Goodwin's big day is Monday

Former Gryphon Brian Goodwin

Monday will be a big day for former Rocky Mount High athlete Brian Goodwin.

Live coverage of the 2011 First-Year Player Major League Baseball Draft begins with a one-hour preview show at 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on MLB.com and the MLB Network, followed by the first round and supplemental compensation round.

Expect to hear Goodwin's name somewhere toward the end of the first round. 

The 6-foot-1, 190-pounder, who spent this past spring playing for Miami Dade Junior College, may go as high as No .23 to the Washington Nationals, which would be real close for area fans to go see him play. 

Expect my good friend Wes Bradshaw and myself, the biggest - literally - BIGGEST - Boston Red Sox fans I know of, to go crazy should he go at No. 26 to Boston. 

Goodwin has an interesting connection to the Boston area as he was a star of the Nash County 14-year-old Babe Ruth Baseball team that made the World Series there in nearby Quincy. And he played last summer in the Cape Cod League just southeast of the city.

He could go at No. 28 to the Atlanta Braves, the adopted team of so many area MLB fans.

Or he could join fellow North Carolina native and ex-Gatorade N.C. Player of the Year Madison Bumgarner in San Francisco if he goes 29th to the World Champion Giants. Bumgarner won the award in 2007, Goodwin in 2009.

It will be interesting to see where he ends up. Below are a few of the mock draft predictions for Goodwin's destinations and the Nationals outnumbered most as his landing pad. 

Should he go in the first round, he'd top where 1996 Gryphon alum Jeremy Ward went. Ward, as a junior at Long Beach State and a transfer from Wake Forest, was picked in 1999 in the second round by the Arizona Diamondbacks as the 71st overall pick.

Here are some of the predictions for his destination:

DraftSite.com - No. 23, Washington Nationals

MyMLBDraft.com - No. 23, Washington Nationals

Rivals.com - No. 26, Boston Red Sox

ProspectJunkies.com - No. 28, Atlanta Braves

MLB.com - No. 29, San Francisco Giants

DraftHype.com - No. 31, Tampa Bay Rays

MockDraftMania. com - No. 39, Philadelphia Phillies

 Below are Godwin's offensive numbers since leaving Rocky Mount.

GOODWIN'S POST PREP NUMBERS

YR	TEAM	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	BB	SO	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG
2010	UNC	227	66	13	8	7	45	49	7	2	.291	.411	.511
2010	CapeCod	114	32	4	1	1	14	20	15	4	.281
2011	Miami Dade	157	60	11	2	8			16