Official 2021 MLB draft thread

[totdprods]

On 7/14/2021 at 10:22 AM, GrittyVeterans said:

So I stopped paying attention after the first round due to work. I understand that we went very heavy on pitching, but can someone fill me in on if the selections make sense/are solid picks with upside?

@Dochalo

@Inside Pitch

@totdprods

Cautiously optimistic…it still feels a little simplistic drafting exclusively pitchers when we still have extraordinarily thin catching in the system - seems that it would be a good idea to develop a strong catcher or two alongside all of these arms - and our position player depth between A/A+ is pretty atrocious.

Also feels like they are betting heavily on getting some legit relief prospects out of this, which is cool I guess because there’s obviously a glaring need, but at the same time it’s hard to get excited about relief prospects after seeing guys we got excited about like RJ Alvarez, Mike Morin, Cam Bedrosian, etc. tear up the minors and do very little in the bigs. I’m hoping they have an idea which guys can be converted to starting and those plans work out.

It does seem that the Angels have been doing a good job developing arms in the last couple years though. We’re seeing a ton of strong performances from the 18-20 draft classes now…Killam, Smith, Tyler, Criswell, Daniel, and also have a number of arms we drafted in those classes doing well in Baltimore’s system now - Brnovich, Stallings, Bradish all doing well, Peek is alright, Mattson made it to the bigs. If those development programs started those arms off right too, we’re looking real good.

I have a feeling this also hints that the Angels don’t plan on tying a lot of money up in their rotation. They’ll want to fill internally and not clog it with multi-year deals for mid-range FA, and maybe will still shy from mega-deals. Pitching can always be traded too, so this is a good currency to invest in, should that be their plan.

[Inside Pitch]

4 hours ago, tdawg87 said:

Did you like the first 2 picks? I did, personally. Mainly because of what Rocker will cost.

And yeah, they seemingly got a lot of guys with upside in the last 10 picks that fell into their lap. Hopefully they can sign Albanese.

They were fine.  No issues with Bachman..  As far as what Rocker cost...  Not sure they needed to do what the Mets have done, I'm uncertain how the extra year of eligibility worked.  But providing it wasn't 5 years for everyone regardless of class year... Was he going to risk going back into the draft to try to be taken higher?  And then was he willing to sit out a year if a team offered him $12.73 total because he had no options other than to sit out a year?

If he had two more years left, fine.  Otherwise, was it a PR move?  An attempt to generate hype?

[Inside Pitch]

4 hours ago, rafibomb said:

Albanese I'm not worried as I believe he is a senior at 23 years old. The tough signs will be our 11th and 12th rounders Silseth and Albright. Silseth can return to Arizona for his senior year to improve his draft stock as his numbers this season didn't reflect how good his stuff really is. Albright is a prepster with a VT commit who was mentioned to not go Day 2 in the draft because he was not able to reach any financial commitments with any teams. Hopefully the Angels can work something out despite taking him in Day 3.

But does he get another year or is he a senior with zero leverage.   He hoes back, he gets taken in first round, but because he cant return a 5th year and be drafted again he has zero leverage...  That's what is uncertain.

[Jason]

2 hours ago, m0nkey said:

Go eaters!

 

 

I appreciate the stache 

[ten ocho recon scout]

3 hours ago, Inside Pitch said:

They were fine.  No issues with Bachman..  As far as what Rocker cost...  Not sure they needed to do what the Mets have done, I'm uncertain how the extra year of eligibility worked.  But providing it wasn't 5 years for everyone regardless of class year... Was he going to risk going back into the draft to try to be taken higher?  And then was he willing to sit out a year if a team offered him $12.73 total because he had no options other than to sit out a year?

If he had two more years left, fine.  Otherwise, was it a PR move?  An attempt to generate hype?

If all things were equal, would you have preferred him to bachman? Or do you see both as having about the same upside?

[Angel Oracle]

5 hours ago, tdawg87 said:

Looks like a Vaudeville actor.

 

[rafibomb]

Every time I look through our draft I find a new intriguing name. This time it's Mason Erla. Last season he was ranked in the top 150 by BBA and top 100 by MLB Pipeline. He was off to a ridiculous start in 2020 before COVID hit.

