Eight former Santa Barbara Foresters have received the nod at this year’s Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft being held over three days.
After 15 rounds and two days, Ryan McNeil, Stephen Johnson, Hoby Milner, Jeff McVaney, Brett Vertigan, Jeremy Rathjen, Blake Brown and Matthew Reckling have come off the board.
The third and final day of the draft is Wednesday.
McNeil, a prep standout at Nipomo High School who pitched for the Foresters briefly last season, was the highest selection at No. 101 overall. The 18-year-old right-hander was the Chicago Cubs’ third-round pick.
Atlanta nabbed Brown off the board in the fifth round.
The San Francisco Giants took Johnson with their sixth-round pick while the Philadelphia Phillies opted for Milner, a southpaw pitcher from Texas, in the seventh round.
Jeff McVaney, also from Texas, was taken in the eighth round by the Detroit Tigers.
The Los Angeles Dodgers selected both Rathjen and Reckling in the 11th and 13th rounds, respectively.
Historically, there have been thirty-three Foresters that have reached the Major League level.
Vertigan, Johnson, Milner, McNeil and McVaney all made appearances for the Foresters’ 2011 NBC National Championship team. Rathjen and Reckling played for Santa Barbara in 2010.
