The Official 2019 MLB Draft Thread

[Docwaukee]

all the pitchers I'd have been happy with went a few picks before the Adams.  

Singer seems mid rotation starter material at best.   Fine we passed on him.  Was hoping for Gilbert if we were going to go pitching.  Otherwise wanted Gorman but still like the Adams pick and I think he'll be a solid major league player.  Probably going to take at least 3-4 more years.  

btw, if we're using the retrospectoscope, good call on selling Jacob Pearson to the twins for intl money in order to help sweeten the deal for Ohtani.  That pick was turd city.  I actually think most of us thought that was a head scratcher at the time.  

[Blarg]

16 hours ago, Inside Pitch said:

Oh shit -- you're right.  Another multi-sport guy...    Something else that's been the recent trend.

My brother was a three sport athlete in high school playing football as a defensive end, forward in basketball and right fielder/starting pitcher. His teammate was a quarterback, shooting guard and catcher. That guy was drafted by the Expos. 

[Stradling]

3 minutes ago, Blarg said:

My brother was a three sport athlete in high school playing football as a defensive end, forward in basketball and right fielder/starting pitcher. His teammate was a quarterback, shooting guard and catcher. That guy was drafted by the Expos. 

Holy shit that’s Tim Raines.  I’d recognize that tie anywhere. 

[arch stanton]

Way before the time of Raines. That’s Warren Cromartie

[Stradling]

41 minutes ago, arch stanton said:

Way before the time of Raines. That’s Warren Cromartie

Ellis Valentine?

[HaloMilliVanilli]

He's missing the goat.  It's Sammy Hagar.  Duh!

[Dave Saltzer]

A new name.

From: https://thebiglead.com/2019/05/17/2019-mlb-mock-draft-adley-rutschman-witt-vaughn-abrams-bleday/3/

 

15. Los Angeles Angels: Quinn Priester, RHP, Cary-Grove High School (IL)

Quinn Priester is a Midwestern prep pitcher with excellent athleticism and great stuff. He can hit 97 mph with his fastball, has a heavy two-seamer and owns probably the best curveball in this high school class. At 6’3″ and 198 pounds, Priester has the frame and athleticism to be a long-term starter.

The Angels are looking closely at the prep prospects in this year’s draft and Priester would be an excellent add here. If they can get him to improve his changeup, he could wind up being the best pitcher in this class.

[Dave Saltzer]

From: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/mock-draft-2-0/

 

15. Angels – George Kirby, RHP, Elon
The Angels have been tied mostly to high school players: Henderson (who GM Billy Eppler has seen), Priester, Florida prep RHP Matthew Allan (rumors have him seeking $4 million, so he’d be overslot starting at this pick), Tennessee prep CF Maurice Hampton, and NorCal prep SS Kyren Paris, who is another polarizing prospect with interest in the mid-first round, but isn’t a top-40 prospect for some clubs.

[Chuck]

They better take the best pitcher available. 

Please, no more toolsy outfielders. 

The only other positions I would take is a legit power hitting 3B or C, that has a bit of a defensive minded profile as well. 

[Tank]

5 hours ago, Stradling said:

Holy shit that’s Tim Raines.  I’d recognize that tie anywhere. 

 

5 hours ago, arch stanton said:

Way before the time of Raines. That’s Warren Cromartie

 

4 hours ago, Stradling said:

Ellis Valentine?

 

3 hours ago, HaloJustinBieber said:

He's missing the goat.  It's Sammy Hagar.  Duh!

you youngsters . . . *sigh*

that's from the expos first year when they picked a SS from the dodgers. that's maury wills, you idiots.

[Dave Saltzer]

19 minutes ago, Chuckster70 said:

They better take the best pitcher available. 

Please, no more toolsy outfielders. 

The only other positions I would take is a legit power hitting 3B or C, that has a bit of a defensive minded profile as well. 

You know that last year I very much wanted the Angels to take one of the available pitchers with our pick. I agree that I do not want another toolsy OFer, and would much prefer a pitcher. But, I wouldn't take the best pitcher available if there is a marked difference between the pitcher and best overall player available.

