12 Phillies 2015 MLB Draft picks you need to know about

The MLB draft, all forty rounds of it, has come and gone. This was the first draft for Phillies Scouting Director Johnny Alvarez.

Here are twelve of the newest Phillies to take note of:

Round 1, Pick 10 – Cornelius Randolph, SS, Griffin High School (GA)

The Phillies’ first overall selection, while a pretty polished high school hitter, isn’t tied to a position defensively.Alvarez said the Phillies project Randolph to left field.

Randolph’s agent is Scott Boras, and this selection could signal an end to the acrimony between Boras and the Phillies that has stewed since 1997 First Round selection and Boras client J.D. Drew refused to sign with the team.

Round 8, Pick 234 – Greg Pickett, OF, Legend High School (CO)

Pickett is a bit of a steal, having been projected as high as the third round.Teams were likely scared off by a seemingly sound commitment to play college ball at Mississippi State, but the Phillies and Pickett have reportedly already agreed to a contract.

Round 14, Pick 414 – Austin Bossart, C Penn

Round 17, Pick 504 – Kenny Koplove, RHP, Duke

The Phillies picked up a pair of local prospects in the middle rounds.Bossart was the Ivy League Player of the Year in 2015 and threw out 17 of 32 base-stealers.

Koplove attended Penn Charter and grew up a Phillies fan.He was Duke’s closer and saved a school record 11 games while striking out 37 batters in 25 1/3 innings.His brother Mike, pitched in the majors and in the Phillies organization with the Iron Pigs.

Round 16, Pick 474 – Brendon Hayden, 1B, Virginia Tech

This is the second time the Phillies have drafted Hayden, originally selecting him in the 36th round out of high school in 2011.Now Hayden is a 6-foot-6First Team All-ACC left-handed bat, and it would be nice to see him become a prospect at first for the Phils.

Round 29, Pick 864 – Von Watson, OF, Briarcrest Christian (TN)

Round 33, Pick 984 – Jacob Stevens, RHP, Choate Rosemary Hall (CT)

The Phillies took a pair of players late who could be steals if the Phillies can talk them out of Lipscomb Universtiy (Watson) and Boston College (Stevens) respectively.The selection of Watson ended a run of 10 straight pitchers selected by the Phillies.

Round 34, Pick 1014 – Ben Pelletier, OF, Ecole Secondair De Montagne (Quebec)

Pelletier, from Canada, is the youngest player ever drafted at 16 years, 10 months old.

Round 35, Pick 1044 – Andrew Amaro, OF, Univ. of Tampa

Round 38, Pick 1134 – Beau Brundage, SS, Mill Creek High School (GA)

Round 39, Pick 1164 – Griffin Morandini, CF, Garnet Valley High School (PA)

Round 40, Pick 1194 – Tom McCarthy, 3B, Allentown (NJ)

Call it legacies or call it nepotism, but the Phillies selected four players at the end of the draft with either an uncle (Ruben Amaro, General Manager) or father (Dave Brundage, Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs’ Manager; Mickey Morandini, Minor League Coach; and Tom McCarthy, TV Play-By-Play) heavily connected to the organization.

The Phillies are hardly the only team to draft players with ties to members of the team or management. This is the second time the team has drafted Amaro, after selecting him in the 47th round of the 2011 draft. He played for the University of Tampa team that beat the Phillies this past Spring Training.