Ok, folks, after about 15 hours of sitting in front of the mlb.com stream of the 40 rounds of the draft, I finally have a summation of former Valley Leaguers chosen by major league teams.

  • First of all, only 35 players were picked this year, which is the 2nd-lowest total since the 2006 draft (24 in 2016). The most was 72 in 2011, which, admittedly, was over 50 rounds instead of the current 40.
  • I have to insert a personal note here…. I have not been more disappointed for a player through this process than I was this year for Brandon Quaranta (Strasburg 2016-17). Brandon has been such an important player in the VBL the past two seasons that it was a huge disappointment that he was not drafted. He crushed this league! Brandon might be scooped up as a free agent yet, and I hope he is, of course, but still….. blah.
  • By teams:
    • Waynesboro- 6
    • Front Royal and Strasburg- 5
    • New Market- 4
    • Harrisonburg, Charlottesville, and Woodstock- 3
    • Staunton- 2
    • Aldie, Winchester, Covington, and Purcellville- 1
  • There are some real victories on this list; 2017 MVP and all-around good guy Michael Wielansky was the first Division-III position player drafted; Zach Neff, the #1 reliever in the 2016 VBL season, was picked after a grad year at Mississippi State; Gabe Mosser, Cash Gladfelter, Mark Moclair, Eric White, and Nick Ward were all picked out of D-II; Jonathan Bowlan was the 7th-highest pick since 2006 (58th overall); Every current Valley League team, plus one defunct franchise, had at least one player picked.
  • 14 of the picks were pitchers (11 righties, 3 lefties); 6 outfielders; 4 catchers, 4 first basemen, 3 second basemen, 2 shortstops, and 2 third basemen.

Let’s take a look at the list:

Round Overall Pick Name Position College ML Team VBL Team
2 58 Jonathan Bowlan RHP Memphis Kansas City New Market 16
5 146 Chris Bec C Maine-Orono Toronto Front Royal 16
5 160 Thad Ward RHP Central Florida Boston Staunton 16
6 172 Andrew Moritz OF UNC Greensboro Atlanta Harrisonburg 16
7 202 Brooks Wilson RHP Stetson Atlanta Waynesboro 15
7 213 Brendan Donovan OF South Alabama St.Louis New Market 16
8 227 Seth Lancaster SS Coastal Carolina Philadelphia Charlottesville 15
8 228 Andrew Perez LHP South Florida Chicago WS Waynesboro 17
8 248 Zach Mort RHP George Mason Chicago C Front Royal 16
9 266 Jake Brodt 1B Santa Clara Toronto Aldie 15
10 303 Kevin Woodall 1B Coastal Carolina St.Louis New Market 15
10 305 JT Hintzen RHP Florida Southern Milwaukee Woodstock 16
12 372 Mark Moclair RHP Tampa Houston Front Royal 17
13 383 Brendan Venter 1B Auburn Atlanta Harrisonburg 17
13 400 Dylan Hardy OF South Alabama Boston Front Royal 17
13 401 Cody Wilson OF Florida Atlantic Washington Winchester 17
14 429 Josh Green RHP SE Louisiana Arizona Strasburg 16
16 471 Michael Curry C Georgia San Diego Strasburg 16
18 528 Romy Gonzalez 3B Miami Chicago WS Staunton 16
18 551 Jacob Rhinesmith OF Western Kentucky Washington New Market 17
18 552 Michael Wielansky SS Wooster Houston Charlottesville 17
19 578 Layne Looney RHP Richmond Chicago C Charlottesville 17
20 594 Conner Loeprich RHP St.Mary’s Pittsburgh
Waynesboro 16-17
22 674 Simon Landry 1B Pearl River CC Los Angeles D Strasburg 17
24 728 Blake Whitney RHP USC Upstate Chicago C Front Royal 16
25 736 Fabian Pena C Manhattan San Francisco Covington 16
26 767 Eric White RHP Southern Arkansas Philadelphia Strasburg 17
27 801 Gabe Mosser LHP Shippensburg San Diego Waynesboro 17
27 808 Cash Gladfelter 2B Shippensburg Seattle Woodstock 17
28 844 Austin Hale C Stetson Minnesota Waynesboro 15
29 862 Ray Hernandez 3B Alabama State Atlanta Purcellville 16-17
31 934 Zach Neff LHP Mississippi State Minnesota Waynesboro 16
33 991 Wade Bailey 2B Georgia Tech Los Angeles A Harrisonburg 15
33 1004 Drew Avans OF SE Louisiana Los Angeles D Strasburg 15-16
34 1013 Nick Ward 2B West Chester Oakland Woodstock 16

As usual, please let me know if I’ve missed a player, eitehr from the past or from 2018. (2018 players, actually, are a weak point, as they are not in my database yet!)

Screen Shot 2018-06-07 at 9.22.19 AM
Nick Ward, the last VBL player drafted!