12 local prospects taken in 2020 MLB Draft
12 local prospects taken in 2020 MLB Draft
Including five of the top 19 picks
Welcome to the Music City Sports Report.
The state of Tennessee was represented well on Wednesday and Thursday as 11 local prospects were selected in the 2020 MLB Draft, including five of the top 19. This year’s draft was pared down from the usual 40 rounds to just five due to the pandemic, so only 160 players were selected overall. Let’s take a look at all the local picks, broken down by school.
Vanderbilt
The Vandy Boys added to their case as the premier program in collegiate baseball with another stacked draft class.
Shortstop Austin Martin, considered to be the best player in the draft by some experts and the second-best prospect by most, slipped to the fifth pick where he was selected by the Toronto Blue Jays. Check out this profile on Martin by The Athletic’s Dan Connolly.
The other Commodore picks in order were:
Pitcher Ty Brown | Round 3 Pick 101 | Houston Astros
Pitcher Jake Elder | Round 4 Pick 104 | Miami Marlins
Pitcher Mason Hickman | Round 5 Pick 154 | Cleveland Indians
East Tennessee State
Considered the top senior in the draft, ESTU pitcher Landon Knack went to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the second round as the 60th overall pick, joining LA’s collection of Tennessee players. Here’s a story the NCAA did about Knack leading the nation in strikeouts when the season was canceled.
Tennessee
Pitcher Garrett Crochet | Round 1 Pick 11 | Chicago White Sox
Outfielder Alerick Soularie | Round 2 Pick 59 | Minnesota Twins
Outfielder Zach Daniels | Round 4 Pick 131 | Houston Astros
Local High Schools
Outfielder Robert Hassell | Independence | Round 1 Pick 8 | San Diego Padres
Pitcher Bryce Jarvis | Brentwood Academy (Duke) | Round 1 Pick 18 | Arizona Diamondbacks | Here’s a story from the HomePage about Jarvis’ perfect game from earlier this season, the first in the 131-year history of Duke’s program
Outfielder Evan Carter | Elizabethton HS | Round 2 Pick 50 | Texas Rangers
Hassell and outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong (19th overall pick) were signed to play for Vanderbilt, but will now be heading to the majors.
Links
Nashville SC is headed to the Eastern Conference for the remainder of 2020, starting with the MLS is Back Tournament. NSC was placed in Group A with Orlando City, Inter Miami, NYCFC, Philadelphia Union, and Chicago Fire. The top two teams from each of the six groups plus the four-best third-place teams will advance to the knockout round. And although NSC is in the only group of six teams, they should have a good shot to advance. Speedway Soccer lays out what to watch for in NSC’s return to action.
Vanderbilt RHP Jack Leiter, UT Martin 1B Wil LaFollette and DH Christian Hall, and Tennessee Tech SS Brett Roberts were named Collegiate Baseball Freshman All-Americans.
John Glennon is already back on the Titans beat with this wild story about the team’s attempt to woo free agent Peyton Manning back in 2012. I have always wondered what went down that week, and this story has all the inside details.
The Athletic interviewed Belmont MBB head coach Casey Alexander as part of their My First Year series.
The Athletic also checked in on the state of Memphis’ football program. Spoiler alert, they’re on the way up.
The Ballinteers, the Tennessee Vols TBT team, sadly had to drop out of this year’s tournament. I was really excited about their roster.
Nashville might be getting an IndyCar race within the next two years.
An update on former Belmont MBB star Kerron Johnson who was stuck overseas with his pregnant wife at home - he’s now back in America with his son due in July.
A third Belmont MBB link: legendary coach Rick Byrd was elected to the OVC Hall of Fame.
And one last piece of Belmont-related news: former standout UT softball pitcher Megan Rhodes Smith is returning to the Vols as a pitching coach. She had been the head coach at Belmont for one season after a stint as Lipscomb’s pitching coach.
On the McCourty Twins Double Coverage podcast, Jurrell Casey said the Titans threw him away “like a piece of trash.” Considering how big of a role he has played with the team for nearly a decade, it’s pretty bad that he was only notified of the trade at the last second.
Vanderbilt WBB and TSU MBB each landed a DI transfer: USF’s Enna Pehadzic is joining the Dores and Georgia State’s Josh Linder is headed to TSU.
The Daily Memphian had an in-depth look at the Grizzlies’ Brandon Clarke.
The Ringer included Corey Davis in their list of seven NFL players who need to break out this season.
In non-sports news, several of Nashville’s finest musicians performed in a fundraiser tribute show in celebration of the late John Prine on Thursday night.