Previewing the 2014 MLB Draft

The 2014 Major League Baseball draft is a three day event that will beginThursday night (June 5) at 7:00pm on the MLB Network where the first two rounds of the draft will take place. On Friday and Saturday the rest of the 40 rounds will take place and you can follow online through MLB.com, beginning at noon. Next week I will provide more information on the draft picks taken in my weekly column, but from Thursday-Saturday I will be providing all sorts of content, scouting reports, video and stats on the new draft picks over at my site devoted to the minor league system.

Quick Facts for the draft

• The Reds draft 19th and 29th in the first round. They will also select 59th on the first day.
• There is a “spending cap” for each team that is spread out over the first 10 rounds. The Reds are allowed to spend $6,973,400 on those picks. Anyone signed after the 10th round can be signed for up to $100,000 without counting towards their spending pool, but anyone signed over that amount will count towards that cap.
• Director of Amateur Scouting Chris Buckley has been with the team since 2006 and has been quite successful with first round draft picks (Stubbs, Mesoraco, Alonso, Leake, Grandal, Stephenson, Travieso and Ervin).
• There are 40 rounds in the draft.
• Not all players will sign. Some will return to college and some will choose to go from high school to college.

Who the Reds have been linked to in various mock drafts

What does the recent history tell us?

The Reds have had two top 50 draft picks four times under Scouting Directory Chris Buckley. The first time came in 2007 when the team selected high schooler Devin Mesoraco 15th overall and followed that up with Todd Frazier out of college for the 34th overall pick. In the 2009 draft Mike Leake was taken 8th overall out of college and the Reds took another college right hander with the 43rd overall pick when they took Brad Boxberger. In 2012 Cincinnati selected Nick Travieso out of high school with the 14th overall pick and followed that up with another high schooler, outfielder Jesse Winker with the 49th overall pick. Last season the team took outfielder Phillip Ervin out of college with the 27th overall pick and also selected college pitcher Michael Lorenzen with the 38th overall pick.

When the Reds have drafted in the top 12 of the draft, they have gone exclusively with college players (Stubbs, Alonso, Leake, Grandal), but when they have drafted after that, their first pick has been mostly high schoolers (Mesoraco, Stephenson and Travieso) with just one college player (Ervin). One other thing I have picked up on is when they have had multiple picks, they have gone with a safer player but have also gone with a riskier, high upside player as well in the first or second round (Kyle Lotzkar, Billy Hamilton, Michael Lorenzen).

Where do I expect them to go?

It seems that they have been heavily linked to high school right handed pitchers, with a whole slew of sources having the team in on RHP Sean Reid-Foley and a few more linking them to RHP Grant Holmes. Both Baseball America and Jim Callis at MLB.com have commented on their love of the more athletic players in the draft as well. They have been linked to Monte Harrison several places and the high school outfielder may be the best athlete in the entire draft. When you are drafting that far down in the first round, it is tough to know how the draft will play out. Unlike other sports, teams don’t draft at all for the needs of the team because unlike other sports, these players are still several years away from being ready to contribute and things can change quite a bit when it comes to the needs of the big league team in those years between the draft and when the players are ready.