May 31st, 2012 
Chris Crawford 
The second to last mock of the year. We’ll do one more the day before — possibly the day of — the draft. Live chat on the new mock Sunday night at 8:00 EST.
Have at it!
| Pick | Team | Name | Pos. | School |
| 01 | Houston | Mark Appel | RHP | Stanford |
| 02 | Minnesota | Byron Buxton | OF | Appling County HS (GA) |
| 03 | Seattle | Mike Zunino | C | Florida |
| 04 | Baltimore | Carlos Correa | SS | PR Baseball Academy |
| 05 | Kansas City | Kevin Gausman | RHP | LSU |
| 06 | Chicago-NL | Albert Almora | OF | Mater Academy (FL) |
| 07 | San Diego | Max Fried | LHP | Harvard Westlake (FL) |
| 08 | Pittsburgh | Lucas Giolito | RHP | Harvard Westlake (CA) |
| 09 | Miami | Kyle Zimmer | RHP | San Francisco |
| 10 | Colorado | Courtney Hawkins | OF | Carroll HS (TX) |
| 11 | Oakland | David Dahl | OF | Oak Mountain HS (AL) |
| 12 | New York-NL | Richie Shaffer | 3B | Clemson |
| 13 | Chicago-AL | Andrew Heaney | LHP | Oklahoma State |
| 14 | Cincinnati | Chris Stratton | RHP | Mississippi State |
| 15 | Cleveland | Michael Wacha | RHP | Texas A&M |
| 16 | Washington | Deven Marrero | SS | Arizona State |
| 17 | Toronto | Gavin Cecchini | SS | Barbe HS (LA) |
| 18 | L.A. Dodgers | Zach Eflin | RHP | Hagerty HS (FL) |
| 19 | St. Louis | Stryker Trahan | C | Accadania HS (LA) |
| 20 | San Francisco | Ty Hensley | RHP | Santa Fe HS (OK) |
| 21 | Atlanta | Tanner Rahier | SS | Palm Desert HS (CA) |
| 22 | Toronto | Marcus Stroman | RHP | Duke |
| 23 | St. Louis | Lance McCullers | RHP | Jesuit HS (FL) |
| 24 | Boston | Stephen Piscotty | LF | Stanford |
| 25 | Tampa Bay | Clint Coulter | C | Union HS (WA) |
| 26 | Arizona | Hunter Virant | LHP | Camarillo HS (WA) |
| 27 | Milwaukee | Addison Russell | SS | Pace HS (FL) |
| 28 | Milwaukee | Lucas Sims | RHP | Brookwood HS (GA) |
| 29 | Texas | Shane Watson | RHP | Lakewood HS (CA) |
| 30 | New York-AL | Joey Gallo | 1B | Bishop Gorman HS (NV) |
| 31 | Boston | Corey Seager | 3B | NW Carribus HS (SC) |
| 32 | Minnesota | Pat Light | RHP | Monmouth |
| 33 | San Diego | Jeff Gelalich | OF | UCLA |
| 34 | Oakland | Alex Wood | LHP | Georgia |
| 35 | New York-NL | Carson Kelly | 3B | Westview HS (WA) |
| 36 | St. Louis | Brian Johnson | LHP | Florida |
| 37 | Boston | Nick Travieso | RHP | Archbishop McCarthy HS (FL) |
| 38 | Milwaukee | Tyler Naquin | OF | Texas A&M |
| 39 | Texas | Pierce Johnson | RHP | Missouri State |
| 40 | Philadelphia | Mitch Gueller | OF | W.F. West HS (WA) |
| 41 | Houston | Mitch Nay | OF | Hamilton HS (AZ) |
| 42 | Minnesota | Nolan Fontana | SS | Florida |
| 43 | Chicago-NL | Martin Agosta | RHP | St. Mary’s |
| 44 | San Diego | Stephen Johnson | RHP | St. Edwards (TX) |
| 45 | Pittsburgh | Lewis Brinson | OF | Coral Springs HS (FL) |
| 46 | Colorado | Mason Melotakis | LHP | N.W. State |
| 47 | Oakland | Travis Jankowski | OF | Stony Brook |
| 48 | Chicago-AL | Kenny Diekroeger | 2B | Stanford |
| 49 | Cincinnati | Barrett Barnes | OF | Texas Tech |
| 50 | Toronto | Rio Ruiz | 3B | Bishop Amat HS (CA) |
| 51 | Los Angeles-NL | D.J. Davis | OF | Stone HS (MS) |
| 52 | St. Louis | Christian Walker | 1B | South Carolina |
| 53 | Texas | Branden Kline | RHP | Virginia |
| 54 | Philadelphia | Patrick Wisdom | 3B | St. Mary’s |
| 55 | San Diego | Chris Beck | RHP | Georgia Southern |
| 56 | Chicago-NL | Kieran Lovegrove | RHP | Mission Viejo HS (CA) |
| 57 | Cincinnati | Nolan Sanburn | RHP | Arkansas |
| 58 | Toronto | Duane Underwood | RHP | Pope HS (GA) |
| 59 | St. Louis | Brady Rodgers | RHP | Arizona State |
| 60 | Toronto | Fernando Perez | 3B | Central Arizona |
Posted in
Love Giolito to the Buccos! No one could touch our pitching depth
You don’t expect Tanner Rahier to go the first day?
