2022 FUTURES
This Year the Mid-West Baseball League had to change some things up a little due to the MLB & MLB Players Associations not having a Collective Bargaining Agreement in hand at the time of the publication. The Mid-West Baseball League usually uses MLB’s top 100 Prospect list which is created by former MWBL Franchise owner Jonathan Mayo who held the reigns of the Iron City Yinzers & is one of MLB Prospect Gurus. Jonathan along with his colleague Jim Callis is our go-to guy on this one, but again MLB & the MLBPA are not in agreement at the time of this MWBL Feature. So this year, we are going old school. We’re reverting back to Baseball American for the Top 100 Prospects. – bring us the 2021 MWBL FUTURES.
The MWBL always has an eye toward the future, & looks at which MWBL Franchises may have the brightest future ahead of them. The formula used for the “MWBL FUTURES” list is based on a 100-point system. The Top Prospect, according to Baseball American receives 100 points, the second-rated prospect receives 99 points, this continues until the #100th prospect, who receives 1 point.
Each MWBL franchise will then have the points totaled for their prospects, which gives us an overall number and produces our “MWBL FUTURES” list. Here is the much-anticipated list for “MWBL FUTURES”.
2022 PROSPECTS & POINTS / 2022 TOTAL TEAM POINTS / 2022 DRAFT POINTS
2022 YEARLY RANKING / 2022 PRE-DRAFT RANKINGS
ANTHONY VOLPE – GOES #1 TO CORKTOWN
MWBL Draft Central – February 19th, 2022 – 10:45 AM ET
With the number 1 pick in the 2022 MWBL draft, the Corktown Cycle has selected from the New York Yankees organization, Shortstop Anthony Volpe. Drafted with the 30th overall pick in the 2019 MLB draft, Volpe appears to be more of a late bloomer. After a sub-par rookie ball season in 2019 and not being able to showcase his skills in 2020 due to the pandemic, Volpe shot out of a cannon with his A ball numbers in 2021. The most eye-opening in Low A Tampa He had more walks (51) than strikeouts (43) featuring his plate discipline. Volpe may not have the highest ceiling among available players in this draft, but his floor may be higher than anyone. Volpe becomes the first player from the Yankees organization Ito be selected first overall in the MWBL draft. SS Gleyber Torres (Selkirk) and P Masahiro Tanaka (Manhattan) both went #2 overall. This is the 2nd time Corktown selected a Yankee prospect as they took NYY OF Blake 
Rutherford #7 overall in 2017.
Corktown has decided to stack the deck on shortstop prospects as Volpe joins an already high-rated SS Giants prospect Marco Luciano in the Corktown farm system. The Cycle recently lost Royce Lewis due to coverage, but consider Volpe a nice upgrade at the spot. Corktown is very confident Volpe’s offensive numbers will continue to impress as he rises up the system. With many owners in agreement, there was no clear-cut number one overall selection Cycle owner Chris DeMercurio said his team is at the beginning of a long stretch of winning and has the ability to sit on Volpe as he continues to develop. “Defense is somewhere that we see room for improvement, but this is something that our organization is glad to help make Anthony a superstar in this league.” Noted DeMercurio. Corktown took a step back in 2021 with the league’s worst record. DeMercurio was not worried about the poor performance on a shortened season saying his team is no longer on the brink. He is done warning the fans to be patient as the Cycle stick to the plan and expect to see a new brand of Cycle baseball and Corktown starting in 2022 claiming “The Cycle is poised not to just make the playoffs year in and year out, but to compete for banners to hang in their stadium for their fans. We no longer have to sit and wait for guys like Anthony to arrive at the big leagues.”
2022 DRAFT DAY SCHEDULED
The 2022 Mid-West Baseball League Draft is scheduled for Saturday, February 19th, 2022 at 10:30 AM ET.
The 2022 MWBL Draft Order has now been posted (Including the adjusted lottery Order), – 336 Picks are available in the 12 Rounds.
Again this year will be the start time of 10:45 AM ET to allow the West Coast Franchise Owners a few extra minutes of sleep. Please be advised that with this start time, the 2022 MWBL Draft will conclude later in the day for the East Coast Contingent, so please adjust your plans accordingly.