MLB Draft First Round Picks

1. Pittsburgh Pirates: Gerrit Cole, RHP, UCLA

2. Seattle Mariners: Danny Hultzen, LHP, Virginia

3. Arizona Diamondbacks: Trevor Bauer, RHP, UCLA

4. Baltimore Orioles: Dylan Bundy. RHP, Owasso (Okla.) High

5. Kansas City Royals: Bubba Starling, OF, Gardner (Kan.) Gardner-Edgerton

6. Washington Nationals: Anthony Rendon, 3B, Rice

7. Arizona Diamondbacks: Archie Bradley, RHP, Broken Arrow (Okla.) High

8. Cleveland Indians: Francisco Lindor, SS, Montverde (Fla.) Montverde Academy

9. Chicago Cubs: Javier Baez, SS, Jacksonville (Fla.) Arlington Country Day

10. San Diego Padres: Cory Spangenberg, 2B/3B, Indian Rivers Junior College

11. Houston Astros: George Springer, OF, Connecticut

12. Milwaukee Brewers: Taylor Jungmann, RHP, Texas

13. New York Mets: Brandon Nimmo, OF, Cheyenne (Wyo.) East

14. Florida Marlins: Jose Fernandez, RHP, Tampa (Fla.) Alonso

15. Milwaukee Brewers: Jed Bradley, LHP, Georgia Tech

16. Los Angeles Dodgers: Chris Reed, LHP, Stanford

17. LA Angels of Anaheim: CJ Cron, 1B/DH, Utah

18. Oakland Athletics: Sonny Gray, RHP, Vanderbilt

19. Boston Red Sox: Matt Barnes, RHP, Connecticut

20. Colorado Rockies: Tyler Anderson, LHP, Oregon

21. Toronto Blue Jays: Tyler Beede, RHP, Auburn (Mass.) Lawrence Academy

22. St. Louis Cardinals: Kolten Wong, 2B, Hawaii

23. Washington Nationals: Alex Meyer, RHP, Kentucky

24. Tampa Bay Rays: Taylor Guerrieri, RHP, North Augusta (S.C.) Spring Valley

25. San Diego Padres: Joe Ross, RHP, Oakland (Calif.) Bishop O'Dowd

26. Boston Red Sox: Blake Swihart, C, Rio Rancho (N.M.) Cleveland

27. Cincinnati Reds: Robert Stephenson, RHP, Martinez (Calif.) Alhambra

28. Atlanta Braves: Sean Gilmartin, LHP, Florida State

29. San Francisco Giants: Joe Panik, SS, St. John's

30. Minnesota Twins: Levi Michael, SS, North Carolina

31. Tampa Bay: Mikie Mahtook, OF, LSU

32. Tampa Bay Rays: Jake Hager, SS, Las Vegas (Nev.) Sierra Vista

33. Texas Rangers: Kevin Matthews, LHP, Richmond Hill (Ga.) High

SUPPLIMENTAL FIRST ROUND PICKS

34. Washington Nationals: Brian Goodwin, OF, Miami Dade Junior College

35. Toronto Blue Jays: Jacob Anderson, OF, Chino (Calif.) High

36. Boston Red Sox: Henry Owens, LHP, Huntington Beach (calif.) Edison

37. Texas Rangers: Zach Cone, OF, [tm]Georgia[/tm]

38. Tampa Bay Rays: Brandon Martin, SS, Corona (Calif.) Santiago

39. Philadelphia: Larry Greene, OF, Nashville (Ga.) Berrien County

40. Boston Red Sox: Jackie Bradley, OF, South Carolina

41. Tampa Bay Rays: Tyler Goeddel, 3b, Mountain View (Calif.) St. Francis

42. Tampa Bay: Jeff Ames, RHP, Lower Columbia College

43. Arizona Diamondbacks: Andrew Chafin, LHP, Kent State

44. New York Mets: Mike Fulmer, RHP, Deer Creek (Okla.) High

Latest Mock Drafts

Danny Hultzen

Here are the latest mock drafts from ESPN and Yahoo Sports...

ESPN Mock Draft by Keith Law:

1. Pittsburgh Pirates
Gerrit Cole, RHP, UCLA
2. Seattle Mariners
Anthony Rendon, 3B, Rice
3. Arizona Diamondbacks
Trevor Bauer, RHP, UCLA
4. Baltimore Orioles
Danny Hultzen, LHP, Virginia

5. Kansas City Royals
Dylan Bundy, RHP, Owasso HS (Okla.)
6. Washington Nationals
Bubba Starling, OF, Gardner Edgerton HS (Kan.)
7. Arizona Diamondbacks
Archie Bradley, RHP, Broken Arrow HS (Okla.)
8. Cleveland Indians
Joe Ross, RHP, Bishop O'Dowd HS (Calif.)
9. Chicago Cubs
Mikie Mahtook, OF, LSU

10. San Diego Padres
Matt Barnes, RHP, UCONN

See the rest of the ESPN Mock Draft here.

