MLB Draft starts Sunday, Tiftarea’s Murphy a possible pick

Published 6:00 pm Saturday, July 16, 2022

Major League Baseball’s annual draft starts Sunday night and a Tiftarea Academy Panther will be waiting for his name to be called.

Hayden Murphy signed with Auburn University to play baseball, is considered one of this year’s top prospects. Major League Baseball’s prospect rankings place him No. 201 overall. Druw Jones, son of former Atlanta Braves superstar Andruw Jones, is ranked No. 1.

The first round of the Draft will be broadcast on ESPN at 7 p.m., with the second round streaming on MLB.com. Rounds 3-10 take place Monday, which starts at 2 p.m. The remaining 10 rounds are Tuesday, which also starts at 2 p.m.

MLB scouts were a constant at Murphy’s games this year, a season saw him post a 1.62 ERA and a .541 batting average, according to statistics input on GameChanger. He gave up 14 earned runs in a 60 1/3 innings, striking out 120 along the way. He posted a high of 17 strikeouts in the state playoffs against Brookwood, the same series that saw him go 8-for-12 at the plate and wallop the game-winning home run to take the series.

Murphy had 10 home runs on the season, drove in 37 runs and scored 34 for himself.

During his last two seasons, he posted a 1.50 ERA while fanning 219 batters in 121 2/3 frames.

For his high school career as a hitter, Murphy batted .429 over five seasons, drove in 87, scored 103 and walloped 16 homers. His career includes a severely shortened 2020 season because of coronavirus.

If selected, Murphy would become the first Tiftarea player drafted directly out of high school. Cade Marlowe, currently playing in the Seattle Mariners chain, was drafted out of West Georgia in the 20th round in 2019. He is a former Tiftarea player.