Trio of Bruins Selected on First Day of MLB Draft
June 03, 2019 | Baseball
LOS ANGELES – A trio of UCLA baseball players were selected on Monday in the first day of the 2019 MLB First-Year Player Draft. Junior first baseman Michael Toglia was the first round selection (No. 23 overall) of the Colorado Rockies, while junior right-handed pitcher Ryan Garcia (No. 50 overall, Texas) and junior second baseman Chase Strumpf (No. 64 overall, Chicago Cubs) were taken in the second round.
UCLA was the only school NCAA-wide to have three picks on day one of the draft.
This year represents the second time in program history, and first since 1987, that UCLA has had three players selected in the first two rounds of the MLB Draft. It is the first time ever that two Bruin position players have been selected in the opening two rounds.
Michael Toglia is the Bruins' first position player to be selected in the first round (non-supplementary) since Chase Utley in 2000. He is the fifth UCLA player over the last three seasons to be drafted by Colorado, joining Jake Bird (2018), Sean Bouchard (2017), Brett Stephens (2017), and Moises Ceja (2017).
Garcia, the first pitcher chosen by Texas in this year's draft, is the first Bruin to be selected by the Rangers since David Berg in 2014.
Within minutes of being drafted by Chicago, Strumpf hit a three-run home run to put UCLA up 6-2 in Monday night's regional final against LMU. He was the Cubs' first position player draftee.
In addition to the three current Bruins selected on Monday, UCLA commit Corbin Carroll was the No. 16 overall selection by the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Toglia has been a three-year starter for the Bruins, crafting a .306/.385/.566 slash line as a middle of the order bat. He was named to the Pac-12 All-Conference Team as both a sophomore in 2018 and a junior in 2019. The Gig Harbor, Wash. native has the two highest single-season RBI totals by a Bruin since 2001, collecting 58 in both 2018 and 2019. The switch-hitting first baseman has 33 career home runs, including a career-high 14 this year, and is the first UCLA player since 2000 to record double-digit home runs in back-to-back seasons.
Garcia emerged as one of the top pitchers in college baseball in 2019, earning Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year, First Team All-America, and Golden Spikes Award Semifinalist honors after posting a 10-0 record with a 1.39 ERA and 107 strikeouts in 84 1/3 innings. Entering the postseason, he ranked in the top-10 nationwide in ERA (sixth), WHIP (0.86, seventh), and hits allowed per nine innings (4.9, fourth). The righty was named the Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week on three separate occasions this season, becoming the first Bruin since Trevor Bauer in 2011 to accomplish that feat. As a starter, he has a career 16-1 record with a 1.59 ERA.
In 171 career games with UCLA, Strumpf has recorded a .298 batting average with 27 home runs, 124 RBIs, and 131 runs scored. One of the premier offensive second basemen in the country, he posted a .363/.475/.633 slash line as a sophomore en route to All-America and All-Pac-12 honors. As a junior in 2019, he was a Golden Spikes Award Watch List member and was recently listed as the best second base prospect available in the draft by MLB Pipeline.
The 2019 MLB First-Year Player Draft continues on Tuesday with rounds 3-10 and concludes on Wednesday with rounds 11-40. Stay tuned to @UCLABaseball on Twitter for all draft updates regarding the Bruins.
