Mets select Gavin Cecchini as the 12th pick in the 2012 draft

The Mets selected 18-year-old SS Gavin Cecchini as the 12th overall pick in the 2012 first year player draft tonight.

Cecchini led the USA Baseball 18U National Team to the gold medal at the Pan American Championship in Colombia last fall.  He hit .500 with 17 RBI in 15 games during the tournament.

Cecchini is committed to attend the University of Mississippi beginning this fall, and was named Louisiana Baseball Player of the Year this week.

He missed the first six games of this season with tightness in his hamstrings, but came back and hit .413 with seven home runs, 32 RBI and 31 stolen bases during his senior year at Barbe High School in Louisiana this season.

Last night on SNY's Geico SportsNite, Cecchini said of his recent visit to Citi Field, during which he was able to stick around to watch Johan Santana's no hitter:

'It was unbelievable. it was one of my favorite stadiums I've been to, and I've been to a lot of them and played in a lot of them. It was awesome. All of the scouts and people took me in, and all the players from the New York Mets they treated me like one of their teammates ' they had never even met me before. So it was awesome.'

Cecchini told SNY he likes to think of himself as a Dustin Pedroia-type player.

'I am going to go out there and play hard,' he explained. 'I am not going to take one pitch off. That's just the type of player I am.'

In a conference call with reporters last night, Paul DePodesta spoke about the organization's draft strategy and said:

'I don't think we go into the Draft thinking we want to target anything that's related to the Major League club, or any even specific need in our system. That said, we love middle-of-the-diamond players: catchers, shortstops, center fielders if we can get them. So we do target those players.'

For more from DePodesta and Cecchini, check out MLB.com and ESPN New York.

To learn more about Cecchini, read quotes from scouts, experts around MLB and to see a YouTube clip of him fielding and hitting,

In a Q&A with Sox Prospects, Cecchini says he overworked as he prepared for the amateur draft which resulted in his hamstrings being strained, saying:

Keith Law of ESPN had the following to say about Cecchini:

Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com writes:

John Manuel of Baseball America says of Cecchini:

In regards to his defense at shortstop, ESPN HS says:

Here is video of Cecchini hitting and playing the field:

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Cecchini worked out for the Mets on Friday and watched Johan Santana's no-hitter from a suite at Citi Field.

Cecchini is the fourth position player taken in the first round by the Mets since 2008.  He joins first baseman Ike Davis (2008), infielder Reese Havens (2008) and Brandon Nimmo (2011).

To learn more about Cecchini, check out this report for CBS Sports.

To follow Gavin on Twitter, click here.