 

He wasn't taken in the 5 round draft so I'm assuming he went back for another year in hopes of maintaining his strong numbers. They were still decent but not "lights out" like his 2020 season: 79.2 IP, 3.50 ERA, 1.33 WHIP, 9.04 K9

According to this article he was in discussion with teams in the early 2nd day of the draft (Rounds 2-10) but couldn't come to a financial agreement with those teams:

Quote

 

The MLB draft was completed over the course of three days, with the first round on Sunday, rounds 2-10 on Monday and 11-20 on Tuesday. Erla said he could’ve been an early second-day pick, but the bonus money being offered was not to his liking.

“I knew it was going to happen eventually,” said Erla of being drafted. “I had offers early on in the second day but it was not what I would consider good offers and I didn’t feel comfortable accepting those. So we stood our ground and, obviously, it ended up working out later on.”

https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/sports/college/msu/baseball/2021/07/14/mason-erla-mlb-draft-michigan-state-los-angeles-angels-bsaeball/7958429002/

This makes me feel a lot better about their signing of other picks as @Dochalomentioned you doubt they would take a guy they didn't have money for and spoke with.

 

 

Edited July 16, 2021 by rafibomb

[CanadianHalo]

Does the money for the UDFA signings come from your draft pool allowance?

If so then I feel like the Angels took what would be equivalent to the NFL’s trade down and collect multiple picks approach this year. Teams like Seattle, Minnesota and Carolina (this year) do this regularly. 

At large the draft is often a crapshoot and by acquiring more picks (in the Angels case UDFA’s) you’re increasing your chances at hitting on one.

Our system needed a influx of pitching talent which the Angels accomplished. If bonus pool money played a role in Bachman over Rocker I understand given it would’ve played a role in their entire draft approach but at the same time any time you’re picking in the top 10 you need to make it count.

[Stradling]

I don’t think UDFA signing come out of your draft pool. 

[Lou]

DRAFT pool money.

DRAFT.

[Stradling]

3 minutes ago, Lou said:

DRAFT pool money.

DRAFT.

No idea

[Inside Pitch]

3 hours ago, CanadianHalo said:

Does the money for the UDFA signings come from your draft pool allowance?

If so then I feel like the Angels took what would be equivalent to the NFL’s trade down and collect multiple picks approach this year. Teams like Seattle, Minnesota and Carolina (this year) do this regularly. 

At large the draft is often a crapshoot and by acquiring more picks (in the Angels case UDFA’s) you’re increasing your chances at hitting on one.

Our system needed a influx of pitching talent which the Angels accomplished. If bonus pool money played a role in Bachman over Rocker I understand given it would’ve played a role in their entire draft approach but at the same time any time you’re picking in the top 10 you need to make it count.

No, and its capped at 20k.

[Stradling]

1 minute ago, Inside Pitch said:

No, and its capped at 20k.

Per player, right? 

[Inside Pitch]

11 hours ago, ten ocho recon scout said:

If all things were equal, would you have preferred him to bachman? Or do you see both as having about the same upside?

Rocker became less and less of a sure safe pick the longer the season went on because the arm strength velocity issues.  But he's got the bigger repertoire and likely is more projectable.  I wanted Jobe above everyone else though and he's super high risk as a HS arm.  Bachman is seriously Rocker-lite, Angels should be fine.

[Inside Pitch]

3 minutes ago, Stradling said:

Per player, right? 

Yes.

[Taylor]

5 hours ago, Lou said:

DRAFT pool money.

DRAFT.

But "Undrafted" has the word DRAFT in it.

[Lou]

3 minutes ago, Taylor said:

But "Undrafted" has the word DRAFT in it.

And fart.

[Taylor]

10 minutes ago, Lou said:

And fart.

As well as "traded."

 

Angels are sellers confirmed.

[tdawg87]

5 hours ago, Inside Pitch said:

Rocker became less and less of a sure safe pick the longer the season went on because the arm strength velocity issues.  But he's got the bigger repertoire and likely is more projectable.  I wanted Jobe above everyone else though and he's super high risk as a HS arm.  Bachman is seriously Rocker-lite, Angels should be fine.

Or Diet Rocker, if you will.

