2018 MLB Draft: Day Three Summary

Day Three of the MLB draft matters because Zacrey Law matters.

Law is a champion. Before you know anything else about him, and admittedly I don’t know much, this must be acknowledged. As the starting catcher for the Hudson Valley Renegades of the New York Penn League, he helped deliver a championship to Wappingers Falls, New York in 2017. 147,936 people came out to Dutchess Stadium to witness the Renegades in person.

Hudson Valley is one of five minor league teams that have employed Law, all of which are Tampa Bay Rays affiliates, since he was selected in the 23rd round in 2014. There are 180 affiliated minor league teams, each with a few dozen Zacrey Laws. Sure, there are high picks like Brendan McKay as well, but there would be no championship without closer Zack Mozingo (23rd round) or outfielder Deion Tansel (32nd round). Minor league rosters at every level are populated by third day draft picks.

That being said, there were plenty of future major leaguers drafted yesterday as well. Here is a chart of how many players from rounds 11-40 made the majors from the 2007-2010 drafts.

About 10% of the 900 players drafted yesterday will make the majors at some point. Even if you don’t care about minor league baseball at all, your team still drafted approximately three big leaguers on day three!

Which of them will make it to The Show? I have no idea, and neither does anyone else. Regardless, go visit your local minor league team and check them out for yourself. Here’s a rundown of some of the more interesting players you might see.

