Here are the projected first-round draft picks for the Tampa Bay Rays from each of the three major analysts:
Keith Law: C.J. Cron, Brandon Nimmo, and Johnny Eierman
Kevin Goldstein: Josh Bell, Dan Vogelbach, and Brandon Nimmo
Jim Callis: Chris Reed, Henry Owens, and Blake Swihart
Also, Marc Hulet over at FanGraphs released his own mock draft this morning, and he has the Rays taking Kolten Wong, Brandon Nimmo, and Dan Vogelbach. Personally, I'd almost rather that people weren't predicting the Rays to get all these great hitters -- now my hopes have been raised, and Kevin's showed us how often these final predictions turn out to be correct. Fingers crossed, but we'll really just have to see how things shape up tonight.
As for the Josh Bell pick, Goldstein has this to say:
Thoughts on what the Rays will do with their picks have gone from aggressive to "crazy aggressive." They don't have the cash to compete with the Red Sox and Yankees in the free agency market, so this year's plethora of picks is their chance to find cost-controlled superstars. Bell is the best high school bat in the draft, and the Rays are looking more and more like they'll do what it takes to sign the best player they can find with nearly every pick.
Be still, my heart.
There's really not much to add at this point in the day, so for profiles on many of these draft picks, continue after the jump.
The Process Report has already done a great job of profiling many of the players that have been connected to the Rays at one point or another, so instead of redoing all their hard work, I'll just link you to their profiles:
Roman Quinn
Dan Vogelbach
Josh Osich
C.J. Cron
Granden Goetzman
Jonny Eierman
Trevor Story
Kolten Wong
Jose Fernandez
Brandon Nimmo
Matt Purke
Brian Goodwin
Joe Ross
Levi Michael
Also, our friends at Rays Prospects will be live blogging the draft tonight. They've had a lot of great draft content recently too, so check out their sidebar links if you're looking for more draft day reading.