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English of Detroit Western taken in the 5th round of the MLB Draft; other top prospects shunned
For the state’s best pro baseball prospects – Birmingham Detroit Country Day’s John Malcom, Warren De La Salle’s Bryce Bush, and Detroit Western’s Will English – this week’s MLB Draft proved a bit of surprise. Things didn’t exactly shake out the way everyone expected.
Leading up to the draft, most scouts saw Malcom as the first high schooler in the state to be picked and maybe the first prep first baseman overall.
He never heard his name called.
On the other hand, English, a 6-3 right-handed hurler who many thought would also be selected, went in the fifth round to the California Angels. The 5-tool Bush went in the 33rd round to the Chicago White Sox. He’s one of the more intriguing pro prospects to come through the Catholic League in a quite a while.
Malcom made it known he was leaning towards heading to college and enrolling at Vanderbilt in the fall, so that could be the main reason he never got the nod from the pros this week. The 6-foot-4 sweet-swinging slugger hits for power and average.
English was the first player from the PSL to be drafted in 30 years. This season, he’s sporting a 1.43 ERA. His fastball has been clocked in the 90s. On Tuesday following receiving the call that he was drafted, he announced he was foregoing college and his intended trip to the SEC to play for Tennessee and jumping right into the fray with the Angels organization this summer.
Bush will most likely take the college route and suit for Mississippi State next spring. As a sophomore in 2017, he was a valuable asset on the Division 2 state title team with De La Salle.
