Mets 4th Round Pick - CF - Darrell Ceciliani

4th round pick (I had him as the 67th outfielder to be picked) -

Darrell Ceciliani - – Columbia Basin CC (Wash)… 6-1, 185 L/L… first 32 games at wood bat NWAACC play: .390, 2 HR, 26 RBIs, 4Ks, 82 AB

Darrell Ceciliani went 4-for-5 with two triples, a home run and five RBI in the opener, and four Columbia Basin pitchers combined on a six-hitter in the nightcap as the Hawks swept Blue Mountain in Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges East Division play.

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/1358/story/564976.html

Darrell Ceciliani has waited his whole life to be a professional baseball player.

"Ever since I could hold a bat," said Ceciliani, a 6-foot-1 right-fielder for Columbia Basin College.

He put himself on the radar of many a major league scout with a solid season at the plate while leading CBC into the NWAACC championship game. The left-hander hit .364 and led the Hawks with six triples, four home runs and 40 RBIs as the team's No. 3 hitter.

Ceciliani is expected to be chosen somewhere between rounds 4-6 of Major League Baseball's First-Year Player Draft, which began Tuesday with the first three rounds and concludes today with rounds 4-50 in Secaucus, N.J.

But Ceciliani's dream will have to wait at least another day, a circumstance the Madras, Ore., native can live with.

"I'm just relaxing," Ceciliani said near the conclusion of Day 1 of the draft. "I'm anxious to find out how it's going to go. Then I'll make my decision to come back (to CBC)."

Ceciliani says that decision will hinge less upon money and more upon where he lands in the draft. If he is chosen in the top five rounds, that will make his decision to turn pro a little easier.

"I told scouts if I go in the top five, it's very highly possible I would sign," said Ceciliani, who added that the Minnesota Twins, New York Yankees, Seattle Mariners and the Tampa Bay Rays have shown the most interest.

Several other Mid-Columbia products could see their names on the draft board within the first 10 rounds today, including University of Washington outfielder and Richland graduate Kyle Conley, who was selected in the 16th round by the Los Angeles Dodgers in last year's draft, but chose to come back to the Huskies.

"Last year just wasn't right, but hopefully this year I'll get a more attractive opportunity," said Conley, a UW junior who tied the school's career home run record with 42 and could go as high as the fourth round.

"I've kind of been waiting for this day since the season was over," he said. "Throw finals on top of it and it's really crazy."

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/1358/story/608528.html

Madras, Ore. has a population of just over 5,000. So when a player from there starts getting compared to Madras’ most famous resident—Red Sox center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury—most coaches and scouts probably laughed to themselves and thought, "Yeah, right."

Center fielder Darrell Ceciliani will get the last laugh, though, because the comparisons hold up and he’s playing his way into the top five rounds as a freshman at Columbia Basin (Wash.) CC.

Coming from Madras, in rural central Oregon, Ceciliani (pronounced SIS-lee-on-ee) didn’t play for travel teams growing up, instead spending his summers working on his family’s cattle farm. A broken hand his junior year of high school moved him even further off the radar, and he committed to Columbia Basin after developing a relationship with associate coach Jeremy Beard.

Upon graduation from Madras High, Ceciliani spent a little bit of time with the Bend Elks in the West Coast Collegiate Baseball League last summer before heading to Columbia Basin. Beard said that, with the way their field is positioned and how the wind blows, they’ve learned that their best outfielder should be in right field, which is where Ceciliani has spent most of his time this spring. However, he does have the speed and instincts to cover some ground in center field at the pro level.

Like Ellsbury, Ceciliani is 6-foot-1 and 185 pounds. He bats and throws lefthanded and is up at the plate looking to put the ball in play and use his above-average speed (6.58 seconds in the 60-yard dash) to get on base. In the first 32 games of wood-bat NWAACC play, Ceciliani is batting .390 with two homers (the team has just nine), and his 26 RBIs ranks third in the conference. He also had just four strikeouts in 82 at-bats.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/draft/?p=672