Published On: Wed, Jan 18th, 2023

Palm Beach State Baseball in Top 15 for most Draft Picks since 2003

Since 2003, Palm Beach State ranks in the Top 15 for all Junior Colleges and Top 20 in Colleges in Florida for having players drafted by Major League Baseball.

Starting in 2003, Palm Beach State has had 32 players drafted in the MLB Draft. Two players, Mike Rayl (2008-2009) and Peter Mooney (2009-2010), were drafted during both of their seasons at Palm Beach State College. Of the 32 players drafted, 1 was drafted in the 4th round (Gio Arriera, 2017), 2 in the 5th round (Brandon Welch, 2012 and JD Underwood, 2013), and 1 in the 6th round (Mack Lemieux, 2016).

Of the 32 players drafted, 3 have gone on to make the Major League. Catcher Tony Cruz (26th round, 2007) and Kevin Siegrist (41st round, 2008) both made their big league debuts with the St. Louis Cardinals. Nick Vespi (18th round, 2015) made his Major League debut during the 2022 season with the Baltimore Orioles.

In addition to the 3 players who made it to the Major League, Peter Strzelecki and Brad Peacock are also Palm Beach State Alum who have made it to the pros. Peter Strzelecki started his career at Palm Beach State and then transferred to University of South Florida, where he was an Undrafted Free Agent Signing by the Milwaukee Brewers. Brad Peacock attended Palm Beach State from 2006-2007 after being drafted out of Palm Beach Central HS. Brad was a key member of the 2017 Houston Astros team who won the World Series.

Mason Doolittle (18th round) was the most recent draft pick from Palm Beach State College in 2019.

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