The 2021 Draft Class

The names have been culled, the spreadsheet has been updated… the 2021 Valley League draft class is officially in the books.

We have 21 previous and current players drafted this year:

Round	Overall Pick	Name	Position	College	ML Team	VBL Team
2	41	Connor Norby	2B	East Carolina	Baltimore	Waynesboro 19
5	140	Evan Justice	LHP	NC State	Colorado	Charlottesville 18
6	177	Carlos Rodriguez	RHP	Florida Southwestern	Milwaukee	Charlottesville 21
7	205	Christian McGowan	RHP	Eastern Oklahoma State	Philadelphia	Strasburg 19
8	242	Hunter Gregory	RHP	Old Dominion	Toronto	Charlottesville 18
9	264	Spencer Packard	OF	Campbell	Seattle	Front Royal 18
9	281	Alex Ayala	RHP	Florida Southwestern	Tampa Bay	Charlottesville 21
9	282	Lael Lockhart	LHP	Arkansas	Los Angeles D	Woodstock 19
10	284	CJ Widger	LHP	Rowan	Texas	Staunton 21
10	297	Wes Clarke	C	South Carolina	Milwaukee	Waynesboro 19
11	317	Dylan Heid	RHP	Pitt-Johnstown	Baltimore	Purcellville 18
11	335	Christian Edwards	RHP	Jacksonville State	Chicago WS	Waynesboro 19
14	428	Jonny Butler	OF	NC State	Oakland	Winchester 18
14	431	Antonio Menendez	RHP	Wake Forest	Tampa Bay	Charlottesville 18
15	456	Alaska Abney	RHP	Coastal Carolina	Cleveland	Charlottesville 19
16	469	Anthony Simonelli	RHP	Virginia Tech	Kansas City	Winchester 18
18	534	Riley Davis	RHP	UAB	Seattle	Covington 19
18	536	Hunter Dula	RHP	Wingate	San Francisco	Harrisonburg 19
18	539	Bennett Hostetler	SS	North Dakota State	Miami	Covington 18
19	571	Thomas Francisco	1B	East Carolina	St.Louis	Charlottesville 19
20	587	Trendon Craig	OF	Louisburg College	Baltimore	Covington 21

Notes

• Charlottesville, with seven draftees, has the most by far. Waynesboro and Covington each have three, Winchester has two, and Front Royal, Woodstock, Staunton, Purcellville, Strasburg, and Harrisonburg all have one. New Market, alas, got shut out (Whither goes Oraj Anu? Andrew Eyster?).
• It’s interesting that four 2021 Valley Leaguers were drafted. In 2019 there were only two, there was one in 2018 (Andrew Eyster), and one in 2017 (Ted Andrews). Does this mean that the talent level ins higher in 2021? Probably, yeah.
• After the first ten rounds, I made a prediction that four more players would get picked; only one, Jonny Butler, actually was. Bobby left a comment on the FB page listing five more, and only one of those was, too! (It was Thomas Francisco.) It’s harder to predict these things than it looks.
• Many more players will sign free agent contracts in the coming days; I will update everyone as I hear of them.

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