AU players & Signees in 2019 MLB Draft

[ellitor 33,076]

Had to delete the old thread because it was not showing up in the AU Baseball thread list of topics for some reason...

 

Quote

 

Auburn paying close attention as MLB draft gets underway

By Jason Caldwell 72 minutes ago

 

Gunnar Henderson (Photo: Jason Caldwell/Inside The Auburn Tigers, 247Sports)

 

AUBURN, Alabama--With the Major League Baseball Amateur Draft beginning Monday night Coach Butch Thompson and Auburn will be watching closely with several signees/commitments expected to be selected as well as several current Tigers. The player to watch right out of the gate as a potential first round selection is shortstop signee Gunnar Henderson.

A dynamic athlete who starred at Morgan Academy in Selma, Henderson put together a monster senior season that cemented his place early in the 2019 draft. In 32 games he batted .559 with 11 home runs, 17 doubles and 75 RBI while being the center of attention in every game he played.

The younger brother of Auburn walk-on infielder Jackson Henderson, he has a decision to make between professional baseball and playing for the Tigers.

Auburn could have several more signees/commitments drafted before the three-day selection process is done starting with catcher/pitcher Nate LaRue from McGill-Toolen in Mobile. A physical player who has plenty of power at the plate, LaRue could be a true two-way player at Auburn with his ability to close out games on the mound the same way Buster Posey did when he played at Florida State.

One of the newest additions for Auburn’s 2020 class is junior college closer Brock Bell, who is rated as the No. 6 juco prospect in the draft by Perfect Game. The son of former Pittsburgh Pirates and Arizona Diamondbacks player and current AAA manager Jay Bell, he could be taken in the early rounds of the draft as well.

Another signee to pay attention to is LHP Hayden Mullins from Gallatin, Tenn. With left-handers always a premium he could be a player that some team takes a run on in the first 10 rounds. With a fastball in the low to mid 90’s and the ability to throw three pitches, Mullins has the potential to be a weekend starter for the Tigers as a freshman if he gets to campus.

The son of former Texas Rangers standout Rusty Greer, middle infielder Mason Greer plays beside projected top pick and longtime friend Bobby Witt Jr. With so many eyes on Witt, Greer has had plenty of opportunities to showcase his skills as well. 

From the current roster the first name off the board is expected to be junior Will Holland, but just where he falls in the draft remains to be seen following a disappointing offensive performance during the 2019 season. An athletic shortstop with a big upside, Holland is going to be an intriguing player for some teams.

Will Holland is a sophomore for the Tigers, who will travel to Chapel Hill to play North Carolina in the super regional. (Photo: Adam Sparks/Inside The Auburn Tigers)

 

A player who could be skyrocketing up some draft boards is redshirt sophomore LHP Bailey Horn. Expected to be a high draft choice before having Tommy John surgery 15 months ago in junior college, Horn has thrown very well his last two outings, including six scoreless innings in Auburn’s win over Georgia Tech on Sunday night. With the ability to run his fastball up to the mid 90’s and still gaining steam, Horn’s name could be called in this year’s draft despite his numbers being less than impressive this season.

Other draft-eligible sophomores for Auburn include Edouard Julien, Judd Ward and Jack Owen while juniors Conor Davis, Rankin Woley, Elliott Anderson and Ryan Watson could get some late looks.

One of the most interesting names to watch for is junior RHP Davis Daniel. Despite his season ending early with Tommy John surgery and having a full year of recovery in front of him, Daniel has been drafted twice and could be a player some team decides is worth the gamble in the later rounds.

 

 

[boomstick 1,315]

Listening to an interview with Butch today, he seemed to think most of the singing class will enroll and there’s a good chance everyone but Holland and Davis will return next year. That’s great on one hand and potentially concerning on the other. 

[tigerbrotha12 2,362]

Gunnar Henderson was just drafted by the Orioles as the first pick in the second round at 42 overall. 

Saw him projected as high as 19. 

Any chance we get this guy in school? 

[PowerOfDixieland 3,226]

Gunnar Henderson to the Orioles in the second round (42nd overall pick).  With a draft slot valued at almost $2 Million, I would assume he'll be in Florida next week....

[ellitor 33,076]

9 hours ago, tigerbrotha12 said:

Gunnar Henderson was just drafted by the Orioles as the first pick in the second round at 42 overall. 

