By Kevin Askeland
MaxPreps.com
When the Major League Baseball draft commences later this week, a pair of high schools could end up with multiple first round selections.
American Heritage (Plantation, Fla.) first baseman Eric Hosmer is expected to go among the top 10 picks in the draft while teammate Adrian Nieto, one of the draft’s top catching prospects, could go near the end of the first round.
The draft’s top high school catcher, Kyle Skipworth of Patriot High School in Riverside, Calif., will likely get tabbed in the first five picks while his teammate, infielder Matt Lollis, is considered a top 30 prospect.
Having two high school teammates drafted in the first round is not a rarity. It happened twice last year. Mike Moustakas of Chatsworth went to Kansas City with the No. 2 pick last year and was the top high school player selected. His teammate Matt Dominguez landed at Florida with the No. 12 overall pick. Both are playing Single A ball for their respective teams.
Calhoun High School in Georgia also had two picks. Josh Smoker went to the Washington Nationals with the No. 31 selection while Charlie Culberson went to San Francisco with the 51st pick in the first round (a total of 64 players were chosen in the first round last year).
When Skipworth is chosen, he will become the first player ever chosen from Patriot, which is in its first year of existence. However, when it comes to the most high school selections in the history of the MLB draft, the undeniable king is Lakewood, Calif.
When Travis D’Arnaud was chosen by the Phillies last year in the first round, he became the 47th draft pick for the Lancers. According to the Baseball Cube website, 52 Lakewood alumni have been drafted or played at some level of Major League Baseball. Eleven Lancers have reached the big leagues with current New York Met Damion Easley topping the list of famous Lakewood graduates.
Florida schools Sarasota, Hillsborough, Miami Senior and Monsignor Pace have all produced at least 35 players with major or minor league experience, topped by Sarasota’s 45. Sarasota has produced seven major leaguers while Hillsborough has 10, Miami Senior has five and Pace has two.
No school has produced more Major Leaguers, however, than Fremont of Los Angeles. The Pathfinders have placed 23 players in the Major Leagues, topped by Hall of Famer Bobby Doerr, National League standouts Willie Crawford, Eric Davis, George Hendrick and Bob Watson and manager Gene Mauch.
Long Beach Poly is known for producing more NFL players than any other high school in the United States, but the Jackrabbits aren’t too shabby when it comes to producing MLB players either. Ten Poly graduates have made the big leagues, including the brother combinations of Chris and Tony Gwynn and Ollie and Oscar Brown. Another famous brother, Randy Moffitt, is from Long Beach Poly. The former San Francisco Giant is the younger brother of tennis great Billie Jean King. Current MLB players Milton Bradley and Chase Utley are Poly grads as well.
Schools that have produced quality over quantity included Archbishop Moeller in Cincinnati and Lafayette in Brooklyn. Only 18 players from Moeller have played professional baseball, but it’s a strong group that includes future Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr., all-time Cincinnati Red great Barry Larkin and Buddy Bell and his two sons David and Mike. Lafayette, meanwhile, has had 23 players in professional baseball, but 13 have reached the Major Leagues, including Sandy Koufax and John Franco.
Perhaps no region of the country, however, can match the level of talent produced in the San Francisco Bay Area. An all-time all-star team from the Bay Area would find Ernie Lombardi of McClymonds at catcher (Hall of Fame), Willie Stargell of Encinal at first base (Hall of Fame), Joe Morgan of Castlemont at second base (Hall of Fame), Ken Caminiti of Leigh at third base (National League MVP), Jimmy Rollins of Encinal at shortstop (reigning National League MVP winner), Barry Bonds of Serra in left field (all-time home run leader, 7-time MVP), Joe DiMaggio of Galileo in centerfield (Hall of Fame) and Frank Robinson in right field (Hall of Fame). The pitching staff might consist of starters Randy Johnson of Livermore (5-time Cy Young Award winner), Dave Stewart of St. Elizabeth’s (World Series MVP), Mark Langston of Buchser (4-time All-Star) and C.C. Sabathia of Vallejo (reigning American League Cy Young winner). Dennis Eckersley of Fremont Washington (Hall of Fame) would be the closer.
Left on the bench are greats like Rickey Henderson (Oakland Tech), Curt Flood (McClymonds), Vada Pinson (McClymonds), Lee Lacy (McClymonds), Pat Burrell (Bellarmine), Chick Hafey (Berkeley), Billy Martin (Berkeley), Keith Hernandez (Capuchino), John Wetteland (Cardinal Newman), Tom Candiotti (Concord), Willie McGee (Harry Ells), Dontrelle Willis (Encinal), Scott Erickson (Homestead), Tony Lazzeri (Galileo), Dom DiMaggio (Galileo), Vince DiMaggio (Galileo), Carney Lansford (Wilcox), Gregg Jeffereies (Serra), Jim Fregosi (Serra) and Tug McGraw (St. Vincent).
The Major League Baseball draft will be held June 5 and 6. The Tampa Bay Rays have the first selection.
