Oklahoma Baseball: Five Sooners Get the Call in the 2016 MLB Draft
By Chip Rouse
Following a year in which a record-tying 11 Oklahoma baseball players were selected in the Major League Baseball Draft, the number of Sooners selected in 2016 were more modest but still ranked fourth among Big 12 schools in this year’s draft.
A total of five Oklahoma Sooners were taken in annual draft held last weekend, including the first two Big 12 players to be selected.
Junior pitcher Alec Hansen and junior shortstop Sheldon Neuse were both taken in the second round. Hansen went to the Chicago White Sox with the 49th overall pick in the draft, and teammate Neuse came off the board nine spots later, going to the Washington Nationals with the 58th overall pick.
Both Sooner players had been selected previously in the MLB Draft. Hansen was a 25th-round pick of the Colorado Rockies and Neuse a 38th-round selection by the Texas Rangers, both in the 2013 MLB Draft.
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That was it for Oklahoma Sooner selections until the 13th round on day three of the draft. Former OU quarterback Cody Thomas, who stepped away from baseball for a year in 2015 to concentrate on football but then dropped football after last season to return to the baseball diamond, was selected by the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Dodgers took the Sooner outfielder with the 401st overall selection. Thomas was a 30th-round pick of the New York Yankees out of high school in 2013.
Right-handed pitcher Jake Elliott joined Neuse as a draft pick of the Chicago White Sox. The White Sox selected Elliott in the 15th round with the 446th overall pick.
The final Sooner player selected in this year’s draft was right-handed relief pitcher Alex Daniele, taken in the 19th round by the Texas Rangers with the 579th overall pick.
In case you are wondering, there were a total of 40 rounds in this year’s MLB Draft and 1,216 first-year players selected overall.
A total of 259 Oklahoma Sooners have been selected since the first MLB Draft was held in 1965. In the last four drafts, 14 OU players have been selected in the first 15 rounds.