Prep Baseball Report

2018 Draft Board: How'd We Do?


David Seifert
Director of College Scouting

The 2022 MLB Draft, scheduled for July 17-19 in Los Angeles, is quickly approaching and so is our final Draft Board. However, before we publicize another, we thought it would be fun to take a look back at our 2018 Draft Board and see how we did.

The 2018 Draft Board is significant because it brought together our prep rankings and our newly endeavored college rankings for the first time. And although it has been just four years since the 2018 draft, that is more than enough time to get a general feel for the accuracy of said rankings.

A comparison between our Board and the actual MLB selections using WAR is the simplest and cleanest way to see how we did. Solely judging any draft on career WAR ignores many prospects who were traded for current Major Leaguers that contributed to a club during a playoff chase, but using that criteria would make things infinitely more complicated and subjective. Objectivity and accuracy is our goal. And with that stated, below is how it all sorted out:


2018 PBR TOP 10 FINAL DRAFT BOARD:

RANK PROSPECT  POS SCHOOL CURRENT WAR
1 Casey Mize RHP Auburn  2.7
2 Brady Singer RHP Florida  2.0
3 Matthew Liberatore LHP Mountain Ridge (HS) -0.2
4 Jonathan India 3B Florida  2.7
5 Nick Madrigal 2B Oregon State  1.7
6 Joey Bart C Georgia Tech  0.2
7 Jarred Kelenic OF Waukesha West (HS) -2.0
8 Ryan Rolison LHP Mississippi  0.0
9 Alec Bohm 3B Wichita State -0.7
10 Mason Denaburg RHP Merritt Island (HS)  0.0
     
     TOTAL POSITIVE WAR TO DATE:
 9.3


2018 MLB TOP 10 OVERALL SELECTIONS:

PICK CLUB  PROSPECT  POS SCHOOL CURRENT WAR
1-1 DET Casey Mize RHP Auburn  2.7
1-2 SF Joey Bart C Georgia Tech  0.2
1-3 PHI Alec Bohm 3B Wichita State -0.7
1-4 CWS Nick Madrigal 2B Oregon State  1.7
1-5 CIN Jonathan India 3B Florida  2.7
1-6 NYM Jarred Kelenic OF Waukesha West (HS) -2.0
1-7 SD Ryan Weathers LHP Loretto (HS) -0.4
1-8 ATL Carter Stewart RHP Eau Gallie (HS)  0.0
1-9 OAK Kyler Murray OF Oklahoma  0.0
1-10 PIT Travis Swaggerty OF South Alabama -0.2
       
   TOTAL POSITIVE WAR TO DATE:
 7.3

 

Summary: To date PBR leads the industry by 2.0 WAR. With similar prospects of Mize, Bart, Bohm, Madrigal, India and Kelenic, those six will always counterbalance on each board. This leaves our group of Singer, Liberatore, Rolison and Denaburg compared to the MLB quartet of Weathers, Stewart, Murray and Swaggerty. With Stewart currently overseas in the Japan and Murray in the NFL, the near future leans our direction, but only time will tell.


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