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While June 5 and the 2014 MLB Draft seem both around the corner and an eternity away, mock drafts are being churned out with more and more frequency. With so many draftees coming from high school, and college baseball not nearly as popular as other college sports, many fans will never have heard of the players selected in the first round of the MLB Draft, much less the later ones.
To help with that, we've grouped together mock drafts from six different draft experts. Sure, they may have some of the same sources, but given the breadth of the representatives, there was a healthy amount of disagreement on who might go where. Mock drafts from ESPN's Keith Law, Scout.com's Kiley McDaniel, MLB-Draft Insider's Chris Crawford, Baseball America, SB Nation's Minor League Ball and MLB.com's Jonathan Mayo were used to create a consensus draft list. Details on the process are below the list.
Pick | Team | Consensus | Pick | Team | Consensus |
1 | Astros | Carlos Rodon | 15 | Angels | Max Pentecost |
2 | Marlins | Tyler Kolek | 16 | DBacks | Brandon Finnegan |
3 | White Sox | Brady Aiken | 17 | Royals | Kyle Schwarber |
4 | Cubs | Alex Jackson | 18 | Nationals | Erick Fedde |
5 | Twins | Nick Gordon | 19 | Reds | Sean Reid-Foley |
6 | Mariners | Aaron Nola | 20 | Rays | Tyler Beede |
7 | Phillies | Bradley Zimmer | 21 | Indians | Michael Chavis |
8 | Rockies | Kyle Freeland | 22 | Dodgers | Derek Hill |
9 | Blue Jays | Touki Toussaint | 23 | Tigers | Nick Burdi |
10 | Mets | Sean Newcomb | 24 | Pirates | Monte Harrison |
11 | Blue Jays | Jeff Hoffman | 25 | Athletics | Ti'Quan Forbes |
12 | Brewers | Michael Conforto | 26 | Red Sox | Derek Fisher |
13 | Padres | Trea Turner | 27 | Cardinals | Foster Griffin |
14 | Giants | Grant Holmes |
There were some selections with no consensus whatsoever -- all six mock drafts chose someone different -- in these cases I stepped in and selected someone based on several factors including whether they were a consensus selection further down, the range they were generally mocked in, and the team's historical preferences. There were also a couple situations in which a player was the consensus overall selection in more than one draft slot. In these cases I placed the player in the slot that had the greater number of "votes," and found another suitable selection for the remaining team, making sure that all selection worked within the consensus universe. For the most part though, a few of the mock drafters were able to agree on a selection for each team.
While there is generally a consensus at the top, the 2014 draft is deeper than it is top-heavy, so there was a fair amount of disagreement throughout the six mock drafts used. Only one player was unanimous among the various drafts; Nick Gordon, going at pick five to the Minnesota Twins.
Minor League Ball
Notes
Jeff Hoffman was a unanimous top five selection before coming down with an elbow injury that requires Tommy John surgery.
Erick Fedde was gaining steam as a top 10 selection before requiring Tommy John as well. Those injuries have caused a bit of extra uncertainty in an already uncertain world.
New information will come out in between now and June 5th, and we'll be updating the consensus mock table along the way. Check back next Thursday for an update, as well as the morning of draft day for our final update.