The 2016 Major League Baseball Draft gets under way Thursday night at 7 p.m. with several high-profile Georgia players, including a pair of area players, projected to go in the first two rounds.
Buford's Brandon Marsh (OF, Kennesaw State-signee) is considered the highest projected player in northeast Georgia, rated No. 48 by MLB.com. The senior helped lead the Wolves to the Class AAAA state title in 2015 and to a Class AAAA state-runner up spot in 2016. He hit a Gwinnett-County leading .559 on the season.
Former Gainesville High pitcher Johnathan Gettys was expecetd to be a high-round selection before he was dismissed from the team late in the season. He is listed on MLB.com among the players from Georgia that could be selected.
We will update our coverage throughout the night on any local and area players who may be selected.
The draft will run from Thursday to Saturday.
On Thursday, the first two rounds will be selected, including compensatory picks for lost free agents who rejected the qualifying offer, plus Competitive Balance Rounds A and B. The two competitive balance rounds are six picks each, and awarded by lottery among the bottom 10 teams in revenue and market size. Round A follows the first round, and Round B follows the second round.
Competitive Balance Rounds picks are the only draft picks that are allowed to be traded, and each pick can only be dealt once.
There are four-minute intervals between picks in the first round, then one-minute intervals in between picks from Competitive Balance Round A all the way through Round 10.
Rounds 3-10 will be held on Friday beginning at 1 p.m. on MLB.com only, with a draft show at 12:30 p.m.; Saturday will feature rounds 11-40, beginning at 12 p.m. on MLB.com.
