Phillies MLB Draft rumors: Team wants one of two Virginia bats
Baseball America released their final mock draft before the real one, and they said the Phillies are looking towards Virginia for their pick.
The 2017 MLB Draft begins Monday night at 7 p.m. and the Phillies will make their first-round selection at No. 8 overall. Unlike last year where it was more or less known what the team would do heading into the draft, no one knows what’s going to happen Monday night.
Baseball America released their final mock draft for this year’s draft Monday afternoon as a collection of all the draft rumors they had heard up to this point. They said the Phils would select Virginia outfielder Adam Haseley, but they also included an intriguing tidbit about their plan for this year’s first round:
The Phillies are believed to be taking the best Wahoo available, either Haseley or first baseman Pavin Smith.
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According to BA, Philadelphia wants a college hitter, or more specifically, a Virginia hitter. In this mock draft, both Smith and Haseley were available at No. 8. Therefore, the team is rumored to favor Haseley over Smith, likely due to Haseley’s positional flexibility.
This notion that the club favors the two Virginia hitters goes completely against what I had said Sunday about them wanting a college pitcher.
There are several notable college arms in the draft, including North Carolina’s J.D. Bukauskus and Florida’s Alex Faedo. In this BA mock, both players were still on the board at No. 8, but as said earlier, the Phils are rumored to want one of the Virginia hitters.
However, it’s hard to really say what will happen in the draft. You can’t really predict what the teams that pick before Philadelphia will do. Several of BA’s sources inside major-league teams said that even they don’t really know what’s going to happen ahead of them.
Next: Phillies and the MLB Draft: Final mock draft results
The only way to really know what will happen is by watching when the draft goes down.