2015 MLB draft picks in CWS

What does Richie Martin do?

He gets on base.

With a team leading .404 on-base percentage and 33 walks, Martin seems like a player that was created in one of Billy Beane's happiest thoughts. The future of the Oakland Athletics' middle infield may rely heavily on the 2015 draft.

Martin is the third (of five) SEC shortstops drafted in the first ten rounds.

The fourth?

Alabama's Mikey White -- another player that seems to have been built in the "moneyball" dreamatorium -- led the Tide in his senior season with a .444 on-base percentage and 31 walks, while also boasting a .339 batting average. The talk around White is that the organization with transisition him into a second baseman.

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Congratulations to the #Gators' Richie Martin #ItsGreatUF pic.twitter.com/w12gL6E7OM

— Gator Baseball (@GatorZoneBB) June 9, 2015

Andrew Benintendi (or as MLB commissioner Rob Manfred says it "Benitendiditti") was drafted by the Boston Red Sox with the seventh overall pick. Benintendi, being a redshirt sophomore and a 2012 Cincinnati Reds draft pick, could potentially return to school and get drafted two more times should he and the Red Sox --or whatever club might draft him in the future -- not agree on a deal.

One of the more recent examples of a top-ten pick returning to school is Mark Appel. A pitcher from Stanford that was drafted eighth overall in 2012 by the Pittsburgh Pirates. When Appel and the Pirates failed to reach an agreement, Appel returned to Stanford for his senior season and was drafted with the first overall pick by the Houston Astros in 2013.

But Benintendi, the SEC Player of the Year, has caught Miami's David Thompson for the NCAA home run lead and also leads all CWS hitters with a .380 batting average. So expect to see Benintendi in Fenway Park within the next decade.

Benintendi hit his only home run of the Super Regional against Missouri State ace Jon Harris. Harris, the 33rd overall pick in the 2012 draft by the Toronto Blue Jays, was selected with the 29th overall pick on Monday ... by the Toronto Blue Jays.

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Huge congrats to Trey Killian, taken in the 9th round by the @Rockies! #ProHogs Details > http://t.co/xndvT3pzdi pic.twitter.com/emkoPqy60T

— #OmaHogs (@RazorbackBSB) June 9, 2015

 

Thompson is the NCAA's leader in RBI and led the nation with 19 home runs at the end of the regular season, a record he now shares with Arkansas' Benintendi.

There is an irony with the Canes' draftees that just brings an excruciating pain on any New York Mets fans.

Thompson, arguably the most productive bat in the NCAA this season was a fourth round draft pick of the Mets on Tuesday. The same night the Mets were no-hit by Chris Heston of the San Francisco Giants.

Andrew Suarez, the first player selected from the Canes roster, was a second round selection ... of the San Francisco Giants. Suarez returned to Miami and Jim Morris, when he failed to reach an agreement with the Washington Nationals, the team that chose him with the 57th overall selection in the 2014 draft.

The Washington Nationals, of course, are the team that leapfrogged the Mets for first place in the NL East standings on Wednesday.

Crippling, painful irony.

(DISCLAIMER: The author of this piece is in fact a fan of the New York Mets.)

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Suarez... HE GONE! Pick 61 in the 2nd Round to the @SFGiants! #GoCanes pic.twitter.com/xTLRoiytfv

— Hurricanes Baseball (@CanesBaseball) June 9, 2015

 

Vanderbilt shortstop Dansby Swanson set the tone and created the top storyline of the MLB draft. Swanson was drafted with the first overall pick by the Arizona Diamondbacks, followed by LSU shortstop Alex Bregman (Houston Astros) and high school shortstop Brendan Rogers (Colorado Rockies).

There were eight shortstops taken in the first round as well as a total of seven shortstops from the Southeastern Conference taken in the 43 round draft.

In a statistic that may seem more specific than informative, the five shortstops from the SEC taken in the top ten rounds of the 2015 draft were the most amount of players at the same position, from the same conference to be drafted in the first ten rounds.

Since 2005, there were four different instances of four players from the same conference drafted in the first ten rounds, that play the same position, but no such draft had five players until 2015.

After Swanson was selected, the next player off the board from Vanderbilt came just seven picks later when the Chicago White Sox selected Carson Fulmer with the eighth overall pick. Swanson and Fulmer were the first teammates selected in the top ten picks of the MLB draft since 2011 when UCLA's Gerrit Cole and Trevor Bauer were drafted first and third, respectively.

