MLB Draft Roundup: Day Three

Virginia right-handed pitcher Cody Winiarski (Sr., Franksville, Wis.) and outfielder John Barr (Sr., Ivyland, Pa.) each were selected Wednesday in day three of the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft. Virginia finished with eight draft picks, which tied for 11th most among all Division I baseball programs.

It also marked the second-most draft picks Virginia has boasted in one year – one behind the 2010 team.

Winiarski was chosen in the 36th round (1,101 overall) by the Chicago White Sox. Barr was a 39th-round pick (1,178 overall) of the Cleveland Indians.

Winiarski is 6-3 with a 3.20 earned run average this season. In 70.1 innings (15 games), he has allowed 25 earned runs, 55 hits and 20 walks while striking out 55. Opposing batters are hitting just .221 against him. Winiarski owns an 11-3 career record in his two seasons at UVa.

A second-team All-ACC selection in 2011, Barr is batting .293 this year. He owns career highs in nearly every statistical category this season, including runs (46), hits (65), doubles (14), RBI (33) and stolen bases (8). He has played in 196 career games, which ranks 10th all-time at Virginia.

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Junior shortstop Adam McConnell was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers Tuesday in the 30th-round (914th pick) of the 2011 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft. McConnell is the second Spider drafted in as many seasons.

McConnell, who was drafted although missing his entire junior season with an upper-leg injury, becomes the first Spider junior taken in the draft since Joe Mahoney by the Orioles in 2007. Richmond’s two most recent draftees – pitchers Alex Hale (2008) and Ian Marshall (2010) – were seniors.

McConnell has not yet announced if he will sign, and after redshirting this season, he has two seasons of eligibility remaining.

The speedy McConnell has swiped 52 bases in his college career, ranking ninth on the Spiders’ all-time list and needing just 14 more to reach fourth place. An A-10 All-Rookie pick and a Freshman All-America in 2009, the Yorktown, Va. native owns a .320 career average with 18 doubles, 41 RBI and owns a .397 on-base percentage in 97 career games.

His 23 strikeouts in 2010 were the fewest among Richmond’s everyday starters.

Out of Tabb High School in Yorktown, McConnell was one of the state’s top prep prospects, being named the Daily Press Player of the Year and the District Player of the Year as a senior.

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Senior RF Mike Mergenthaler was drafted by the San Francisco Giants Wednesday in the 32nd-round (987th overall) of the 2011 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft. For the Spiders, it marks the first time since 2007 that multiple players were drafted in the same year after junior SS Adam McConnell was picked by the LA Dodgers in the 30th round.

A Second Team All-Atlantic 10 selection, Mergenthaler capped his remarkable Spider career in style as the team’s triple crown winner in 2011 — leading the club in average (.307), RBI (45) and home runs (7). It marks Richmond’s first team triple crown winner since Mike Dwyer in 1998. Dwyer was Mergenthaler’s high school coach at North Rockland (N.Y.)

Mergenthaler also led the Spiders in doubles (18), stolen bases (18), walks (36) and on-base percentage (.390). Named to the A-10 All-Tournament Team, Mergenthaler hit .438 (7-for-16) in the tournament with two doubles, four RBI and five run as Richmond reached the A-10 championship game to mark the program’s best finish since 2003.

Missing just three games in his college career that spanned 207 games, the career .301-hitting ironman finished his Spider career ranked ranked third in RBI (166), fifth in at-bats (825), seventh in hits (248), ninth in doubles (50) and seventh in total bases (399).

The Rockland, N.Y. native played first base for much of his career, but started all 58 games in right field this season and led the A-10 and ranked third nationally with 11 outfield assists. Of the 11, four came on plays at the plate.

Since 1995, Mergenthaler is the 34th Spider to be drafted, and the second by the Giants organization (Thomas Martin, 13th round in 2004).