2015 MLB Draft: Grades for Top Prospects and Teams with Notable Results

The results from this year's Major League Baseball draft are in. It took 40 rounds over three days, and 1,215 players' lives changed forever, but now the real work begins as teams go about signing these young men and start their careers right away. 

Final results from the draft won't be known for years, as most of the players taken won't even have the chance to debut in the big leagues until at least 2017, but it's never too early to focus on grades and winners from a class. 

Baseball's draft is set up for teams to take the best available player regardless of position, so that's how teams are evaluated. Some front office may have taken a reliever who can get to the big leagues quickly, but there's not much value in a bullpen arm who is going to pitch maybe 70 innings in a 162-game season. 

Impact players often take a few years to develop, but the wait is worth it if a team hits. Here's a look at the biggest winners and question marks from the 2015 class. 

MLB Draft Grades

Team	Grade	First Pick
Arizona Diamondbacks	B+	Dansby Swanson, SS
Atlanta Braves	A-	Kolby Allard, LHP
Baltimore Orioles	C+	D.J. Stewart, OF
Boston Red Sox	B-	Andrew Benintendi, OF
Chicago Cubs	B	Ian Happ, OF
Chicago White Sox	C	Carson Fulmer, RHP
Cincinnati Reds	B+	Tyler Stephenson, C
Cleveland Indians	A	Brady Aiken, LHP
Colorado Rockies	A-	Brendan Rodgers, SS
Detroit Tigers	B	Beau Burrows, RHP
Houston Astros	A	Alex Bregman, SS
Kansas City Royals	B	Ashe Russell, RHP
Los Angeles Angels	C-	Taylor Ward, C
Los Angeles Dodgers	B+	Walker Buehler, RHP
Miami Marlins	B	Josh Naylor, 1B
Milwaukee Brewers	B+	Trent Clark, OF
Minnesota Twins	C+	Tyler Jay, LHP
New York Mets	C+	Desmond Lindsay, OF
New York Yankees	B	James Kaprielian, RHP
Oakland Athletics	B-	Richie Martin, SS
Philadelphia Phillies	C+	Cornelius Randolph, SS
Pittsburgh Pirates	A-	Kevin Newman, SS
San Diego Padres	B+	Austin Smith, RHP
San Francisco Giants	B	Phil Bickford, RHP
Seattle Mariners	D+	Nick Neidert, RHP
St. Louis Cardinals	B+	Nick Plummer, OF
Tampa Bay Rays	B-	Garrett Whitley, OF
Texas Rangers	B	Dillon Tate, RHP
Toronto Blue Jays	B+	Jon Harris, RHP
Washington Nationals	B-	Andrew Stevenson, OF

Draft Results

Full results can be found at MLB.com.

Biggest Winner: Houston Astros

It's hard to have a bad day when you can spend more money on the draft than anyone else, as the Houston Astros found out. 

Thanks to having two of the first five picks, the Astros had more than $17 million in bonus pool money for the first 10 rounds. That meant general manager Jeff Luhnow and scouting director Mike Elias could play their board in the hopes that a top talent would fall to them later. 

Going by MLB.com's top 200 prospects, the Astros wound up with three of the top seven players in the class in Alex Bregman (No. 4), Kyle Tucker (No. 7) and Daz Cameron (No. 6) with their first three selections. 

Cameron is the biggest name in the trio because his father is Mike Cameron, who played 17 years in the big leagues. He was also said to have a huge price tag, though Evan Drellich of the Houston Chronicle reported that might not be the case:

Mike told Drellich he's hoping his son is able to get his deal done quickly. "I definitely would hope so," Cameron said. "I would like for him to, when they start rookie ball, be right on the front doorstep, waiting to start with everybody else. … Like I told him from day one, it don't stop until the last day you put a uniform on."

Just taking those three players alone, who were consensus top-tier talents in this class, the Astros came out ahead of everyone else in terms of what they will likely add to their system. That's what they should have done with more money to spend than anyone else, but it's rare for a plan to fall into place so perfectly. 

Luhnow and his staff played the board better than anyone could have anticipated. Now, a system that's been churning out a lot of prospects this year will be replenished. 

Biggest Loser: Mike Matuella, RHP

Before the draft, no one had a clear idea about injured pitchers Brady Aiken and Mike Matuella. While Aiken managed to be taken in the first round by Cleveland at No. 17, Matuella would stay on the board until the third round at No. 78, when he was chosen by Texas. 

Despite having Tommy John surgery in April, Matuella still ranked 28th on MLB.com's top 200 draft prospects list because of his ability to dominate hitters with three pitches:

"

When healthy, he can overpower hitters with his 93-97 mph fastball and make them look bad with his curveball and slider. If that's not enough, he also demonstrates feel for his changeup and throwing strikes. His 6-foot-7 frame creates difficult plane and angle for his pitches, making him that much tougher.

"

However, the same scouting report also noted Matuella was only able to throw 141 innings in three seasons at Duke because of various injuries. There's little doubt that the accumulated effect of those issues on his body caused teams to shy away until the Rangers made their third pick. 

SB Nation's Chris Cotillo noted that because of Matuella's slide, signing him could turn out to be a problem for the Rangers:

Yet there's a Catch-22 for Matuella, because he may want to be paid like a first-round prospect, but if he doesn't sign this year and is unable to pitch before the 2016 draft, what kind of bonus would he be looking at if a team takes him?

That's a short way of saying Matuella has every incentive to sign, in addition to being able to rehab with a professional team's training staff. He won't get the money he was hoping for when 2015 started, but the Rangers could get a tremendous bargain. 

Biggest Question Mark: Cleveland takes Brady Aiken at No. 17

Sticking with injured pitchers: The Indians took the ultimate risk in the first round by taking last year's top pick at No. 17. 

Even after the pick was made, analysts were divided. Baseball Prospectus' Chris Crawford had this to say about the Indians' drafting ability after selecting Aiken:

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Seriously, I'm not sure anyone is better at the draft right now than Cleveland is. When healthy, Aiken is the best player—not just pitcher—in the draft, with three plus pitches and command/feel for pitching that would make a veteran envious, much less a kid who still is a teenager. There are obvious questions here that make him a high-risk selection, but the reward is a future ace. Getting one at the 17th pick is amazing. Great job, Cleveland.

"

ESPN's Keith Law echoed Crawford's sentiments but seemed more pessimistic, writing that Aiken's "probability here is lower than it is for most kids who have had TJ surgery."

The Indians don't seem to share those concerns about Aiken, as Cleveland scouting director Brad Grant told Drellich the team plans to work with the left-hander to get him back to where he was:

"

We’re going to work hard and partner with Brady to try to ensure that (he returns to the same form). That’s one of the things that really stands out with Brady is his character and his work ethic and his commitment to getting better. That’s something that definitely stood out in terms of his character and his willingness to progress from here.

"

Even though the assumption is Tommy John surgery isn't as much of a risk for players anymore, no one knows how an 18-year-old's elbow will respond to reconstructive surgery and not pitching for at least 12 months. 

Aiken is certainly an intriguing talent who could turn into the best pick of this draft in two or three years as he moves through the system. Yet there's also a chance he could flame out if the elbow never returns to pre-surgery form. 

It's not a bad risk for the Indians to take, but there's a lot of optimism and hope for Aiken right now. They knew what they were getting into and did more homework than a college student during finals week to make sure the reward outweighs the risk.