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Eric Jagielo and Phil Ervin blasted 24 of Harwich's Cape League record 60 home runs in 2012.
Eric Jagielo and Phil Ervin blasted 24 of Harwich’s Cape League record 60 home runs in 2012.

 
In the Cape League’s year of the home run, nobody hit more than Harwich. The 2012 Mariners — perhaps with an asterisk thanks to the juiced balls of that season — hold the modern Cape League record for home runs in a season with 60.

Leading the way for those Mariners were future first-round picks Phil Ervin and Eric Jagielo. Ervin burst onto the scene with a flurry of home runs early in the season and finished with 11. Jagielo actually out-did his teammate with 13.

For the first time since that summer, the power-hitting duo will be together again in the upcoming season.

Jagielo was sent to Cincinnati as part of the deal that brought closer Aroldis Chapman to the Yankees. He joins a system that includes Ervin, who was drafted by the Reds in 2013, the year after his Cape League breakout.

Both sluggers are angling to be part of the Reds’ youth movement. Ervin rates as the franchise’s 10th-best prospect in MLB Pipeline rankings, while Jagielo checks in at 14th.

Ervin had a strong minors debut in his draft year, scuffled a bit in 2014, but righted the ship a bit last season, when he hit 14 home runs between Class A Advanced Daytona and Double A Pensacola, while stealing 30 bases. The Reds have him in big league camp this year.

Jagielo has been limited somewhat by injuries in his minor league career, but has shown pop when he’s played, with 33 home runs in 205 minor-league games.

It’s possible that both Ervin and Jagielo will end up on the same farm team this year.

If the power comes with them, it won’t be a surprise for Cape League fans.

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Cape Leaguers Await Draft Calls

The Major League Baseball draft begins tonight at 7 p.m. with the first and second rounds. They’ll be televised live on MLB Network and MLB.com. The draft continues Friday at 1 p.m. with rounds three through 10, and the final 30 rounds will go off Saturday at 1 p.m. Live audio of the second and third days will air on MLB.com.

As usual, hundreds of former Cape Leaguers will hear their names called. Two-hundred twenty nine were selected last year after 258 went in 2011. Those numbers are major increases over the 148 that were selected just 11 years ago in 2002.

Baseball America’s latest mock draft has 11 CCBL alums projected to go in the first round:

2 – Cubs – Mark Appel (Y-D ’11)
3 – Rockies – Kris Bryant (Chatham ’11)
5 – Indians – Colin Moran (Bourne ’11 & ’12)
11 – Mets – Ryne Stanek (Bourne ’11)
14 – Pirates – D.J. Peterson (Hyannis ’11)
17 – White Sox – Alex Gonzalez (Y-D ’11 & ’12)
22 – Orioles – Chris Anderson (Y-D ’12)
24 – Athletics – Aaron Judge (Brewster ’12)
26 – Yankees – Eric Jagielo (Harwich ’12)
27 – Reds – Phillip Ervin (Harwich ’12)
28 – Cardinals – Marco Gonzales (Falmouth ’12)

Some of those guys will be very familiar to Cape League fans, like Moran, Jagielo and Ervin. Others made cameos, like Appel, who made only three starts for Y-D in 2011.

One name missing from the first-round list is reigning CCBL Pitcher of the Year and Top Prospect Sean Manaea, who opened the spring as a projected top-three pick. Injuries have created question marks, and those have sent him tumbling. He could still sneak into the first round – and won’t last much beyond it – but it appears he’s not enough of a sure thing to break into the top 10.

A few other notes:

  • Baseball America currently has Oklahoma pitcher Jonathan Gray going as the No. 1 overall pick. So does SB Nation’s Consensus Mock Draft, which combines data from five mocks. If Gray is the pick, it’ll be the seventh consecutive year without a Cape Leaguer in the top spot. The last was Luke Hochevar in 2006.

  • Both Mark Appel and Kris Bryant could certainly make a run at the top spot. Appel was a possible No. 1 overall pick last year, went eighth and didn’t sign. He returned to Stanford and had a dominant senior season to remain near the top of draft boards. As for Bryant, who hit .223 with three home runs for Chatham in 2011, he’s always been a big time prospect but wasn’t in top-five territory when the college season began. Thirty-one home runs later and he’s in the conversation.

  • If Phillip Ervin gets picked in the first round as projected, he’ll be the third straight Cape League MVP to go in the first round or the supplemental first round, joining Travis Jankowski and Kolten Wong. Six of the last seven have MVPs have gone in the first round or the supplemental first round, with eighth-round pick Kyle Roller the only exception. The other members of the group are A.J. Pollock, Conor Gillaspie, Justin Smoak and Evan Longoria.

  • The Cape League has had an average of about 10 players drafted in the first round over the last 10 years, with a high of 14 in 2008 and a low of six in 2010. The 2006 draft also stands out – the first six picks were all CCBL alums and the 10th pick was Tim Lincecum.