WACO, Texas — Baylor shortstop Nick Loftin had to wait three hours to hear his name called, but it was all worth it.
Loftin was picked No. 32 overall by the Kansas City Royals in the competitive balance A round. Loftin is the 13th Baylor Bear to earn a first-round nod and the third in the last two seasons. He joins Shea Langeliers (No. 9 by the Atlanta Braves) and Davis Wendzel (No. 41 by the Texas Rangers) last season.
Loftin batted .298 with 2 HR, 15 RBI's, and was tied for the team lead with 31 total bases. The value of the 32nd overall pick is $2.25 million dollars.
McLennan Community College Head Baseball Coach Mitch Thompson hopes to hear a few players selected when rounds two through five resumes on Thursday.
"You know I think Connor Phillips will go sometime probably in the second round, would be my guess. Which would be awesome for him," Thompson said. "Then Brett Squires and Jalen Battles could go towards the fourth, fifth round and hopefully both of them will get a chance but there's going to be a lot of disappointed kids sometime this year because there (are) only five rounds. There's going to be some guys that are left out."
Phillips was tabbed as the No. 1 junior college draft prospect by Perfect Game. This season, Phillips went 3-1 with a 3.16 ERA in six starts.
The freshman struck out 27 batters in 25.2 innings in front of many professional scouts during each start.
"Probably the biggest thing that he did was he matured," Thompson said. "He matured on and off the field and I think everybody was able to see that he has a really bright future in the game. He's not a total finished product yet. There's much more development to take place but when you see the high-end stuff that he has, you get really excited and that's where most of the major league baseball scouts and front offices I think are about him."
If Major League Baseball had a normal draft this year, fans could have seen as many as four players drafted from Baylor and the same at McLennan Community College.
"These kids are having to deal with a setback that's really none of their doing," Thompson said. "They did everything they could and thought they were going to get the opportunity to do that but it just changes and its changing for everybody in college baseball. Division one programs are getting less guys drafted so they are having more players return so incoming classes are affected. It's a roster problem throughout the country."
Coverage continues on Thursday, June 11 on MLB Network and ESPN 2 at 4 p.m. CT and will pick up with the start of the second round (pick No. 38) and run through the end of the fifth and final round of this year’s Draft.
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