Saw him projected as high as 19. 

Any chance we get this guy in school? 

AU does not expect to see him on The Plains as Dixie alluded to.

[ellitor 33,076]

12 hours ago, boomstick said:

Listening to an interview with Butch today, he seemed to think most of the singing class will enroll and there’s a good chance everyone but Holland and Davis will return next year.

There's also concern from AU on Julien & Signee catcher Nate Larue.

12 hours ago, boomstick said:

That’s great on one hand and potentially concerning on the other. 

Agreed & the concern is how does the roster shake out? We are only graduating 2 & likely to lose 2 others off roster to the draft. We have at least 15 signees expected to come in to AU. There's a 35 man roster limit in D1 baseball. We are going to have some attrition to be able to bring all our signees in.

[boomstick 1,315]

9 hours ago, tigerbrotha12 said:

Gunnar Henderson was just drafted by the Orioles as the first pick in the second round at 42 overall. 

Saw him projected as high as 19. 

Any chance we get this guy in school? 

Some folks around Selma seem to think there's still a good chance he ends up at Auburn. The Orioles pool of money may not allow them to pay for both Rutschman and what Henderson is supposedly asking for. The number being floated around for Henderson is at least $2 million. His drafted slot value is $1.77 million. So either he takes less or Rutschman takes less. I don't think they can max out Rutschman and also overpay Gunnar. This might actually drag out a little while with negotiations. Him falling to the second round helps the chances of him coming to Auburn. Supposedly, he turned down two offers in the first round. 

[Mikey 16,565]

I'd think a lot of this depends on the family's financial situation. If they are in reasonable shape in that regard, then it makes sense to go to college and hope for a high first round pick and multi-millions in three years. In another case, $1.77 mill is a big pile of money and common sense says some kids simply shouldn't turn it down.

 

[boomstick 1,315]

1 hour ago, ellitor said:

There's also concern from AU on Julien & Signee catcher Nate Larue.

Agreed & the concern is how does the roster shake out? We are only graduating 2 & likely to lose 2 others off roster to the draft. We have at least 15 signees expected to come in to AU. There's a 35 man roster limit in D1 baseball. We are going to have some attrition to be able to bring all our signees in.

I was told the week of the SECT that Julien was definitely coming back. If he's taken early today, that might change. LaRue might be a sweat because catchers tend to get overpaid. 

Definitely agree on the roster. If you take out the two seniors (Schilleci and Olson) and Holland and Daniel to the draft and keep everyone else who isn't a surefire draft guy and include the 17 signees (which includes two JUCO guys), we have 47 (edit to 48 because I can't count) players on the roster. Now that can be trimmed down if guys like Julien, Davis, Anderson, Horn, Woley, Henderson, LaRue or some others leave for the draft. But even if all of those guys leave, that still leaves 40 on the roster, and some trimming will have to be done to get to 35.

[ellitor 33,076]

13 minutes ago, boomstick said:

include the 17 signees (which includes two JUCO guys),

Who's the 17th? I know about the 15 signed in November & juco Brock Bell.

[ellitor 33,076]

16 minutes ago, boomstick said:

Definitely agree on the roster. If you take out the two seniors (Schilleci and Olson) and Holland and Daniel to the draft and keep everyone else who isn't a surefire draft guy and include the 17 signees (which includes two JUCO guys), we have 47 players on the roster.

The AU roster lists 36 players currently. Dropping the 4 you mention & adding 17 signees is 49. Who are the 2 that already left?

[boomstick 1,315]

20 minutes ago, ellitor said:

Who's the 17th? I know about the 15 signed in November & juco Brock Bell.

Tyler Miller, former Spanish Fort SS. He's a freshman at East Miss CC. Would be a Sophomore next year. IMO he's a backup plan to Henderson. Also in that 15 is Johnny Ceccolli, a 2020 recruit who reclassified to the 2019 class. He's a big power bat. The great thing about him reclassifying is he's too young to be in the draft this year, but if he'd waited until 2020 to enroll, he'd have been a Sophomore-eligible draftee. So we get him for three years. 

[boomstick 1,315]

17 minutes ago, ellitor said:

The AU roster lists 36 players currently. Dropping the 4 you mention & adding 17 signees is 49. Who are the 2 that already left?

