Kris Bryant, Marco Gonzales, and Alex Balog Are Picked on First Day of the MLB Draft

May 20, 2013; San Diego, CA, USA; General view of baseballs before the St. Louis Cardinals game against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

*Due to technical difficulties to the network, this post is being posted way later than anticipated. Everyone at West Coast Convo and the Fansided Network apologizes for this inconvenience.

San Diego’s Kris Bryant, Gonzaga’s Marco Gonzales, and San Francisco’s Alex Balog were all picked in the first and second round’s of the 2013 MLB Draft, which took place yesterday. Bryant was selected 2nd overall to the Chicago Cubs, Gonzales was selected 19th overall to the St. Louis Cardinals, and Balog was selected 70th overall to the Colorado Rockies.

Bryant was projected to go in the top three picks of the draft, and that is exactly what happened. Professional team’s are enamored with his slugging ability; Bryant hit 31 home runs this year, which was more than the combined totals of 226 teams in division one baseball. His 2013 campaign was possibly one of the best the sport had ever seen, and he was rewarded greatly for his efforts. In addition to his home run totals, Bryant’s batting average was .329, his slugging percentage was .820, and his OPS was 1.314.

Gonzales was another player that was predicted to go in the first round, and this held true as well. The collegiate two way player was drafted 19th overall in the first round by the St. Louis Cardinals in yesterday’s MLB draft. He pitched and played in the field for the Zags, but he will likely do his damage on the mound in the major leagues . He is considered to be one of the most professional-ready pitchers in the draft, and is poised to progress extremely quickly through the Cardinals minor league system. Gonzales had a 2.80 ERA with a 7-3 Win-Loss record. He struck out 96 batters while only walking 25.

Balog missed out on being selected on the first round, but he still went extremely high in this years MLB Draft. Balog has the ideal size for a major league pitcher; the right-handed pitcher stands a 6’6″ and weighs 220 pounds. In 14 starts, Balog had a win-loss record of 3-4, and had an ERA of 3.63.  Balog was the 70th player selected, and was taken in the competitive balance round B.

Quick fact:

In the first day of the MLB Draft, the WCC had 3 players drafted. The ACC, which is regarded to be one  of the best baseball conferences in the country, only had 2. WCC certainly deserves a lot more recognition for its baseball, considering the amount of talent that has come out of the WCC the past few years.