Yahoo Sports Mock Draft by Dallas Jackson

1. Pittsburgh Pirates
Gerrit Cole, RHP, UCLA
2. Seattle Mariners
Anthony Rendon, 3B, Rice
3. Arizona Diamondbacks
Danny Hultzen, LHP, Virginia
4. Baltimore Orioles
Dylan Bundy, RHP, Owasso HS (Okla.)
5. Kansas City Royals
Bubba Starling, OF, Gardner Edgerton HS (Kan.)
6. Washington Nationals
Alex Meyer, RHP, Kentucky
7. Arizona Diamondbacks
Trevor Bauer, RHP, UCLA
8. Cleveland Indians
Francisco Lindor, SS, Montverde Academy (Fla.)
9. Chicago Cubs
George Springer, OF, UCONN

10. San Diego Padres
Archie Bradley, RHP, Broken Arrow HS (Okla.)

See the rest of the Yahoo Sports Mock Draft here.

MLB Draft to Start Monday

Anthony Rendon

Three of the most important days for MLB franchises will begin on Monday night, as the first round of the MLB Draft takes place in Secaucus, New Jersey at 7 PM.  Rounds 2-30 will take place on Tuesday beginning at noon and the last twenty rounds will take place on Wednesday starting at noon.  You can follow the Draft here: MLB Draft Central

While there isn't a prospect with the hype that Stephen Strasburg or Bryce Harper carried in the past two years, this year's draft is the deepest one in awhile.  The Pittsburg Pirates hold the number one overall pick and have yet to tip their hand as to who they are going to pick.  The top two players available are UCLA pitcher Gerrit Cole and Rice infielder Anthony Rendon.  Cole was drafted 28th overall out of high school in the 2008 draft but elected to attend UCLA.  He has a fastball that reaches the mid-to-high nineties and he has experience both in the College World Series and with Team USA.  This season Cole is 6-8 with a 3.31 ERA and 119 strikeouts in 114.1 innings.

Coming into this season, Rendon was considered the best available player, but ankle and shoulder injuries have lowered his stock a little bit (it shows how good he is that he is still be considered for the number one overall pick).  He was the National Freshman of the Year in 2009 and in 2010 he was the National Player of the Year.  His batting average has dropped from .394 to .332 this season (thanks to injuries).  Part of that also has to do with the lack of hittable pitches he has seen.  Pitchers know he's good and would rather walk him in a lot of cases.  He has 79 walks on the season and a ridiculous .522 on-base percentage.

There are many different draft story lines to keep track of this year.  The Rays have 12 picks in the first 89 choices (they better not mess that up or they could really mess up the future of the franchise), and two-sport prep star Bubba Starling, who is possibly the best athlete in the draft, will be drafted high but needs to decide whether or not a bonus expected to be near $6 million will keep him from playing quarterback at Nebraska.  Overall, it should be a great three days.  Below is the draft video of Gerrit Cole.

Pujols Back on Track

For anyone who has been paying attention to baseball this season, it has been easy to tell that Albert Pujols has not been playing up to his normal standards.  Before this weekend's series against Chicago, Pujols was hitting .265 (he has a career average of .329) with only nine homers (eight behind NL leader Jay Bruce), and only six doubles.  His slugging percentage of .412 was more than 200 points lower than his career average (.617).  Two months into the 2011 season and the best player in baseball hadn't regained his form.

There's nothing like playing the lowly Cubs.  Pujols has always been good against the Cubs, hitting .297 (before Saturday's game) with 48 homers against them in his career (the most against any opponent).  This weekend has been no different.  In two games Pujols is 4-7 with three homers, one double and six RBIs.  On Friday night he hit a two-run homer and on Saturday afternoon he hit a two-run home run in the fourth inning, an RBI-double in the sixth and a walk-off homer in the twelfth.  He raised his average to .275 and his slugging percentage climbed to .459.

With one more game against the Cubs, Pujols has another good chance to continue his upward swing.  It's good for baseball when Pujols is performing normally (which is basically him being perpetually on fire), so hopefully this weekend means that he is back on track.

On This Day in Baseball: Ruth's Retirement

On June 2, 1935, Boston Braves outfielder Babe Ruth announced his decision to retire from baseball.  He had wanted to retire three weeks earlier, but Braves' owner Emil Fuchs persuaded him to continue to play because Boston hadn't played in every National League park.  Ruth was forty years-old at the time of his retirement.  In 22 seasons (six for the Red Sox, 15 for the Yankees, one for the Braves), the Sultan of Swat smashed the old career home run record, hitting 714 big flies (now third all-time).  He ranks 10th all-time with a .342 batting average, second in on-base percentage at .474, first in slugging at .690, and second all-time in RBIs with 2,213.  Here are his full stats at Baseball-Reference.

After his playing career ended, Ruth was one of the first five players elected into Cooperstown in 1936.  He then became the first base coach for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1938.  In 1947, he became director of the American Legion's youth baseball program.  On August 16, 1948, Ruth died of pneumonia.  He was 53