MLB Draft

Major League Baseball teams are built on having a great farm system. We have seen what happens when you try to build a team through free agency. The draft is imperative to the success of a franchise, and some teams need to hit big this year. 

That is not to say that there are teams who can just punt their pick, but we all know that some farm systems are in need of a lot of talent right now. 

Here is our latest MLB mock draft, with a special emphasis on the teams who need to hit their pick out of the park. 

School: Barbe HS (LA)
D.O.B.: 12/22/93 (18-years-old)
Height: 6’1" ft.
Weight: 180 lbs.
Bats/Throws: Right/Right
Position: SS

Stats:

Picture a baseball prodigy. Maybe it's the next Bryce Harper; maybe it's the next Stephen Strasburg. He's young, nervous, fidgeting with his tie and sweating slightly under the heat of bright television camera lights.

This article was originally posted on TheSheaFaithful.com.

The New York Mets are facing the dreaded "R-word" that's practically a forbidden phrase in New York: rebuilding.

We've now reached the halfway point of the college baseball season, meaning the build-up to the 2011 MLB draft has officially begun.

The usual suspects are still out in the forefront.

Guys like Gerrit Cole, Anthony Rendon and Sonny Gray are still top-five picks, while there's been some incredible movement by players like Taylor Jungmann and Danny Hultzen, who have catapulted themselves into top-10 or even top-five consideration.

In case you hadn't noticed, high school ball is also heating up. 

This past spring, all 30 teams in Major League Baseball had an opportunity to get a good look at many of the younger players currently in their farm systems, with a small percentage of those players getting the chance to show their stuff at the big league camps.

While some of the players received more publicity than others (Bryce Harper, Mike Trout, John Mayberry Jr.), others went through the spring under the radar, but impressed nonetheless.

The Mariners have the second overall pick in the draft. This means they can get almost any player they want.

The Pirates, on the hand, can literally get any player they want. While third baseman Anthony Rendon appears to be the consensus overall pick, the Pirates might find pitching a bigger need and go after Gerrit Cole.

We'll see what the Pirates do, but the Mariners are sure to know who their second pick would be should their first fall off the board.

Thanks to all of you who have been keeping up with my piece-by-piece mock draft here at Bleacher Report, and a special thanks to those of you who clicked on these articles thinking they were NFL Mock Drafts and decided to keep reading. I consider you converts to the MLB Draft.

I hope you all enjoyed my picks for the top 10 draft slots in the 2011 MLB Draft, which can be found here.

And if you're still finding yourself slightly less-than-adequately informed about the top talent heading into draft season, feel free to check out my primer on the top talent available here.

Before I get started, a tip of the cap from all of us in Red Sox nation to Theo Epstein, our maverick genius, our watchful protector, our Dark Kni-...never mind. But I stand in awe of what the 37 year old son of Brookline, MA has accomplished.

For the services of Adrian Gonzalez, he still managed to keep Jose Iglesias and our draft picks. Under the cover of darkness, he locked up one of the most complete outfielders in the game and disrupted the Yankee-Lee negotiations with his free hand.