I screwed up, sent out a rough draft instead of a finished product. Long day/week.
[...] Chris Crawford projects Mark Appel to go first in his latest mock draft at MLB Draft Insider. -LINK [...]
[...] Thanks once again to Chris Crawford, who runs the great MLBDraftInsider.com and tweets about baseball (and movies) at @CrawfordChrisV. His latest mock draft is here. [...]
Collin Bennettt – University of Hawaii – has been an outfielder until his senior year – then moved to 3rd base. He led the University of Hawaii Rainbows in nearly every offensive category, including multiple base hits:
2012 – BA .328, SLG% .450, OB% .439, RBI 33, K 27, BB 28 Total Bases 81.
No other NCAA Division 1 team that I know of has moved an outfielder to the hot corner and enjoyed the success Hawaii got from Bennett. He had fewer strike-outs than any other starter. Bennett is aware of every situation and makes instinctively correct fielding decisions. He’s got a strong and accurate arm. Bennett is a true utility player that has the ability to play the outfield and any infield position (as demonstrated by his performance at 3rd base), and true offensive power with the ability to get on base.
No Weickel, Smoral, Roache, AB Walker, Trey or Nick Williams?
Those are the biggest surprises for me.
Mike –
Great call on Williams. VERY impressive power and he appears to have all the tools. Weickel has an outstanding record as a high school senior and [might] do well at the next level. I’m not particularly a fan of the HS draft unless it’s exceptional with maturity. As a former high school ball player (years ago), racking up a 12-1 record at that level isn’t always an indicator. Do it at the NCAA Div 1 level and I’ll call it IMPRESSIVE. Smoral and Roache missed a good part of the season with injuries it looks like, and Victor Roache has been injured twice (broken ankle/leg and broken arm/dislocated wrist). I still expect to see him go early. AB Walker – couldn’t find him.
My impressions of C. Bennett out of Hawaii stand. As a sophomore at UH he set a WAC Tournament record for doubles and batted .565 in the tournament. He was named to the 2010 ALL WAC Tournament team. In 2011 Bennett finished WAC Conference play batting .417 (about .300 on the season). In 2012 Bennett was moved from the outfield to 3rd base (to enhance his draftability). Numbers above. In addition to being named the WAC Verizon Hitter of the Week (batting .667 with a slugging percentage of .917) against St. Mary’s (9-15 April ’12), Bennett was named the 2012 ALL WAC Team as 3rd baseman. He’s good. He’s a leader. He gets on base, and he doesn’t turn 22 until late July. My surprise is … he doesn’t show up on anybody’s radar.
Considering most college draftees are 21 at draft time or slated to turn 21 shortly after, a player’s being 22 isn’t exactly a selling point. Also, mocks rarely cover more than the Day One portion of the draft. Why would you expect to see him discussed here? There is nothing that stands out about his performance with the bat this season (minimal power, solid but not elite K:BB, same with the avg), and that’s as a senior.
If A’s get Travis Jankowski at 47 steal of draft hands down. Stats prove out he should be GoldenSpike winne. Just dropped HR, double 5 RBI night on UCF from leadoff spot. Defense is MLB ready today, speed is game changing, on big league field in 2 years.
[...] – MLB Draft Insider [...]