Opening Day for the Frontier League has arrived. It’s time for our first official update of the 2017 Frontier League Draft Class.

Out of the 26 players drafted, 16 players are on an Opening Day roster in the Frontier League. This is up from last year when only 9 of 30 made it through to the start of regular season.

It was also a great year for rookies as well. Of the 16 players, 14 players are listed as a rookie (either R1 or R2).

Here are the 16 players that will be starting the season in the Frontier League this year along with their positions and classifications:
Pick 1: Schaumburg Boomers, Austin Goss (RHP) Rookie-1
Pick 2: Windy City Thunderbolts, Cody Mincey (RHP) Rookie-1
Pick 5: Normal CornBelters, Bob Wheatley (LHP) Experienced
Pick 6: Lake Erie Crushers, Nick Bozman (LHP) Rookie-1
Pick 7: Washington Wild Things, Aaron Burns (RHP) Rookie-1
Pick 8: Schaumburg Boomers, Cosimo Cannella (1B) Rookie-1
Pick 9: River City Rascals, Stephen Swagerty (RHP) Rookie-1
Pick 12: Southern Illinois Miners, Ryan O’Malley (3B) Rookie-2
Pick 14: Windy City Thunderbolts, Danny Britt (C) Rookie-1
Pick 15: Traverse City Beach Bums, Brook Clark (UTL) Rookie-1
Pick 16: Gateway Grizzlies, Chris Dula (RHP) Experienced
Pick 17: Normal CornBelters, Kyle Carter (OF) Rookie-2
Pick 19: Washington Wild Things, Matt Sabel (LHP) Rookie-1
Pick 22: Joliet Slammers, Brian McKenna (C) Rookie-1 *Now listed as a Pitcher
Pick 24: Southern Illinois Miners, Chris Amato (SS) (Traded to the Windy City Thunderbolts) Rookie-1
Pick 28: Gateway Grizzlies, Colin Kelly (RHP) Rookie-1

Catchers took the biggest hit this year with 5 of the 7 drafted catchers getting released, with additional drafted catcher now listed as a pitcher.

The list of drafted players released:

Pick 3: Traverse City Beach Bums, James Simpson (C) RELEASED
Pick 10: Joliet Slammers, Steven Pollakov (C) RELEASED
Pick 11: Evansville Otters, Andrew Bynum (C) RELEASED
Pick 18: Florence Freedom, Mark Fowler (OF) RELEASED
Pick 20: Lake Erie Crushers, Roman Gomez (RHP) RELASED
Pick 21: River City Rascals, Trevor Jaunich (RHP) RELEASED
Pick 23: Evansville Otters, Ryan Cheek (RHP) RELEASED
Pick 30: Florence Freedom, Lucas Owens (C) RELEASED
Pick 33: River City Rascals, Dillon Clift, (C) RELEASED
Pick 37: River City Rascals, Matthew Haskins (OF) RELEASED

Follow along and subscribe as we update the players’ progress throughout the season!