PHILADELPHIA \u2014 Somewhere between the lusty booing of Atlanta mascot Blooper and MLB Network host Robert Flores\u2019 second pointed reference to the 2022 World Series, the MLB Draft jumped the shark at the Philadelphia Convention Center Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Dreams came true in Philadelphia \u2013 135 in total in the first four rounds of the amateur draft, the first 10 picks broadcast on NBC, the first 40 announced by MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred before a few hundred fans and a dozen mascots. That it came cloaked in the atmosphere of a baby shower for a work friend that you can\u2019t escape \u2013 and with the conspicuous absence of any of the front offices making the picks or any of the players being selected \u2013 will fall away in time. Probably more quickly than Flores\u2019 goading of fans on Arch Street to recall whom Houston beat in the 2022 Fall Classic.<\/p>\n
About half the crowd had emptied out before the Phillies came up with the 36th overall pick, their first-rounder dropped into the Competitive Balance A round, some two and a half hours and more than a dozen throws to DJ Shauna into the mess. The pick was announced as high school shortstop Tyler Spangler, with little more exposition available to fans and media on site as to who he is or why the pick mattered. Most of the hall was empty by the time the last four names were read.<\/p>\n
As one of many spectacles in MLB\u2019s branded All-Star Weekend, the draft was preferrable to \u2026 well the line of thunderstorms that moved through the area, though not much else. With bumping top 40 hits, a hype squad and drumline borrowed on loan from the 76ers and fan games that called to mind a high-tech bar mitzvah, the 30 MLB franchises started the process of replenishing their farm systems for the year.<\/p>\n
Atmosphere aside, the top of the draft contained few surprises. Roch Cholowsky went first overall, as many expected, off his stellar season at UCLA. Grant Emerson followed at No. 2 overall to Tampa. Third was Vahn Lackey, an intriguing prospect at Georgia Tech. A late-blooming catcher, he\u2019s just the fourth backstop to go in the top 3 of a draft since 2013 (Henry Davis No. 1 in 2021, Adley Rutschman No. 1 in 2019 and Joey Bart No. 2 in 2018).<\/p>\n
The closest to a local pick waited until No. 34, when the White Sox picked Landon Thome, son of Phillies Wall of Famer Jim Thome. Landon is a 6-foot, 177-pound, left-handed-hitting infielder out of Nazareth Academy in Illinois who is committed to Florida State.<\/p>\n
At No. 22, Detroit took Egg Harbor Township grad and Coastal Carolina product Cameron Flukey. The 6-6 right-handed pitcher was part of a run on hurlers that started with Florida\u2019s Liam Peterson going to the Guardians at 19 and include 10 of the next 14 picks.<\/p>\n
UC Santa Barbara right-handed pitcher Jackson Flora went fourth overall. He was the only hurler until Gio Rojas of Stoneman Douglas High in Florida went to the Texas Rangers with the 16th overall pick, the first high school arm.<\/p>\n
Flora paved the way to a run of outfielders in the top 10. Pittsburgh took LSU center fielder and redshirt sophomore Derek Curiel fifth. Zion Rose of Louisville went sixth to Kansas City. Mississippi high schooler Eric Booth Jr. became an Oriole at No. 7, followed by Georgia Tech center fielders Drew Burres (the Athletics) and New Jersey-born AJ Gracia of Virginia (Atlanta). The Rockies rounded out the top 10 with Kentucky shortstop Tyler Bell.<\/p>\n
There were family ties. Trevor Condon, an outfielder from Etowah High School in Georgia, went 13th overall to the Cardinals; older brother, Charlie Condon, was the third overall pick in 2024 out of the University of Georgia by the Rockies and is in Triple A. He\u2019s rated by MLB.com as the 62nd best prospect in baseball.<\/p>\n
Jacob Lombard was the local pick for the Miami Marlins, taking the shortstop out of Gulliver Prep. He is the younger brother of George Lombard Jr., an infielder in Triple A for the Yankees and ranked baseball\u2019s 20th-best prospect. At No. 25, the Brewers took Trey Ebel, a shortstop from Corona High in California; older brother Brady was the 32nd pick in 2025 and is in Single A. (Their father, Dino Ebel, is the third-base coach for the Dodgers who will throw to the Phillies\u2019 Bryce Harper in Monday\u2019s Home Run Derby.)<\/p>\n
Carson Wiggins, who went 27th to the Mets, is the brother of Cubs pitcher Jaxon Wiggins, a top-100 prospect who went 68th overall in 2023.<\/p>\n
The first round included a two-way prospect in Jared Grindlinger, a corner outfielder and left-handed pitcher from Huntington Beach High who has to travel a short way to become an Angel at 12th overall. He reclassified down from 2027 to be draft eligible and is just 17.<\/p>\n
The draft even featured a Lebron \u2013 no, not that one. Justin Lebron, a shortstop out of the University of Alabama, who went 18th overall to the Reds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA \u2014 Somewhere between the lusty booing of Atlanta mascot Blooper and MLB Network host Robert Flores\u2019 second…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1423,69,71,70,726,6519],"class_list":["post-241479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-mlb","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-sports","tag-top-stories-hzs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}