2015 Draft: Day Two Open Thread

Day One of the 2015 draft came and went yesterday with the usual fanfare. The Yankees selected three players — UCLA RHP James Kaprielian (16th overall), San Diego SS Kyle Holder (30th), Indiana State LHP Jeff Degano (57th) — as part of rather vanilla Day One haul. Kaprielian should move quickly, Holder can play the hell out of shortstop, and Degano is a big lefty with arm strength who missed a bunch of time due to Tommy John surgery from 2013-14. None has star potential but all three give you reasons to believe they’ll be useful MLB players. Here’s my Day One recap.

The draft continues today with Day Two, and, under the current spending restrictions, Day Two is typically the least exciting of the three days. Rounds 3-10 will be selected today and teams use these picks to manipulate their draft pools — they were working all night to cut deals and get signing bonuses in place so they know how much money they have to work with going forward. Day Three is when they start taking risks, when the picks aren’t tied to draft pool space. Here are some stray draft links to check out:

• Here are the pick-by-pick first round pick analyses by Chris Crawford (subs. req’d) and Jim Callis. The short versions: both like Kaprielian as a quick moving righty and love Holder’s glove, with Crawford more skeptical about his long-term value than Callis. “I think his glove alone could make him a big league regular,” wrote Callis.
• Here are the best available players according to Baseball America and MLB.com. The Yankees have been connected to both Tennessee HS RHP Donny Everett (my profile) and Florida post-graduate RHP Jacob Nix (my profile), and they’re both among the best players still on the board. I wonder if Nix is experiencing some blowback from teams after filing his grievance against the Astros last year. I’d like to that isn’t happening, but who knows.
• The big name still on the board: Duke RHP Mike Matuella, who had Tommy John surgery in April and a back problem earlier in the spring. He told Laura Keeley he is considering returning to school, and since every team with extra picks already passed on him, my guess is his medicals are scary. He might not be signable at this point. Then again, he doesn’t have much leverage. Matuella’s options are sign or go back to school and not get on a mound until April.
• Name to watch going forward: Iona RHP Mariano Rivera III (my profile). The Yankees will inevitably draft him at some point, the question is whether they do it today or wait until tomorrow. (He’s a fourth or fifth round talent.) Mo III and his family have said finishing school is a priority, and I doubt the Yankees want to risk losing draft pool money by taking him with one of today’s picks.

The draft resumes today at 1pm ET and there will be a half-hour pre-draft show as well. There is no MLB Network broadcast today, the draft shifts to online only for Days Two and Three. Here is the MLB.com feed and here is the MLB.com Draft Tracker. Talk about all things draft right here throughout the day.