• Arizona Diamondbacks (Rd. 32): Austin Bergner, RHP North Carolina: Part of the 18U World Cup gold medal-winning team in 2015.
• Atlanta Braves (Rd. 20): CJ Alexander, 3B State College of Florida Manatee: If Alexander makes it to the majors, he could join Kris Bryant and Troy Glaus as the only 6’5 regular third basemen in baseball history. Also his junior college has “Manatee” in the name, which is awesome.
• Baltimore Orioles (Rd. 31): John Ham, SS Tennessee Tech: His name is Ham.
• Boston Red Sox (Rd. 27): Gregorio Reyes, LHP: Some players are drafted out of high school, others from college. Reyes is listed as “No School.” This seems disadvantageous. His prospects as a 27th round pick are rather slim. Hopefully he has some education to fall back on. Surely he at least went to kindergarten, right?
• Chicago Cubs (Rd. 13): Ezequiel Pagan, OF Pro Baseball High School and Academy: Pagan is now officially a pro baseball player from Pro Baseball HS. I wonder if he’ll get a plaque or something.
• Chicago White Sox (Rd. 17): Travis Moniot, SS University of Arizona: Moniot is the one and only switch hitter drafted by the White Sox.
• Cincinnati Reds (Rd. 15) Christopher Williams, LHP/OF Ridge River HS (GA): Williams probably won’t play two ways as a professional, but if he doesn’t make it as a pitcher he could give it a try as a corner outfielder. Or vice versa.
• Cleveland Indians (Rd. 17): Liam Jenkins, RHP Louisville: Jenkins is 6’8. That’s pretty tall. Does that mean anything? Probably not.
• Colorado Rockies (Rd. 21): Hunter Stovall, 2B Mississippi State: Stovall is 5’8. That’s pretty short. Does that mean anything? Probably not.
• Detroit Tigers (Rd. 18) Ethan DeCaster: RHP Duke: DeCaster, a fifth year senior, was born in 1994. He turns 24 in October, making him one of the oldest rookies in the minors.
• Houston Astros (Rd. 11) Brett Conine: RHP Cal State Fullerton: He’s not Jeff Conine’s son. I checked.
• Kansas City Royals (Rd. 25 and 31): Hunter Strong, HS U Central Arkansas, and William Hancock, C Central Arkansas (AR): The MLB draft tracker lists “U Central Arkansas” for one and “Central Arkansas (AR)” for the other. They are both, in fact, from the same school. The Central Arkansas Bears finished 32-25 in 2018.
• Los Angeles Angels (Rd. 14): Drevian Williams-Nelson, OF North Shore HS: Thanks to Williams-Nelson, 40th rounder Drew Stoutenborough actually does not have the longest name in the Angels’ draft class. Let’s hope they aren’t teammates for the sake of the equipment manager.
• Los Angeles Dodgers (Rd. 36): Jeremiah Vision, OF Golden West College: At 5’4, Vision could become the shortest player in baseball since Ernie Oravetz, who retired in 1956.
• Miami Marlins (Rd. 40): Andrew Miller, LHP Kentucky: The Marlins used to have a different left-hander named Andrew Miller. I wonder what happened to that guy.
• Milwaukee Brewers (Rd. 27): Samuel Schanuel, RHP Iowa: This is the third time Schanuel has been drafted: first by the A’s out of high school in 2015, then by the Phillies out of junior college in 2016.
• Minnesota Twins (Rd. 40): Tyler Webb, SS Memphis: Webb was the 1204th overall pick in the draft, the very final player selected in 2018.
• New York Mets (Rd. 32): Jake Mangum, LHP/OF Mississippi State: Mangum is a switch hitter who batted .406 in the SEC in 2016. Not bad, considering he was drafted as a pitcher.
• New York Yankees (Rd. 34): Matt McGarry, 2B Belmont Abbey College: Contrary to popular belief, Belmont Abbey is not a country club in Wales. It’s a small liberal arts college in North Carolina.
• Oakland Athletics (Rd. 30): Gio Dingcong, 1B St. Thomas Acquinas College: Let’s hope Dingcong plays for the Yankees someday so we can hear John Sterling’s home run call.
• Philadelphia Phillies (Rd. 34) Nick Matera, C Rutgers: Matera was named Third Team All-Big Ten in 2017.
• Pittsburgh Pirates (Rd. 21): Will Garner, Carson-Newman College: Garner was the sixth consecutive right-handed pitcher drafted by the Pirates. They selected one in each of rounds 16-21.
• San Diego Padres (Rd. 32): Cody Tyler, LHP Wichita State: Tyler was the 8th and final draftee out of Wichita State in 2018.
• San Francisco Giants (R. 15): Matt Frisbee, RHP UNC-Greensboro: A frisbee slider is thrown by a submariner or sidearmer with little vertical drop and lots of horizontal movement. I hope this guy throws one of those.
• Seattle Mariners (Rd. 38) Jack Montgomery, 2B Simsbury HS (CT): Scouting-types say you shouldn’t draft second basemen because if they were athletic enough to play professionally, they would’ve been shortstops. Whether or not that’s true, Montgomery was the sixth second baseman selected by the Mariners this year, and the only one picked from high school.
• St. Louis Cardinals (Rd. 34) Benito Santiago, C Tennessee: Yes, his father is the Benito Santiago you’re thinking of.
• Tampa Bay Rays (Rd. 25): Jordan Qsar, OF Pepperdine: Is it pronounced “Cue-sar,” “Ksar,” “Chsar,” or something even stranger? There has never been a major leaguer whose name starts with “QS.”
• Texas Rangers (Rd. 28): Renton Poole, RHP Indiana University Kokomo: “Good Vibrations” “Help Me Rhonda” and “I Get Around” were all Beach Boys #1 hits from their halcyon early-mid 60s years. They also released several other excellent singles and that blend complex multilayered vocal harmonies with beautifully orchestrated pop instrumentation. Then in the 80s, long after primary songwriter Brian Wilson left the group, “Kokomo” reached #1. It’s complete crap.
• Toronto Blue Jays (Rd. 35): Damiano Palmegiani, 3B Vauxhall HS (AB): It’s always fun when the Blue Jays draft a Canadian. Palmegiani was the only player drafted from Alberta.
• Washington Nationals (Rd. 31): Jonathan Quintana, OF Barry University: Quintana had 25 XBH and 15 SB in 2018 for the Barry Buccaneers, who finished 22-28 in the Sunshine State Conference.