Could the Philadelphia Phillies find a future franchise cornerstone with the No. 15 pick in the MLB Draft Thursday night? The MLB Draft – especially in a year where COVID-19 drastically affected both NCAA and high school baseball seasons – is a crapshoot. That said, 18 years ago, the Phillies used the No. 17 pick in the 2002 MLB Draft to select one of the greatest players in the history of the franchise: Cole Hamels.
Though it sounds as though the Phillies will steer clear of high school pitching in the first round of this year’s draft, Hamels was taken directly out of Rancho Bernardo High School in San Diego in 2002.