By Adam Chasen:
Monday at 7pm, the annual Major League Baseball first-year player draft will begin and there very well could be more interest in the Washington D.C. to Baltimore region than usual. Besides the fact that the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals hold the 4th and 6th picks in the draft respectively, local star Danny Hultzen will be a key figure right from the start.
On Saturday, Hultzen, the 6-foot-3 left-handed ace of the University of Virginia pitching staff, threw seven innings for the top seeded team in the NCAA tournament, allowing one run on three hits and striking out 12 in victory. On Monday, the former St. Albans star will hear his name called among the first handful of draft picks made.
Hultzen, just a junior at UVA, is almost assured of being picked in the top 10 of the draft, and could very well end up with either the Orioles or Nationals. Hultzen is most likely to be picked between picks 3 and 7, but does have an outside shot to be the draft's first pick.
With a year of eligibility remaining Hultzen does reserve the option of returning to school, although that seems unlikely because of his high selection. Hultzen has some experience with the draft, being selected in the 10th round by the Arizona Diamondbacks when he was coming out of St. Albans as a senior, before he elected to stick with his commitment to UVA.
Hultzen was projected as a much higher prospect than a 10th round selection would indicate, but teams shied away when he and his family made it clear that he would attend college. The draft system allows for MLB teams to select players out of high school, and then again after each players junior and senior year in college. Many teams use lower picks on players that they may not be able to sign, but attempt to using larger monetary bonuses.
Like Hultzen experienced when leaving St. Albans, several area high schoolers could face a choice of whether to play in college or negotiate a deal with the professional team that drafts them.
While, the region is not known for baseball, with basketball, football, and some extent lacrosse, dominating the high school sports landscape, several locals have a chance to be selected in the 50 round draft format. St. John's (D.C.) senior Nick Howard, who is planning to play for Virginia next year, along with three University of Maryland commits, AJ Lardo of Loyola, K.J. Hockaday of John Carroll (who recently broke Mark Teixeira's MIAA Conference home run record), and Bobby Ruse of C.Milton Wright all could be selected.
All four locals are expected to keep their commitments and attend college, but it will be an interesting few days to see where these young men get drafted, if at all.
The draft begins on Monday at 7pm, with live coverage on the MLB channel of the 1st round and supplemental round, and will continue on Tuesday and Wednesday for the remaining 49 rounds.