 

My premise is that it is cheaper and easier to draft and develop top-tiered pitching than it is to acquire it through free agency. Hitting is a lot easier to acquire (our recent bad experiences aside) than pitching. So, if two players are equally talented, I'd take the pitcher over the hitter due to the better financial windfall that could result. But, I wouldn't just take the best pitcher and overlook all position players, because the windfall from the best player is still greater than the windfall from a potential average pitcher. 

 

Yes, last year we took a lot of pitchers. But, we took pitchers after the top-ranked ones were mostly off the boards. And, we took several in certain rounds to shore up money to allow us to sign our top two picks last year.

 

Getting Kirby, Allen, or Priester in the 1st round, and Cavaco or Fletcher in the second round would be really nice.

[Angel Oracle]

1 hour ago, Tank said:

 

 

 

you youngsters . . . *sigh*

that's from the expos first year when they picked a SS from the dodgers. that's maury wills, you idiots.

Actually, Wills was picked from the   Pirates.

[Docwaukee]

7 hours ago, Blarg said:

My brother was a three sport athlete in high school playing football as a defensive end, forward in basketball and right fielder/starting pitcher. His teammate was a quarterback, shooting guard and catcher. That guy was drafted by the Expos. 

Gary Carter?  

[Docwaukee]

1 hour ago, Dave Saltzer said:

You know that last year I very much wanted the Angels to take one of the available pitchers with our pick. I agree that I do not want another toolsy OFer, and would much prefer a pitcher. But, I wouldn't take the best pitcher available if there is a marked difference between the pitcher and best overall player available.

 

My premise is that it is cheaper and easier to draft and develop top-tiered pitching than it is to acquire it through free agency. Hitting is a lot easier to acquire (our recent bad experiences aside) than pitching. So, if two players are equally talented, I'd take the pitcher over the hitter due to the better financial windfall that could result. But, I wouldn't just take the best pitcher and overlook all position players, because the windfall from the best player is still greater than the windfall from a potential average pitcher. 

 

Yes, last year we took a lot of pitchers. But, we took pitchers after the top-ranked ones were mostly off the boards. And, we took several in certain rounds to shore up money to allow us to sign our top two picks last year.

 

Getting Kirby, Allen, or Priester in the 1st round, and Cavaco or Fletcher in the second round would be really nice.

I actually kinda feel the opposite.  I think they are of the mind that they can get guys with big arms in the later rounds and teach them to pitch whereas it's much more difficult to teach the skill of putting bat to ball.  

Since there's some great depth on the position player side this year though, we might see the halos go after a prep arm in the first round and maybe even the 2nd as well.  

I wouldn't mind the Henderson pick though.  Another guy I'd like to see fall to us is Bryson Stott.  

[Second Base]

59 minutes ago, Dochalo said:

Gary Carter?  

My dad still talks about the Pony League World Series team that he was on with Gary Carter and Jack Clark.  He's still pissed Carter beat him out for starting catcher.  He also claims to have punched Lance Parrish in a high school game and broke his nose.  

I have no way of verifying these stories.  Maybe it's because I don't have many cool ones to tell myself.  I once saw Dontrelle Willis hit a HR at a traveling ball tournament I was in as a freshman (he's a few years older).  I also once reached via error against Greg Holland.  So there's that. 

[Revad]

On 5/16/2019 at 10:32 PM, Chuckster70 said:

I still think we should have drafted one of Brady Singer, Ryan Rolison, Jackson Kowar or Shane McClanahan over Jordyn Adams, especially since we took Jo Adell and Brandon Marsh previously in the draft.

Singer who was arguably the best college arm in the draft went right after us and is doing really well in his first taste of professional ball in High-A. 2.47 ERA, 43 IP, 43 K's, 1.19 WHIP, just 1 HR allowed. 

How long has that been percolating?

[Chuck]

5 hours ago, Dochalo said:

Gary Carter?  

Good Christian man.

[Blarg]

6 hours ago, Dochalo said:

Gary Carter?  

 

55 minutes ago, Chuckster70 said:

Good Christian man.

Yup. My brother went on to the ministry while Carter went on to be an All Star catcher. 

[Chuck]

45 minutes ago, Blarg said:

 

Yup. My brother went on to the ministry while Carter went on to be an All Star catcher. 

