MLB Amateur Draft: The Top Three Pitchers in the 2019 Draft

With the MLB amateur draft just under a month away, teams across the league are gearing up for another year of trying to select the top talent at the high school and collegiate level.

Teams are built from the draft, whether it in from the MLB amateur draft or from the international draft later in the year.

By adding depth to the farm system, young players can get the first-hand experience of professional ball and really start to develop as full-time players. There is also the flip side, where drafted players start playing against better competition and never find that level of success they had during the high school and college days.

Each MLB team puts a significant amount of resources into their scouting department to be prepared for the draft. While players may progress or drop through the rankings over the year, each team usually has a set group of players in mind and will draft who they have spent the most time watching, and who they think will contribute to the team.

Not every player who gets drafted is guaranteed to sign with their new team. Of the 1400 hundred young adults drafted, there is a good amount who choose to forego signing with a team that drafted him. This is usually because of the signing bonus not being agreed upon or high school kids drafted choose to go to school rather than play professional ball, in order to gain more experience and increase their draft pick selection (which means more money).

This year, the top ten ranked guys from MLB Pipeline for the MLB amateur draft are dominated by position players, with only two pitchers rounding out the group.

Depending on the needs of the MLB team, this ranking list may not have an impact on draft day if a team decides it needs a pitcher over a catcher/infielder/outfielder.

Without further ado, let’s take a look at 3 of the top-ranked pitchers for the MLB amateur draft in 2019.