Gordon leads Day II, 10 Canucks ties best total for 10 rounds

MLB Draft: Gordon, Orimoloye, Kellogg highlight seven Canadians selected on day two

By Adam Morissette
Baseball Canada
OTTAWA - A day after three Canadians were selected on Day 1 of the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft, seven were taken today as rounds 3-through-10 were completed.

A total of 10 Canadians have now been selected during the first two days of the annual draft for high school and college players.

Junior National Team outfielder Miles Gordon (Oakville, Ont.) was the first Canadian taken off the board on Day 2 after the Cincinnati Reds used their fourth round selection (115th overall) on the 17 year-old. Six picks later the Milwaukee Brewers selected Gordon’s teammate with the Junior National Team, outfielder Demi Orimoloye (Orleans, Ont.) with their fourth round pick.

Gordon is in his first year with the Junior National Team program and just returned from the Dominican Summer League tour where he led the team in hitting with a .395 average, while adding a home run, three doubles and triple in 12 games.

Orimoloye joined the Junior National Team program in the fall of 2012 and later represented Canada in the 2013 IBAF 18U World Cup before helping win a bronze medal at the 2014 18U COPABE Pan American Championship in La Paz, Mexico. He belted three home runs on the recent Dominican Summer League tour.

In the fifth round, 2011 Junior National Team MVP Ryan Kellogg (Whitby, Ont.) was selected by the Chicago Cubs with the 143rd overall pick out of Arizona State University.

Kellogg played with the Junior National Team program for two seasons (2011, 2012) and was integral piece of the team that won silver at the 2012 IBAF 18U World Cup in Seoul, South Korea.

Since joining the ASU rotation in 2013, Kellogg has compiled an impressive 28-6 record that included a no-hitter against Oregon State as he went 11-1 in his freshman season.

A pair of Canadian players on the Canisius College Golden Griffins team were taken in the ninth round as Etobicoke native Connor Panas went to his hometown Blue Jays, while the Cleveland Indians selected Maple Ridge, BC native Devon Stewart.

Panas is coming off an impressive four-year career at the Buffalo, New York school that saw him hit .372 with 11 home runs and 68 RBIs in his senior season. Stewart, a right-handed pitcher, also in his senior year, started 16 games for the Golden Griffins in 2015 and went 7-7 with a 3.84 ERA.

The Toronto Blue Jays selected another hometown player in the 10th round drafting catcher and Junior National Team alum Owen Spiwak (Mississauga, Ont.) out of Odessa (Tex.) College. Spiwak represented Canada in two IBAF 18U World Cup events winning silver in 2012 before being a member of the 2013 squad that finished seventh. In his first season at Odessa College he led the team with a .387 batting average and clubbed eight home runs to go along with a team leading 54 RBIs.

Muenster, Sask. native Cole Bauml rounded out the seven Canadians picked on day two of the draft as the Detroit Tigers took the outfielder in the tenth round out of Northern Kentucky University. Bauml led NKU with a .350 batting average and eight home runs in 2015.

Day three of the MLB First-Year player draft gets underway tomorrow at 12pm EST with rounds 11-to-40.

Canadians selected in 2015 MLB Draft
*1. 1B Josh Naylor (Mississauga, Ont.) – Miami Marlins – 1st Round (12th overall) Junior National Team/Ontario Blue Jays

*2. RHP Michael Soroka (Calgary, Alta.) – Atlanta Braves – 1st Round (28th overall) Junior National Team/PBF Redbirds

3. LHP Jeff Degano (Surrey, BC) – New York Yankees – 2nd Round (57th overall) Indiana State University

*4. OF Miles Gordon (Oakville, Ont.) – Cincinnati Reds – 4th Round (115th overall) Junior National Team/Great Lake Canadians

*5. OF Demi Orimoloye (Orleans, Ont.) – Milwaukee Brewers – 4th Round (121st overall) Junior National Team/Ottawa-Nepean Canadians

*6. LHP Ryan Kellogg (Whitby, Ont.) – Chicago Cubs – 5th Round (143rd overall) Arizona State University

7. 3B Connor Panas (Toronto, Ont.) – Toronto Blue Jays – 9th Round (272nd overall) Canisius College

8. RHP Devon Stewart (Maple Ridge, BC) – Cleveland Indians – 9th Round (274th overall) Canisius College

*9. C Owen Spiwak (Mississauga, Ont.) – Toronto Blue Jays – 10th Round (302nd overall) Odessa College

10. OF Cole Bauml (Muenster, Sask.) – Detroit Tigers – 10th Round (310th overall) Northern Kentucky University

*Current or former member of Junior National Team