MLB Draft

The 2016 MLB draft is rapidly approaching, as the three-day even begins on June 9.

There's been plenty of talk about who the Philadelphia Phillies might grab with the No. 1 overall pick, and most baseball fans are well-acquainted with this year's crop of projected first-round picks, but there's a full 40 rounds worth of picks to be made.

Hitting on your first-round selection is paramount, but finding value in the rounds to come is equally important as teams look to bolster their farm system with the next late-round steal.

On a sunny Monday afternoon in Champaign, Illinois, last June, the Vanderbilt Commodores collapsed into a dogpile after beating the Illinois Fighting Illini to punch their return ticket to the College World Series.

And that was the party just getting started.

Today marks the first day that MLB clubs can expand their rosters to 40—providing much-needed depth for the postseason stretch and a chance for some young prospects to get experience.

Let's begin with the obvious: No one can properly assess the full scope of the MLB draft within days of its conclusion. That's true in every major professional sport but especially so in baseball, where maybe a handful of players will even make their big league debut in the next 24 months.

We're through 10 rounds of the 2015 MLB draft, but there are still solid prospects available heading into the third day. We must remember Hall of Famers like Nolan Ryan, Ryne Sandberg and others were all taken after the 10th round.

The 2015 MLB draft results are in from Day 2 of the festivities, which means it's time to start jumping to conclusions.

It's always a dangerous game to judge a pick before a given player has signed—let alone stepped onto a diamond for a professional club—but there are already prospects and teams that are looking like winners and losers at this early juncture.

Few teams have drafted as well as the Cleveland Indians through the first two days of the 2015 MLB draft. It seemed obvious that the Indians front office had a plan to snatch up arms early and go for bats on Tuesday.

While most of the top amateur talent available was selected on Day 1 of the Major League Baseball draft, history tells us that difference-makers can be found on Day 2 of the proceedings, which encompasses Rounds 3 through 10. 

If we go back only 10 years, we find a handful of quality players that were selected in Day 2 of the 2005 draft:

Before the 2015 season started, the Seattle Mariners were praised by many for their impressive pitching staff. With its first two picks in this year's MLB draft, the Mariners boosted their rotation by adding more depth.

The Washington Nationals are playing the New York Yankees on Tuesday night. So it was fitting that they selected Mariano Rivera Jr., son of legendary closer Yankees Mariano Rivera, out of Iona College in the fourth round of the 2015 MLB draft on Tuesday.