[Inside Pitch]

So..   I've had some time to scratch beneath the surface.   As I said prior to the draft, this was IMO going to be more Eppler's final draft than Minasians first draft -- nothing that happened in the draft really makes me think differently.  They essentially picked up where the last two drafts left off -- adding as many arms as possible.  Eppler for most of his first few years mined left and right for high upside, high risk position players both in the draft and internationally.  Pretty much every pre-season publication out there (yes including the ones that ranked them in the bottom third), talked up the upsides and exciting potential of the system, and it's extreme youth.   They have 55 shortstops and OFers age 21 or younger it seems, adding older/more advanced pitchers makes a lot of sense as far as balancing things goes.

I still don't really like having gone exclusively after pitching, but it makes sense and unlike the JD drafts of old (save for our third rounder), pretty much all these guys have a plus pitch or two and some upsides.  In some ways I think they may have been attempting to accelerate their "failed starter" RP corps by targeting guys with out pitches..  Maybe more importantly asking some people in other organizations they all pretty much feel the Angels day three picks were very quietly awesome and apparently a lot of people are extremely high on the kid from PR being converted to catcher, a Cinci scout comped him to Javy Baez in the sense that he's got mad exit velos and potential power while being a hacker ... "he misses, but when he connects he wrecks shit".  He's raw and has a pretty high crap out chance but apparently the only thing that kept him from being a more higher profile player is his size.  He apparently graded at the 90% in every category save for his pop times (87.9%).  The biggest knock about him apparently is that "he's not as physically talented as the numbers seem to indicate".   So.. basically, he's not 6'2' 190 with room to grow.

This draft will always be about Bachman over Rocker and again, while I'm not a fan of all pitchers there really weren't a ton of reaches..  It's about as safe a group of prospects as they have had in the last 10 years while still having potential upside.

[eligrba]

5 minutes ago, Inside Pitch said:

So..   I've had some time to scratch beneath the surface.   As I said prior to the draft, this was IMO going to be more Eppler's final draft than Minasians first draft -- nothing that happened in the draft really makes me think differently.  They essentially picked up where the last two drafts left off -- adding as many arms as possible.  Eppler for most of his first few years mined left and right for high upside, high risk position players both in the draft and internationally.  Pretty much every pre-season publication out there (yes including the ones that ranked them in the bottom third), talked up the upsides and exciting potential of the system, and it's extreme youth.   They have 55 shortstops and OFers age 21 or younger it seems, adding older/more advanced pitchers makes a lot of sense as far as balancing things goes.

I still don't really like having gone exclusively after pitching, but it makes sense and unlike the JD drafts of old (save for our third rounder), pretty much all these guys have a plus pitch or two and some upsides.  In some ways I think they may have been attempting to accelerate their "failed starter" RP corps by targeting guys with out pitches..  Maybe more importantly asking some people in other organizations they all pretty much feel the Angels day three picks were very quietly awesome and apparently a lot of people are extremely high on the kid from PR being converted to catcher, a Cinci scout comped him to Javy Baez in the sense that he's got mad exit velos and potential power while being a hacker ... "he misses, but when he connects he wrecks shit".  He's raw and has a pretty high crap out chance but apparently the only thing that kept him from being a more higher profile player is his size.  He apparently graded at the 90% in every category save for his pop times (87.9%).  The biggest knock about him apparently is that "he's not as physically talented as the numbers seem to indicate".   So.. basically, he's not 6'2' 190 with room to grow.

This draft will always be about Bachman over Rocker and again, while I'm not a fan of all pitchers there really weren't a ton of reaches..  It's about as safe a group of prospects as they have had in the last 10 years while still having potential upside.

Thanks for this.  It makes sense. 

[rafibomb]

6th round college senior. Talk about signing an underslot deal… signed for $1,000 with a slot value on $263,700.

 

[Inside Pitch]

3 hours ago, rafibomb said:

6th round college senior. Talk about signing an underslot deal… signed for $1,000 with a slot value on $263,700.

 

That's pretty awful.  He would have been better off not getting drafted.

[rafibomb]

3 minutes ago, Inside Pitch said:

That's pretty awful.  He would have been better off not getting drafted.

Dodgers just signed their 9th round pick for $2,500. 

[totdprods]

Pretty sure we’ve been signing our 6-10 guys for like $10k the last few years.