Matt Ponatoski selected in 18th round of baseball draft

[Los Gatos]

https://www.on3.com/teams/kentucky-w...ball-baseball/

If I'm remembering this correctly, Matt was expected to go in the fifth round. If so, for him to drop to the eighteenth round seems to indicate the baseball teams expect him to forgo baseball and enroll in college.

[Jaxcat]

I was wondering the same thing, LG. I would certainly expect MP to receive the same or better NIL money than an 18th round pick. You'd have to assume, at that level, he's starting at a low/the lowest A ball in the minors. At UK, he'll have a chance to shine in two sports and, as evident from this year's MLB draft, playing baseball at UK can be a boost to a potential MLB career. While his current preference seems to be MLB, if he sticks around here and does well on the FB field, he may realize that his prospects as a pro athlete are better in the NFL than in MLB (or not, of course).

I don't think the thought of MP staying in college would have caused a fall as he's publicly stated that he wants to be in the majors as quickly as possible, which leads me to believe that had he been a reasonably high draft pick with reasonable signing money and he'd be on the first train to A ball. I would guess that MLB scouts weren't bowled over by what they saw on the diamond and view him as a project right now, hence the fall to the 18th round. Just my guess, naturally. FWIW, the 'net told me that players drafted in the 6th round or later have <10% chance of making the majors. I'm guessing 18th rounders would be maybe 2%. Pretty long odds and would entail turning down what I would assume is a 6-figure NIL package from UK. Doesn't make much sense for him to play minor league ball when you look at it that way.

[Pete Hogwallop]

My uneducated guess is he only plays baseball at UK. Or at least prioritizes it over football.

[Matt Dillon]

My uneducated guess is he only plays baseball at UK. Or at least prioritizes it over football.

I may be wrong but it's my understanding that he's coming to UK on a fb scholarship with coach Stein's permission for him to play baseball.

[Pete Hogwallop]

I may be wrong but it's my understanding that he's coming to UK on a fb scholarship with coach Stein's permission for him to play baseball.

You may be correct. I didn't take that into consideration.

[Los Gatos]

I may be wrong but it's my understanding that he's coming to UK on a fb scholarship with coach Stein's permission for him to play baseball.

My recollection as well.

[largebluej]

I may be wrong but it's my understanding that he's coming to UK on a fb scholarship with coach Stein's permission for him to play baseball.

You are correct. He was committed as a scholarship football player. That way he's able to play a second sport. A baseball scholarship player can't play football. Too many football coaches in years past tried to evade scholarship limitations by stacking players on other sports rosters. Powers that be put an end to it.