MLB Mock Draft Includes Wildcats Kingery and Newman

Last week, MLB.com Columnist Jim Callis took a stab at a mock MLB draft for the 26 regular first-round choices, Scott Kingery and Kevin Newman were included.

In the upcoming Major League Baseball Draft, the top three teams drafting in order are the Arizona Diamond Backs, the Houston Astros and the Colorado Rockies. All three teams are seemingly wanting the same draft pick first; Vanderbilt shortstop Dansby Swanson.

The MLB 2015 Draft will take place from June 8th through June 10th. Here are the top ten picks in order by MLB team:

http://m.mlb.com/draft/2015/order

In case you don’t know much about the MLB Draft, there are four rounds. At the end of the first round, there is a round for Compensation Picks. Compensation Picks according to the MLB are described as follows:

"Teams receive a compensation pick if a free agent to whom they made a qualifying offer signs with another team. The signing team forfeits its first pick, unless it has one of the first 11 picks in the first round, in which case, it forfeits its second pick. If a team signs multiple free agents who were extended qualifying offers, it keeps relinquishing its next-highest Draft pick."

Then after the Compensation Picks, there is a Competitive Balance round. The Competitive Balance round is based on a lottery:

"The odds of winning a Draft pick in this lottery will be based on each team’s winning percentage in the previous season. The half-dozen picks will be made at the conclusion of the first round, but after the compensation picks for free agents.There will be a second group of six picks, coming after the conclusion of the second round. The teams from the first group that did not get one of the early picks will be re-entered, along with any other Major League team that receives any revenue sharing."

Arizona Wildcats /

Arizona Wildcats

Then comes Round 2, another Competitive Balance round but this time only five teams get to pick. After that comes Round 3, a supplemental round which only includes the St. Louis Cardinals (Compensation for not signing 2014 No. 104 overall pick Trevor Megill.) Round 4 ends out the draft, with 40 total picks.

Whew! Complicated…

In Jim Callis’s 2015 mock draft, he has the first pick, shortstop Swanson going to the Arizona Diamond Backs.

Arizona Diamondbacks – Dansby Swanson, SS, Vanderbilt
Houston Astros – Brendan Rodgers, SS, Lake Mary (Fla.) HS
Colorado Rockies – Tyler Jay, LHP, Illinois
Texas Rangers – Daz Cameron, OF, Eagle’s Landing Christian Academy (McDonough, Ga.)
Houston Astros – Carson Fulmer, RHP, Vanderbilt
Minnesota Twins – Dillon Tate, RHP, UC-Santa Barbara
Boston Red Sox – Alex Bregman, SS, Louisiana State
Chicago White Sox – Jon Harris, RHP, Missouri State
Chicago Cubs – Andrew Benintendi, OF, Arkansas
Philadelphia Phillies – Walker Buehler, RHP, Vanderbilt
Cincinnati Reds – Kyle Tucker, OF, Plant HS (Tampa, Fla.)
Miami Marlins – Trenton Clark, OF, Richland HS (North Richland Hills, Texas)
Tampa Bay Rays – Kyle Funkhouser, RHP, Louisville
Atlanta Braves- Tyler Stephenson, C, Kennesaw Mountain HS (Kennesaw, Ga.)
Milwaukee Brewers – Kolby Allard, LHP, San Clemente (Calif.) HS
New York Yankees – James Kaprielian, RHP, UCLA
Cleveland Indians – Garrett Whitley, OF, Niskayuna (N.Y.) HS
San Francisco Giants – Ashe Russell, RHP, Cathedral HS (Indianapolis)
Pittsburgh Pirates – Mike Nikorak, RHP, Stroudsburg (Pa.) HS
Oakland Athletics – Donnie Dewees, OF, North Florida
Kansas City Royals – Cornelius Randolph, SS, Griffin (Ga.) HS
Detroit Tigers – Donny Everett, RHP, Clarksville (Tenn.) HS
St. Louis Cardinals – Ian Happ, OF, Cincinnati
Los Angeles Dodgers – Brady Aiken, LHP, IMG Academy (Bradenton, Fla.) post-graduate program
Baltimore Orioles – Kevin Newman, SS, Arizona
Los Angeles Angels – Phil Bickford, RHP, College of Southern Nevada

Interesting to note, there are 11 High School players in the draft list, that’s 42% of the best players.