2013 MLB Draft Results: Yankees select OF Michael O'Neill 103rd overall

By Jason Cohen@Jason00Cohen Jun 7, 2013, 2:13pm EDT

In the third round of the MLB draft, the Yankees selected outfielder Mike O'Neill from the University of Michigan. He is actually the nephew of former Yankee and current YES commentator, Paul O'Neill. They previously drafted him in the 42nd round of the 2010 draft out of high school, but he opted to go to college.

Baseball America ranks him as the 79th best prospect in the draft, Keith Law ranks him 78th, and Jonathan Mayo ranks him at 83rd.

Keith Law describes him as an athletic outfielder with hand and wrist strength, but might not have enough power to play regularly in left field (he has a weak arm). He hits a lot of ground balls and line drives, where he can take advantage of his plus speed. The biggest concern is his lack of plate discipline, so he'll either have to improve that or provide elite defense in the outfield to make it in the majors. He ranks him 45/50 in hitting, 40/40 power, 65/65 running, 45/55 fielding range, and 45/45 arm strength.

Mayo says that O'Neill makes consistently hard contact and can spray the ball all over the field. He has doubles power with room to add strength with average speed, but good base running instincts. He has the potential to be a solid defender, but it's hard to find a projection for him because he lacks the pure speed of a center fielder and the power of a corner outfielder. He ranks him as a 4/6 hitter, 3/4 power, 5/5 running, 4/5 arm, fielding 4/5, with an overall score of 4/5.

Obviously the biggest news is that the Yankees drafted someone related to Paul O'Neill, but other than both being outfielders, the two are very different. Mike lacks the power that his uncle had and isn't going to be Paul O'Neill 2.0. He actually sounds a lot like Brett Gardner, but less speed in the outfield and on the base path.