This story was excerpted from Christina De Nicola's Marlins Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

This Sunday will be a busy one for the Marlins, who close out the first half against the Phillies and also select sixth overall in the MLB Draft.

While prep stars Druw Jones, Jackson Holliday, Termarr Johnson and Elijah Green will likely be selected before the Marlins are on the clock, there is a group of high-floor college bats who should be available when it comes time to pick.

Some of those are:
Brooks Lee, SS, Cal Poly
Kevin Parada, C, Georgia Tech
Jacob Berry, 3B/OF, Louisiana State
Jace Jung, 2B, Texas Tech
Zach Neto, SS, Campbell

DJ Svihlik, the Marlins' senior director of amateur scouting, compared this year's Draft to the one in 2005, when collegiate players Alex Gordon, Ryan Zimmerman, Ryan Braun and Troy Tulowitzki were taken in the top seven.

"I said this earlier this year the college bats, generally speaking across the entire Draft, tend to be the theme," Svihlik said. "One of the main reasons for that is: a) because they're pretty good; but b) a lot of the high-end college guys blew out. So it just elevates those bats further up the board. High school bats and college bats tend to be the theme this year."

The Marlins -- like many organizations -- follow the "best available" philosophy. It doesn't matter whether the player is at a position of need in the system because it's usually a bat-conversation first. According to Svihlik, the Marlins have narrowed their selection to five or six prospects.

"Each market provides a little bit something different," Svihlik said. "You don't want to try to reach for something that's not there. If the market's providing pitching, you take pitchers. If the market's providing really good college bats, then you try to exhaust that. There's a lot of conversations that happen where you're looking at a pocket of players high on the board and you're trying to ask, 'Does that player exist somewhere else?' Because if so, we can go into that pocket of players, so strategy is always a big part of it.

"Taking the best player available will always be an overarching theme no matter the situation. Sometimes players are very equal. What do you do when players are very equal? There's some considerations there. But our overarching theme will always be taking the best player. We try to get players that are going to show up and be good. We talk a lot about tools, but players that show up and are good right away, they hold a lot of value. Certainly the understanding is that they do have tools, they do have talent, but then you want to try to make sure they show up and are good."

First pick and bonus slot: Sixth, $6,034,300
Additional first-day picks: The Marlins dealt theirs away as part of the Tanner Scott/Cole Sulser trade with the Orioles.
Total bonus pool: $10,486,000
Last three first picks: Kahlil Watson (2021, 16th overall), Max Meyer (2020, third overall), JJ Bleday (2019, fourth overall)
Best pick of the last 10 years, per MLB Pipeline: Brian Anderson