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The Moment You Hear Your Name Called. #StarPower #VandyBoys pic.twitter.com/jdwJ48wrn0

— Vandy Baseball (@VandyBaseball) June 9, 2015

 

Fullerton catcher Chris Hudgins, received a strike on the outside edge from Thomas Eshelman and threw out a would be base stealer in the bottom of the 11th inning of the Louisville Super Regional final to push the Titans into the College World Series.

If you were quick enough with your remote to flip to the MLB Network as the Titan's dog pile formed near second base, the next voice you would hear is commissioner Manfred announcing the Houston Astros' second round pick.

"Thomas Eshelman. Pitcher. California State University at Fullerton. Fullerton, California."

Kyle Funkhouser, the Louisville right-hander that the Titans beat in the first Super Regional game, stood at the top of the dugout earlier in third game when Manfred announced the Los Angeles Dodgers would be requesting his services with the 24th overall pick.

While Funkhouser had some time and space to hear the good news, Eshelman told the Houston Chronicle that he first heard the news that he had been drafted in a post game huddle after Titan's strength coach Isaac Salazar received a text congratulating "Esh" for being the 46th overall pick.

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Thomas Eshelman drafted No. 46 overall within seconds of throwing the last pitch of the Louisville Super Regional.

— Aaron Fitt (@aaronfitt) June 9, 2015

 

One of the more interesting facts and figures that will come out of the 2015 draft revolves around the LSU Tigers.

Of the team's eight draftees, seven were not drafted out of high school, which speaks to LSU and coach Paul Mainieri's ability to groom an athlete into a ballplayer. The one Tiger that was drafted out of high school was shortstop Alex Bregman.

The Boston Red Sox so enjoyed the "Albuquerque Swagger," that they chose Bregman in the 29th round of the 2012 draft. Bregman did not sign with the club and opted to attend LSU where he was named SEC Freshman of the Year in 2013.

Bregman struggled in the early part of his sophomore year in 2014, but bounced back in the later part of the season and finished with a .316 batting average. In 2015, Bregman leads the club with 56 runs scored and is second on the team with a .406 on-base percentage.

Bregman made a 28-round leap since high school, being selected second overall by the Houston Astros in the 2015 draft.

Bregman, Swanson, Benintendi and Fulmer are the four finalists for the Golden Spikes Award. Fulmer is the finalist taken with the lowest pick in the draft -- eighth overall to the White Sox.

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#Nats select CF Andrew Stevenson (LSU) with their 1st pick in the 2015 draft http://t.co/7cfqPonXy8 #NationalsTalk pic.twitter.com/uQHgdkN0G4

— CSN Nationals (@CSNNationals) June 9, 2015

 

Hard throwing right-hander Riley Ferrell may have what it takes to follow in the wake of former teammate Brandon Finnegan. Although Ferrell is the all-time saves leader in TCU baseball history, he has recently hit a rough patch.

In more than two seasons as the team's closer, Ferrell is 32-34 in career save opportunities. But both of Ferrell's blown saves have come within the past month.

TCU coach Jim Schlossnagle told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram after Ferrell's rough outing on Monday night against Texas A&M that he has not lost any confidence in Ferrell, "not for one second."

“He’s been working like crazy,” Schlossnagle told the Star-Telegram. “Hopefully we get a chance to play a game where we can get him some work without so much being on the line. But he’s the best that’s ever walked on this campus at that position.”

Finnegan played for Schlossnagle at the College World Series in June 2014 and for Ned Yost's Kansas City Royals in the MLB postseason in October. If Ferrell can find his bearings in the CWS and follow it up with a strong summer, he could be the next TCU alum on a fast track to the show.

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Congrats to Riley Ferrell on being selected by the @astros in the third round of the 2015 MLB Draft! pic.twitter.com/s5EO8lOUFc

— TCU Baseball (@TCU_Baseball) June 9, 2015

 

Joe McCarthy was taken in the fifth round by the Tampa Bay Rays to show that -- while players with injury history weren't exactly blacklisted by Major League clubs -- there was a steady slide for players that struggled to stay in the lineup.

Duke hurler Mike Matuella was seen as one of the best college arms in the country before a tear in the UCL of his pitching arm forced him to undergo Tommy John surgery in April. The Texas Rangers selected Matuella in the third round on Tuesday.

McCarthy missed the first 35 games of the Cavs season after having surgery for a back injury in January. Since his return in April, McCarthy has started all 26 games he has played while boasting a .375 on-base percentage.

Left hander Nathan Kirby, the first player drafted from Virginia, has 75 strikeouts in just 59.1 innings pitched this season.

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Congrats Joe McCarthy, selected 148th overall in #MLBDraft by @RaysBaseball! #UVaBase pic.twitter.com/bk3KG10bp2

— Virginia Baseball (@UVABaseball) June 9, 2015