draft conundrum

The Major League Baseball amateur draft is in limbo. Players aren’t playing, so scouts aren’t scouting and cross-checkers aren’t cross-checking. There is chatter that the draft, slated for June 10-12 in Omaha, will be cancelled. That would throw all the players eligible for 2020 back into the pool for 2021. But if there is a 2020 draft, could players choose to defer to 2021? If players are drafted and signed in 2020, will they even have a place to play? It’s a little confusing. Way back in December, before the new coronavirus made its ugly appearance in the U.S., mlb.com listed five Mississippians among its top 100 draft prospects: Mississippi State’s J.T. Ginn (No. 36), Jordan Westburg (43) and Justin Foscue (58) and high schoolers Blaze Jordan (53) and Colt Keith (91). Presuming that there will be a draft, draftsite.com has done a mock draft (updated March 18) in which Ginn, a sophomore-eligible right-hander who was a first-rounder in 2018, is pegged as the No. 12 pick by Cincinnati. Considering that Ginn recently had elbow surgery, that seems a bit unrealistic. Foscue, a second baseman, would be the 28th overall pick by the New York Yankees, and Westburg, a shortstop, would go 30th to Baltimore. Jordan, a slugging corner infielder at DeSoto Central (and a State commit), is slotted by Draft Site at pick No. 35 by Colorado, and Keith, a pitcher/third baseman at Biloxi, checks in at No. 153 (fifth round), going to Washington. Ole Miss third baseman Tyler Keenan was pegged at No. 72, also going to Washington. All in all, these are just wild guesses about a draft that may not happen, but, hey, it gives seamheads something to chew on.