2014 MLB Draft Regional Coverage Primer

Over the next couple weeks I will present information on draft picks available in the 2014 draft. I have broken the draft into fourteen regions to help analyze the draft based on geography to simplify the process. I will line them up nationally when I am done with my draft board prior to the draft.

Here is how I broke down the regions down (interactive map here):

California: California
Carolina: South Carolina and North Carolina
Deep South: Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee
Florida: Florida
Georgia: Georgia
Islands: Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands
Mid-Atlantic: Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Washington D.C.
Midwest: Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska
North: Alaska, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Canada
Northeast: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont
Ohio Valley: Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia
Pacific Northwest: Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming
Southwest and Rockies: Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah
Texas and Oklahoma: Texas, Oklahoma

I did my best to keep the write ups short and to the point to give you a quick picture of each person. They are not immersive with a lot of back story or scouting grades. I just don't have the time to write thousands of words on each region, so I'm doing it this way. If you have questions about what I mean, please ask in the comments. Just for a brief explanation, this is what the floor and ceiling grades mean.

80 = Elite
70 = Well above-average (plus-plus); all-star
60 = Above-average (plus); first-division
50 = Average; major-league regular
40 = Below-average
30 = Well below-average
20 = Poor

My goal was to show the polish of a player by their floor and the future potential by their ceiling. If a player is a 45/55, that means I really believe they are close to the majors and are likely to be an above average big leaguer. If a player is a 30/50, they are a long way away but have the potential to be MLB players and maybe more. Considering many of these guys are 3-6 years away, it's hard to put accurate projections on them but it should at least give you an idea of their potential. The lower the first number the less accurate the second number is likely to be.

I used these grades to help categorize similar players. Rankings somewhat separate these players but if they have the same grade or a similar grade, they may be interchangable. This is more of an introduction to these players than anything. Most of these guys won't be in the majors for years and some won't even be top prospects for a couple years but I will try to touch on anyone that I see with the potential to be on a top 30 list in the future.

I will also be producing a Draft Book. It will include all the draft profiles I have written for this year, regional rankings, draft board, ages of college and high school prospects (if I have them), an updated mock draft, and a handful of other articles. I will also rank the top prospects for the 2015 draft and 2016 draft. I look for it to be out the week of the 19th but may be pushed to the following week. The later it comes out, the more it will have in it. I asked just for donations last year but the product will be much better and I am asking $4.99 this year. It is only available via PDF.