Awesome!!

[Tank]

9 hours ago, Angel Oracle said:

Actually, Wills was picked from the   Pirates.

They’re not gonna know the difference. 

[Taylor]

On 5/16/2019 at 2:28 PM, Dochalo said:

of course he also plays basketball.  

Racist?

[Dave Saltzer]

19 hours ago, Dochalo said:

I actually kinda feel the opposite.  I think they are of the mind that they can get guys with big arms in the later rounds and teach them to pitch whereas it's much more difficult to teach the skill of putting bat to ball.  

Since there's some great depth on the position player side this year though, we might see the halos go after a prep arm in the first round and maybe even the 2nd as well.  

I wouldn't mind the Henderson pick though.  Another guy I'd like to see fall to us is Bryson Stott.  

Looking at their most recent picks under Eppler, I'd say what they are looking for most is pure athleticism/physicality more than anything else. They are then looking for athletes with strong mental makeups. I disagree that they are focusing on putting bat to ball skills because one of the big questions with Adell (which allowed us to snag him) was how well that would develop with him. Same for Adams. But, in both cases, they were incredible athletes with great mental makeups. They have also shown the same style with their international signees suck as Knowles and DeShawn. 

 

I would say,  you can't teach tools such as power, speed, or pitching hest. But theres more power generally available every year and there are more positions on the field to place power. That's for both the draft and through free agency. So, that makes the pitching more rare, desirable, and expensive. Given two players who are essentially equally talented athletes, I'd lean towards the pitcher because it would potentially net more savings and have a bigger effect on a game, I'd lean towards taking the pitcher.

 

Lastly, I would add two more caveats. First, while not every prospect will pan out, at some point each year you have to factor in organizational depth (note, this is way different than organizational need, which I am opposed to doing in baseball). The goal is to create waves of talent that matriculate to the Majors at or near the same time. That makes it much easier to fill in pieces to make the parent club the best it can be through trades and free agency. That may shift the focus from high school (where generally the best raw talent is available) to college at times. 

 

For all of these reasons, drafting is an art, not a science, and always will remain so. We as fans are only privy to so little information for players compared to what the scouts and teams will know. I've had students with million dollar arms and 10 cent brains and have seen how that has affected them in the draft. Now, more than ever, that mental makeup and fortitude is counting for a lot more of a player's draft profile. And, I am sure that the Angels are very much focused on those intangibles as much as they are on the raw talent. 

 

As I said earlier, assuming all is good with the high school pitchers I listed earlier, and with Fletcher or Covaco, that would make for a great 1st and 2nd round haul for us. 

[Docwaukee]

hearing some buzz about the Angels looking at prep SS Kyren Paris.  apparently moving up quite a few draft boards.  doesn't turn 18 till nov.  

from mlb:

Scouting grades: Hit: 50 | Power: 40 | Run: 55 | Arm: 55 | Field: 55 | Overall: 45

One of the younger players in the 2019 Draft, Paris won't turn 18 until November. He's also one of the better shortstop prospects available, with the potential for four solid tools once he matures physically. He's committed to California, but that may become moot if he goes in the first three rounds.

Paris has a sound right-handed swing and employs a line-drive, all-fields approach. He's not very physical right now but has some quickness to his bat and deceptive strength that could develop into 12-15 home run power. He'll flash some plus run times and is aggressive on the bases.

Paris shows smooth actions and soft hands at shortstop. He has a solid arm and good instincts that enable him to make plays. If he doesn't provide enough offense to make it as a regular, he has the athleticism and tools to play a variety of positions in a utility role.

 

 

[Chuck]

New Mock Draft selection from BA for the Angels. 

[Second Base]

27 minutes ago, Chuckster70 said:

New Mock Draft selection from BA for the Angels. 

I would be absolutely thrilled if the Angel's took Allan. He's a future front of the rotation starter, and would likely be able to step straight into A Ball next year. He will be major league ready by age 21 or 22, likely in 2022, which figures to only be a year behind fellow upside starters like Chris Rodriguez and Jose Soriano.

A wave of very good starting pitchers like that would be just what the doctor ordered for a team that would figure to have young position players like Adell, Marsh, Adams and Maitan playing major roles.