Five Georgia high school players are projected to go in the first round of the June MLB Draft in two weeks, according to the latest mock draft by Jonathan May of MLB.com.
That doesn’t count Mayo’s projection as the No. 2 pick, Joey Bart of Georgia Tech. Bart is a former catcher at Buford.
The five current Georgia high school players in Mayo’s list are outfielder Parker Meadows of Grayson (No. 21), catcher Anthony Seigler of Cartersville (No. 22) and pitchers Kumar Rocker of North Oconee (No. 23), Ethan Hankins of Forsyth Central (No. 33) and Cole Wilcox of Heritage-Ringgold (No. 34).
If five are picked, that would be a record for the state.
Baseball’s amateur draft takes place June 4-6 in Secaucus, N.J.
Only one Georgia high schooler, D.L. Hall of Valdosta, went in last year’s first round (to the Baltimore Orioles).
The most high school players taken from Georgia in the first round was four — which has happened three times, most recently in 2016. It also happened in 2010 and 2013. The last four taken first were Taylor Trammell of Mount Paran Christian, Carter Kieboom of Walton, Will Benson of Westminster and Josh Lowe of Pope.
To gauge Georgia’s growing prominence in professional baseball, consider that only one Georgia high school player was taken in the first round of the full decade of the 1980s, and only three in the 1970s. (If curious, Willie Greene of Jones County was the only Georgian picked in the first round in the 1980s.)
Mayo’s prediction for 2018 are not outside the main stream. In fact, many mock drafts have had Rocker, Wilcox and Hankins much higher, even in the top 10. Others have included Brookwood catcher Will Banfield in the first round.
The Sporting News this week projected Hankins as the No. 7 overall pick this week and put Banfield as the No. 26 overall pick.
FanGraphs.com have four Georgia high schools among the first 35 picks with Wilcox the highest at No. 16.
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