MLB Draft: Combine News, Latest Player Rankings, Mock Drafts

College baseball schedules are starting to roll out and we aren’t far away from the start of the amateur season. Whether it stays on track remains to be seen, but it’s positive news to see schedules and countdowns to games and events.

That also means draft prospect reports will start picking up in pace soon. Many of the respected publications that cover the draft have been posting reports and mock drafts for months, and I will cover some of those below for everyone’s convenience. When the games begin, look for more reports and updated player rankings from me as I cover as much of the Southeast as possible from March to July.

R.J. Anderson of CBS Sports reported that the wheels appear in motion for a draft combine in June, ahead of the July draft in Atlanta. It sounds like the motivation is to have as many high school and college players on site as possible, simultaneously holding tournaments and the combine. It makes sense that the likely location is the USA Baseball complex in Cary, North Carolina.

As R.J. notes, this news follows the November announcement of an MLB draft league, a summer league format for draft-eligible players. This goes along with a repurposed Appalachian League that was turned into a summer wood-bat league for college freshmen and sophomores.

Perfect Game released its top 400 draft prospects for 2021 in late December ($).

The top 10: 

Kumar Rocker, Vanderbilt

Jaden Hill, LSU

Jud Fabian, Florida

Jordan Lawlar, Texas high school

Brady House, Georgia high school

Adrian Del Castillo, Miami

Jack Leiter, Vanderbilt

Ty Madden, Texas

Andrew Painter, Florida high school

Marcelo Mayer, California high school

For the diehard draft fans, here is Perfect Game’s 2022 top 150 ($). A familiar name is No. 9: Andruw Jones.

Prospects Live released its top 350 draft prospects for 2021. You see many of the same names from Perfect Game’s list, but one notable difference is UCLA’s Matt McLain at No. 5.

Prospects Live also released its most recent mock draft Wednesday.

Here is Baseball America’s most recent top 200 draft rankings ($).

And here are MLB Pipeline’s top 100 and most recent mock draft.

Mock drafts don’t hold much weight yet, but they at least provide some entertainment over the winter. January is when you see rankings and boards start to take legitimate shape. By the time we get into the amateur season, we have a firmer grasp on the rankings. By May and June, it’s pretty much ironed out and mock drafts become noteworthy.

It will be interesting to see how a summer combine and draft league affects board movement. Players move up and down boards late in the process based on late velo readings, private workouts, etc. A combine and summer league could make these developments more of a public affair instead of hearing about them from sources. Whether that leads to more fan interest for the draft, like NFL fans following the combine, remains to be seen. But more events, more exposure ahead of the draft, and making the event part of All-Star festivities are all positive moves.