Somehow, I didn't have Richard Fitts on my list. I left off Ford Luttrell because I don't think he's on the team any more. So take out the seniors, Holland and Daniel, and Luttrell, and that leaves us at 48 with the full signing class before anyone else leaves. 

 

[ellitor 33,076]

12 minutes ago, boomstick said:

Tyler Miller, former Spanish Fort SS. He's a freshman at East Miss CC. Would be a Sophomore next year. IMO he's a backup plan to Henderson. Also in that 15 is Johnny Ceccolli, a 2020 recruit who reclassified to the 2019 class. He's a big power bat. The great thing about him reclassifying is he's too young to be in the draft this year, but if he'd waited until 2020 to enroll, he'd have been a Sophomore-eligible draftee. So we get him for three years. 

Cool Boom! How do you find that extra info AU Reporters don't post?

[ellitor 33,076]

6 minutes ago, boomstick said:

Somehow, I didn't have Richard Fitts on my list. I left off Ford Luttrell because I don't think he's on the team any more. So take out the seniors, Holland and Daniel, and Luttrell, and that leaves us at 48 with the full signing class before anyone else leaves. 

 

If I pin it, will you create a baseball roster thread & update it yearly?

[boomstick 1,315]

Just now, ellitor said:

Cool Boom! How do you find that extra info AU Reporters don't post?

I dig around on twitter about once or twice a week. Search for "auburn baseball commit/committed/commitment" among other things. I have some friends who know some of the baseball players and diamond dolls. Just a little bit of everything.

[boomstick 1,315]

1 minute ago, ellitor said:

If I pin it, will you create a baseball roster thread & update it yearly?

Absolutely.

[ellitor 33,076]

1 minute ago, boomstick said:

I dig around on twitter about once or twice a week. Search for "auburn baseball commit/committed/commitment" among other things. I have some friends who know some of the baseball players and diamond dolls. Just a little bit of everything.

We're blessed to have you here.

[ellitor 33,076]

Just now, boomstick said:

Absolutely.

Thanks! Consider it pinned after it's created.

[boomstick 1,315]

8 minutes ago, ellitor said:

We're blessed to have you here.

I appreciate that. I just enjoy keeping up with the program. I have two spiral notebooks full of rosters and summer ball assignments and signing classes that I've done over the last few years.

[ellitor 33,076]

17 minutes ago, boomstick said:

I appreciate that. I just enjoy keeping up with the program. I have two spiral notebooks full of rosters and summer ball assignments and signing classes that I've done over the last few years.

Awesome! If you are up to it we can do threads on each category & pin them.

[auburnphan 6,050]

1 hour ago, boomstick said:

Some folks around Selma seem to think there's still a good chance he ends up at Auburn. The Orioles pool of money may not allow them to pay for both Rutschman and what Henderson is supposedly asking for. The number being floated around for Henderson is at least $2 million. His drafted slot value is $1.77 million. So either he takes less or Rutschman takes less. I don't think they can max out Rutschman and also overpay Gunnar. This might actually drag out a little while with negotiations. Him falling to the second round helps the chances of him coming to Auburn. Supposedly, he turned down two offers in the first round. 

Yeah, I saw that the reason the Brewers went with the Miss ST player was because of their pool money and signability.  

[boomstick 1,315]

1 minute ago, auburnphan said:

Yeah, I saw that the reason the Brewers went with the Miss ST player was because of their pool money and signability.  

A couple of teams almost took Michael Allen, a HS pitcher committed to Florida, but passed on him due to signability concerns. I think it's becoming increasingly more difficult for MLB teams to draft HS kids early. There were four HS kids taken in the first 36 picks last year that opted not to sign. Three were committed to SEC schools, one to UCLA. After the first 25 picks, the money is below $2.5 million. And a lot of these HS kids that are projected 1st rounders are putting that price tag on their signatures or they'll go play SEC or big-time college baseball. There seems to be a trend recently where a lot more college players are taken early in the draft. 

[ellitor 33,076]

Thrill Holland to the Twins in Round 5. He Gone!

[auburnfan247 27]

1 hour ago, ellitor said:

Thrill Holland to the Twins in Round 5. He Gone!

That’s really late for him, a lot of people were saying he was a steal if he was available in round 3 or 4.