By Nathan Rode
National Supervisor

We knew going in that the 2015 Draft would be full of surprises and the first day was certainly filled with some. It wasn’t surprising to see the Diamondbacks start things off by taking Vanderbilt SS Dansby Swanson. The USA Baseball Golden Spikes finalist learned of his selection just minutes after helping the Commodores clinch a spot in the College World Series. After that, the Astros took SS Alex Bregman out of Louisiana State and then we saw our first high school prospect go when the Rockies took SS Brendan Rodgers (Lake Mary HS, FL). Rodgers was easily a candidate to go first overall and arguably has the highest ceiling in the class, but this is how the draft works. Some teams prefer college players. Some want to try to save a little money.

Here are some things that stood out for me on Day 1…

+ Off the top of my head, I like what the Astros, Braves, Cardinals, Dodgers and Indians did in the first two rounds. Houston got a hard-nosed player with solid tools across the board in Bregman with their first pick (second overall) and then turned around and took OF Kyle Tucker (Plant HS, FL) with the fifth pick. Admittedly, I wasn’t as high on Tucker as others, but he’s definitely got a big offensive profile and taking him at that spot allows them to save some money for an overslot guy—like OF Daz Cameron (Eagle’s Landing Christian Academy). They took Cameron at 37th overall, which is great value. RHP Thomas Eshleman, a control artist at Cal State Fullerton makes their draft look balanced from the start.