Mayo, Network to preview Draft on Sunday night
Many likely top selections will live tweet during the special presentation
The Astros have the first pick in this year's First-Year Player Draft, but any player selected in the first round will join his new club behind high expectations.
Get to know the top prospects who will be selected in this year's Draft as MLB.com Draft expert Jonathan Mayo joins MLB Network's Greg Amsinger, John Hart and Harold Reynolds in a special presentation to be aired on MLB Network and streamed on MLB.com Sunday at 10 p.m. ET. Filmed at MLB Network's studios, where Day 1 of the First-Year Player Draft will take place on Thursday, the show will set the stage for the Draft, as the panel presents video, stats and analysis on each of the players.
Many of the top prospects will be live tweeting during the show and offering their thoughts, so tune in and join the conversation, using hashtag #MLBDraft.
Among those who will be interacting is Oklahoma right-hander Jonathan Gray, the No. 2-rated prospect on MLB.com's Top 100 Draft Prospects list and a frontrunner to be selected first overall. Like many others, Gray has already been drafted, once as a 13th-round pick by the Royals in 2010, when he was just out of high school, and again as 10th-round pick by the Yankees in 2011, after he spent a year at a junior college.
"There were times, during the last time I was drafted, I got down about it, thinking I should've gone earlier," Gray said. "But looking back at it, I'm glad it went down the way I did. I wouldn't change a thing. It shows you what can happen when you work hard for things."
Joining Gray (@Graywolf_22) in the live tweeting will be No. 4 Clint Frazier (@CJF19), No. 5 Austin Meadows (@austin_meadows), No. 7 Kohl Stewart (@KohlStewart1), No. 14 Marco Gonzales (@MarcoGonzales_), No. 20 Jon Denney (@jondenney26), No. 23 Nick Ciuffo (@nciuffo14), No. 24 Aaron Judge (@TheJudge44), No 34. Billy McKinney (@billy_mckinney), No. 36 Oscar Mercado (@Osc_Merc), No. 43 Kyle Serrano (@SerranoK34) and No. 48 Hunter Green (@hunterbgreen1).
The First-Year Player Draft will take place on June 6-8, beginning with the Draft preview show on MLB.com and MLB Network on Thursday, June 6, at 6 p.m. ET. Live Draft coverage from MLB Network's Studio 42 begins at 7 p.m., with the top 73 picks being streamed on MLB.com and broadcast on MLB Network. Rounds 3-10 will be streamed live on MLB.com on June 7, beginning with a preview show at 12:30 p.m., and Rounds 11-40 will be streamed live on MLB.com on June 8, starting at 1 p.m.
MLB.com's coverage includes Draft Central, the Top 100 Draft Prospects list and Draft Tracker, a live interactive application that includes a searchable database of Draft-eligible players. You can also keep up to date by following @MLBDraft on Twitter. And get into the Draft conversation by tagging your tweets with #mlbdraft.