Nine Shore Conference Alums to Watch in the 2022 MLB Draft

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The Shore Conference has plenty of history in producing baseball talent over the years: Al Leiter (Central Regional) has the most career strikeouts of any pitcher born in New Jersey, Todd Frazier enjoyed a colorful Big League career that included a 40-homer season and a Home Run Derby championship, and several more (Ron Marinaccio, Mark Leiter Jr., Anthony DeSclafani, Jimmy Yacobonis, Brad Brach, Matt Thaiss and Jay Groome) are either contributing for Major League teams or on 40-man rosters.

That pool of talent is likely to grow in the coming years, as the Shore is steadily becoming a reliable supplier of draft-ready baseball talent. That development will further be on display in the coming days, as the 2022 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft begins on Sunday with the first 80 picks covering the first two rounds of the Draft (compensation picks included).

Even with MLB cutting the number of rounds in half from 40 as recently as 2019 to 20 in each of the past two seasons, there still figure to be a healthy dose of New Jersey players among the 600-plus players selected and several of those will be players that have passed through the Shore Conference.

What follows is a look at nine Shore Conference alumni to watch during the three-day event. The nature of the MLB Draft is such that several of these players may not be selected and some players from the Shore not mentioned in this space could get the call as well. These nine, however, have put themselves on the radar for this season with their performance and you can read more on each one by clicking on the players' names.

Note: Different publications rank a different number of draft prospects. MLB.com's list goes up to 250, ESPN to 300, Baseball America to 500 and Prospects Live to 600.

Trey Dombroski, LHP, Monmouth University (Wall)

Prospect Ranks

MLB: 111
ESPN: 94
Baseball America: 117
Prospects Live: 185

Noah Dean, LHRP, Old Dominion University (Pinelands)

Prospect Ranks

MLB: 124
ESPN: 134
Baseball America: 140
Prospects Live: 214

Liam Simon, RHRP, University of Notre Dame (Freehold Township)

Prospect Ranks

MLB: 215
ESPN: 124
Baseball America: 178
Prospects Live: 133

Zach Crotchfelt, LHP, Jackson Memorial High School

Prospect Ranks

MLB: 160
ESPN: 152
Baseball America: 428
Prospects Live: 466