Bo Bichette is ready for Thursday night.
"I'm excited," said the Lakewood high senior shortstop Wednesday. "Anxious for sure. This is what I've worked for my entire life."
Thursday is the 2016 MLB amatuer baseball draft. Bichette, the son for former Major League All-Star Dante, could hear his name called on the first night. Baseball America ranked Bichette the 46th best prospect in the class of 2016. Keith Law of ESPN has Bichette going 21st overall to the Blue Jays. There are 41 first round picks, including 7 lottery picks.
"It's crazy because it is life changing," said Bichette.
Bichette is committed to Arizona State, so depending on his draft position and the team selecting him he could opt to play in college for three years.
"Either way it's a crazy hard decision to possibly have to tell them I am not coming," Bichette said. "Or, by passing what's been my dream, to play professional baseball out of high school. Either way it's going to be tough, but I've made a great decision in Arizona State. Either way it's going to be a good decision."
Wednesday Bichette, the Gatorade Baseball PLayer of the Year for Florida collected another honor.
He was named the Florida Dairy Farmers 2016 Mr. Baseball. Bichette had previously earned Class 5A Player of the Year accolades making him eligible for the overall honor.
This past season, Bichette, who has signed to play baseball at Arizona State University, batted .576 with seven doubles, five triples and 13 home runs.
He also walked 32 times in his 100 plate appearances, including 19 intentional walks. Bichette finished his senior season with a .707 on-base percentage and a 1.424 slugging percentage. He also stole 21 bases, struck out only seven times and made eight errors at shortstop for a .989 fielding percentage in 26 games.
Bichette received 179 total points, including 12 of the 21 first-place votes, to claim the Mr. Baseball title.
Alonso's Jordan Butler, the 9A Players of the Year, finished in the runner-up spot with 155 points. Class 8A POY CJ VanEyk of Steinbrenner (118) finished third. Rounding out the voting were, Class 4A POY Max Guzman of Calvary Christian (114), Class 6A POY Drew Parrish of Rockledge (111), Class 2A POY Aldrich De Jongh of Lake Worth Trinity Christian (88), Class 7A POY Gavin Gillespie of Gaither (81), Class 3A POY Sam Keating of Canterbury (79) and Class 1A POY Micah Byrd of Lafayette (53).
Steinbrenner's John Crumbley finished third in the Coach of the Year voting. Douglas' Todd Fitz-Gerald took the overall title. Archbishop McCarthy's Rich Bielski was second.
Class 3A COY Frank Turco of The Canterbury School (114) finished fourth, followed in order by Class 5A COY Mike Boswell of The Bolles School (111), Class 4A COY Alan Kunkel of Calvary Christian (108), Class 7A COY Nelson North of Gaither (100), Class 2A COY Miguel Cuello of Lake Worth Trinity Christian (71) and Class 1A COY Tim Hansen of Lafayette (60).
All nine finalists led their teams to state titles.