A “true” alumni of the New Balance Baseball Future Stars Series, Collier was selected 18th overall by the Cincinnati Reds at the 2022 MLB Draft on Sunday night in Los Angeles.
The son of former big leaguer Lou Collier, Cam has the potential to arguably become the biggest star that the Future Stars Series has ever helped produce, and he spoke to us in an extensive interview earlier this year as he prepared to go the JUCO route at Chipola CC for the year.
Collier has a rich history at Future Stars Series events, homering at both the 2020 National Combine and 2021 National Combine. Â He also was invited to International Week at just 15 years old for the 2020 event, and made a much more significant impact at what’s now called the Main Event a year later at Citi Field.
PICK ANALYSIS BY JEREMY BOOTH, CEO AND PRESIDENT OF THE NEW BALANCE BASEBALL FUTURE STARS SERIES: Obviously, I’ve watched Cam grow up, so it’s interesting to have entered his life when we did and to be as involved and being consulted in some of the decisions that he made. There’s nothing I can say about Cam I haven’t said already. I think he’s a big leaguer for a long time. I think he’s a very good big leaguer for a long time. He’s going to hit a lot, he’s going to play a plus third base, and he’s going to win some championships.
There’s always a few picks every year that change the complexion of the draft, and I tell these kids all the time that not everybody’s board is the same. The rankings don’t really mean anything, the mock drafts don’t really mean anything. They’re not paying attention to those in the draft room. Holliday going at one, not a surprise. Jones going at two, a little bit of a surprise financially because of what he wanted to do, but they paid him, so it is what it is. Kumar Rocker at three, and nothing against him when I say this, but I think that shocked a lot of people. Then the Cade Horton kid goes at seven and the kid from Gonzaga went at ten to the Rockies, so those three picks in the first round changed the complexion of it. All of a sudden, a guy you thought isn’t going to be there, is. A guy like Brooks Lee — who by all accounts from people I really, really trust, they thought he might be the best bat in the draft, even beyond Cam — he was a guy who was in consideration at one, and he’s looking at you at eight, for example with the Twins, you take him…the Marlins and the Tigers were taking college guys. You can write it down. There’s no way the Tigers were going to take a high school guy there. So, you start putting these dominoes together, and I think that was the defining factor for why Cam ended up at 18.
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