18th pick Cubs - Andrew Cashner (TCU) was drafted in round 29 by the Cubs as a junior last year in college. Drafted in 20th round out of high school by the Braves

20th pick Mariners - Josh Fields (Georgia) was not drafted out of high school

21st pick Tigers - Ryan Perry (Arizona) was not drafted out of high school

22nd pick Mets - Reese Havens (South Carolina) was drafted in the 29th round out of high school by the Rockies

23rd pick Padres - Allan Dykstra (Wake Forest) was drafted in the 34th round out of high school by the Red Sox

25th pick Rockies - Christian Friedrich (Eastern Kentucky) was not drafted out of high school

26th pick D’Backs - Daniel Schlereth (Arizona) was not drafted out of high school

27th pick Twins - Carlos Gutierrez (Miami) was not drafted out of high school

Note: 8 college players selected in the first round were not drafted out of high school

1st Round Comp Picks

31st pick Twins - Shooter Hunt (Tulane) was drafted in the 34th round out of high school by the Rangers

33rd pick Mets - Brad Holt (UNC Wilmington) was not drafted out of high school

35th pick Brewers – Evan Frederickson (San Francisco) was drafted in the 27th round out of high school by the Twins

37th pick Giants - Conor Gillaspie was not drafted out of high school

39th pick Cardinals – Lance Lynn (Mississippi) was drafted in the 6th round out of high school by the mariners

41st pick Cubs - Ryan Flaherty (Vanderbilt) was not drafted out of high school

43rd pick D’Backs – Wade Miley (SE Louisiana) was drafted in the 20th round out of high school by the DevilRays.

44th pick Yankees – Jeremy Bleich (Stanford) was not drafted out of high school

45th pick Red Sox - Bryan Price (Rice) was not drafted out of high school

46th pick Padres – Logan Forsythe (Arkansas) was not drafted out of high school

Note: 6 more first round comp college players were not drafted out of high school

2nd Round

Pirates - Tanner Scheppers (Fresno State) was drafted in the 29th round out of high school by the Orioles

Royals - Johnny Giovatella (New Orleans) was not drafted out of high school

A’s - Tyson Ross (California) was not drafted out of high school

Cardinals - Shane Peterson (Long Beach State) was not drafted out of high school

Dodgers - Josh Lindblom (Purdue) was drafted in the 3rd round out of high school by the Astros

Brewers - Cody Adams (Southern Illinois) was not drafted out of high school

Cubs - Aaron Shafer (Wichita State) was not drafted out of high school

Mariners - Dennis Raben (Miami) was drafted in the 49th round out of high school by the Tigers

Tigers - Cody Satterwhite (Mississippi) was drafted in the 37th round out of high school by the Indians

Padres - James Darnell (South Carolina) was not drafted out of high school

Rockies - Charlie Blackmon (Georgia Tech) was drafted in the 28th round out of high school by the Marlins

D’Backs - Bryan Shaw (Long Beach State) was not drafted out of high school

Yankees - Scott Bittle (Mississippi) was not drafted out of high school

Note: 8 college players selected in the 2nd round were not drafted out of high school

3rd Round

Rays - Jake Jefferies (UC Davis) was not drafted out of high school

Pirates - Jordy Mercer (Oklahoma State) was drafted in the 26th round out of high school by the Dodgers

Giants - Roger Kieschnick (Texas Tech) was not drafted out of high school

Reds - Zach Stewart (Texas Tech) was not drafted out of high school

Red Sox - Stephen Fife (Utah) was not drafted out of high school

White Sox - Brent Morel (Cal Poly) was not drafted out of high school

Nationals - Danny Espinosa (Long Beach State) was not drafted out of high school

Rangers - Tim Murphy (UCLA) was drafted in the 11th round out of high school by the Angels

A’s - Petey Paramore (Arizona State) was drafted in the 22nd round out of high school by the Mets

Twins - Bobby Lanigan (Adelphi) was not drafted out of high school

Dodgers - Kyle Russell (Texas) was not drafted out of high school

Brewers - Logan Schafer (Cal Poly) was not drafted out of high school

Blue Jays - Andrew Liebel (Long Beach State) was drafted in the 47th round out of high school by the Cubs

Cubs - Chris Carpenter (Kent State) was drafted in the 7th round out of high school by the Tigers

Mariners - Aaron Pribanic (Nebraska) was not drafted out of high school

Tigers - Scott Green (Kentucky) was not drafted out of high school

Mets - Kirk Nieuwenhuis (Azuka Pacific) was not drafted out of high school

Padres - Blake Tekotte (Miami) was not drafted out of high school

Phillies - Vance Worley (Long Beach State) was drafted in the 20th round out of high school by the Phillies

Rockies - Aaron Weatherford (Mississippi State) was not drafted out of high school

Yankees - David Adams (Virginia) was drafted in the 21st round out of high school by the Tigers

Indians - Cord Phelps (Stanford) was not drafted out of high school

Red Sox - Kyle Weiland (Notre Dame) was not drafted out of high school

Note: 16 college players in the 3rd round were not drafted out of high school

38 college players who were selected in the first 3 rounds did not get drafted coming out of high school!

We could continue, but this already provides a clear picture. Sorry if we missed a player or two above. People can draw their own opinion as to what all of this means. Of course, each player is an individual case, so perhaps the list above means many different things.