Top 2020 MLB Draft Prospects By The Numbers

Image credit: Blaze Jordan (Photo by Mike Janes/Four Seam Images)

We recently made our final tweak to the 2020 BA 500, giving you full reports and analyses of the top 500 players in the 2020 class.

With the list being finalized, we wanted to pull a few numbers and see how the class breaks down across plenty of demographics, including school source, state, position and more.

To see the complete BA 500, check here.

Source

Of the 500 players ranked, 271 of them come from four-year universities, making up 54.2 percent of the pool of ranked players. There are 25 junior college prospects ranked among the top 500, which accounts for five percent of the player pool. College players in total account for 296 prospects, or 59.2 percent of the BA 500. That leaves 204 high school prospects in the BA 500, or 40.8 percent of the total group of ranked players.

Among the top 100 players, 54 come from four-year universities, two from junior colleges and 44 from high schools.

State

In any draft year, a safe bet for the top three producing states would be California, Florida and Texas. That’s the case again in 2020, with California leading the way with 72 prospects (14.4 percent) in the BA 500. Players from the southern half of that state make up the bulk of that number at 57—which by itself is more than any state except Florida—while the northern half accounts for 15.

Florida follows with 57 prospects (11.4 percent) and Texas checks in at No. 3 with 43 prospects (8.6 percent) on the BA 500.

Below are the top 10 states that produce BA 500 players in 2020:

1. California — 72 (14.4 percent)
2. Florida — 62 (12.4 percent)
3. Texas — 43 (8.6 percent)
4. North Carolina — 31 (6.2 percent)
5. Georgia — 30 (6.0 percent)
6. Arizona — 22 (4.4 percent)
6. Tennessee — 22 (4.4 percent)
8. Oklahoma — 18 (3.6 percent)
9. Mississippi — 17 (3.4 percent)
10. South Carolina — 15 (3.0 percent)

Here is how the list shifts if you look at only players ranked among the top 100:

1. California (20)
2. Florida (16)
3. Texas (13)
4. Mississippi (6)
4. North Carolina (6)
6. Arizona (5)
6. Tennessee (5)
8. Georgia (4)
9. Oklahoma (3)
10. Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina (2)

Position

Below is how the BA 500 breaks down by position. It’s worth noting that two-way players and players who play multiple positions could be broken down into different groups. For our purposes here we have labeled those prospects by their primary position or most likely future position.

RHP — 198 (39.6 percent)
OF — 76 (15.2 percent)
SS — 71 (14.2 percent)
LHP — 66 (13.2 percent)
C — 32 (6.4 percent)
3B — 24 (4.8 percent)
1B — 20 (4.0 percent)
2B — 13 (2.6 percent)

Pitchers account for 264 (52.8 percent) of the 500 players, while hitters account for 236 (47.2 percent) of the 500 players.

Unlike 2019, the composition of positions is similar when you look at only the top 100 prospects in the class:

RHP — 39
OF — 17
SS — 16
LHP — 13
C — 7
3B — 4
1B — 3
2B — 1
School

Arizona State leads all schools with nine players ranked among the BA 500. Georgia and Vanderbilt are right behind and tied for second, with eight players apiece. Three programs have six players among the BA 500: Louisville, Oklahoma and Southern California. Thirteen schools have five players ranked on the BA 500, including American Heritage High (Plantation, Fla.), which leads all high school programs.

Arizona State, Miami, Mississippi State, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt each have three prospects among the top 100. Seven programs have two players among the top 100: Arkansas, Georgia, Harvard-Westlake High (Studio City, Calif.), Louisiana State, Louisville, North Carolina State and Ohio State.

Commitment

Florida leads all college programs in BA 500 commits with 11. Vanderbilt is second with nine, while five programs are tied for third with eight commits: Arizona, Arkansas, Louisiana State, Miami and Texas. Below are all programs with five or more BA 500 commits:

1. Florida — 11
2. Vanderbilt — 9
3. Arizona, Arkansas, Louisiana State, Miami, Texas — 8
4. North Carolina, South Carolina — 7
5. Arizona State, Mississippi State, Texas Christian, UCLA — 6
6. Auburn, Georgia, Stanford, Texas Tech — 5

Texas leads all colleges with commits ranked among the top 100, with five. Louisiana State and UCLA both have four commits ranked among the top 100. Miami, Oklahoma and Vanderbilt each have three commits among the top 100. Arizona, Arizona State, Arkansas, Florida and Mississippi State each have two.

Age

Below are the average ages for each source demographic, along with the top five youngest players among high schoolers and four-year prospects, along with the youngest junior college prospect in the BA 500.

Age refers to the date all players are on draft day, June 10.

4YR — 21.5
JC — 20.0
HS — 18.5

Youngest four-year players

1. Trenton Denholm, RHP, UC Irvine (20.5)
2. Will Klein, RHP, Eastern Illinois (20.5)
3. Logan Hofmann, RHP, Northwestern State (20.6)
4. Gage Workman, 3B, Arizona State (20.6)
5. Devonte Brown, 3B/OF, North Carolina State (20.7)

Youngest juco players

1. Julian Aguiar, RHP, El Camino (Calif.) JC (19.0)
2. Connor Phillips, RHP, McLennan (Texas) JC (19.1)
3. David Morgan, SS, Orange Coast (Calif.) JC (19.3)
4. Dylan Eskew, RHP, Chipola (Fla.) JC (19.4)
5. Hylan Hall, OF, Wabash Valley (Ill.) JC (19.4)

Youngest high school players

1. Blaze Jordan, 3B/1B, DeSoto Central HS, Southaven, Miss. (17.5)
2. Safea Mauai, 1B, Waiakea HS, Hilo, Hawaii (17.6)
3. Calvin Ziegler, RHP, St. Mary’s HS, Owen Sound, Ont. (17.7)
4. Cannon Pickell, RHP, Currituck County HS, Barco, N.C. (17.7)
5. Robby Ashford, OF, Hoover (Ala.) HS (17.7)