The Official 2023 MLB Amateur Draft Thread

[jsnpritchett]

Just now, mmc said:

4th UDFA

 

Good OBP and a nice number of steals, too.  Seems like the Angels valued speed in this class.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=wallac001lan

 

[mmc]

Up to 5 now already

 

[mmc]

 

[Vladdy Issues]

6 hours ago, Inside Pitch said:

Draft spending is capped by MLB rules, team's can't exceed their cap bonuses without getting penalized.  Maybe more importantly the talent was massively swayed in favor of college players, meaning the only players with any real leverage and thus the need to entice them to take the money NOW would be college sophomores as no Jr would risk going back and getting a take it or leave it offer.

I get the point you're trying to make, but this is the rare draft where the usual norms don't really apply.  If anything is limiting the Angels ability to make a play for a HS guys it was the loss of their second round pick and the $$ assigned to that slot.

Right off the bat I made a bad statement by only mentioning draft spending when I also meant pick quality.  With regards to what you wrote, thank you... yeah I agree and we all know that.

My biggest issue is with the picks, we made a lot of picks in rounds 1-10 that don't seem like they're going to be getting over slot value for the draft round they were picked at (to I guess have more money to spend in rounds 11 - 20 for HIGHER UPSIDE picks like Caden Dana or a Mason Albright)...

... and yet we didn't seem to pick HIGHER UPSIDE guys like a Dana or Albright in the later rounds is my issue.

Edited July 12, 2023 by Jimmy Z

[Inside Pitch]

12 hours ago, Jimmy Z said:

Right off the bat I made a bad statement by only mentioning draft spending when I also meant pick quality.  With regards to what you wrote, thank you... yeah I agree and we all know that.

My biggest issue is with the picks, we made a lot of picks in rounds 1-10 that don't seem like they're going to be getting over slot value for the draft round they were picked at (to I guess have more money to spend in rounds 11 - 20 for HIGHER UPSIDE picks like Caden Dana or a Mason Albright)...

... and yet we didn't seem to pick HIGHER UPSIDE guys like a Dana or Albright in the later rounds is my issue.

I get you on the pick quality, they seemingly went almost exclusively high floor and seemed to focus on certain specific qualities and as @jsnpritchett mentioned, they focused on OBP and speed.  I do however think that second pick, or rather the lack thereof and the talent being so skewed in favor of the college ranks played a big role overall.

This was a very Billy Beane era Oakland A's type of draft.  Just a ton on college guys with a seemingly standout attribute the team hopes to focus on.  Less a case of growing them but rather fine tuning.

[BTH]

2 hours ago, Jimmy Z said:

... and yet we didn't seem to pick HIGHER UPSIDE guys like a Dana or Albright in the later rounds is my issue.

Instead of signing someone like Dana or Albright for $1.25-$1.5 million, it seems like they spread out the savings on two high schoolers: RHP Barrett Kent in the 8th round and SS John Wimmer in the 11th round.

[jsnpritchett]

4 minutes ago, Trendon said:

Instead of signing someone like Dana or Albright for $1.25-$1.5 million, it seems like they spread out the savings on two high schoolers: RHP Barrett Kent in the 8th round and SS John Wimmer in the 11th round.

Admittedly,  I don't know much about either one, but Wimmer wasn't ranked on pre-draft boards that I saw, and Kent was ranked as the equivalent to something around the 4th round.  That's kinda what I don't really get: it's not like these two guys had major heat on them to begin with, so why go out of your way to go over slot on them? 

[BTH]

27 minutes ago, jsnpritchett said:

Admittedly,  I don't know much about either one, but Wimmer wasn't ranked on pre-draft boards that I saw, and Kent was ranked as the equivalent to something around the 4th round.  That's kinda what I don't really get: it's not like these two guys had major heat on them to begin with, so why go out of your way to go over slot on them? 

They clearly like them better than the public does, and you have to overpay to keep them from going to college.

[jsnpritchett]

2 minutes ago, Trendon said:

They clearly like them better than the public does, and you have to overpay to keep them from going to college.

Yeah, I understand how the process works. Again, just surprised it's with these two guys. 

[Second Base]

11 hours ago, jsnpritchett said:

Ah, good ol' Lipscomb!  It's a Church of Christ school.  Bunch of people from my high school would go there every year (my HS was also affiliated with the CoC).

Same here, a few kids from church youth group all either went to Lipscomb or Harding. Good memories visiting the campus.

[jsnpritchett]

3 minutes ago, Second Base said:

Same here, a few kids from church youth group all either went to Lipscomb or Harding. Good memories visiting the campus.

Yep, Harding was another school where several folks from my school always ended up going to every year.

[drpiranha]

I think the biggest issues with this team is that they strike out to much (especially with RISP), not being patient enough to draw walks, and not taking advantage of the new rules to try to steal more bases.

I think Minasian drafted players to take care of those weaknesses.

[ScruffytheJanitor]

17 hours ago, jsnpritchett said:

Ah, good ol' Lipscomb!  It's a Church of Christ school.  Bunch of people from my high school would go there every year (my HS was also affiliated with the CoC).

Lipscomb alum here. I'm surprised anyone here has even heard of Lipscomb. 

[jsnpritchett]

1 hour ago, ScruffytheJanitor said:

Lipscomb alum here. I'm surprised anyone here has even heard of Lipscomb. 

Well, for 12 years, I went to a school called Greater Atlanta Christian School that was affiliated with the CoC, so I can't ever remember a time when I DIDN'T hear about Lipscomb.

[Angel Oracle]

16 hours ago, Inside Pitch said:

I will forever refer to him as the 42 year old HS senior.

Just don’t let him anywhere nears the 45 year-old bat boy.

[Angel Oracle]

16 hours ago, jsnpritchett said:

He's been playing in indie ball (the Billings Mustangs are in the Pioneer League).  Putting up big K numbers. Gives up a lot of hits, too, which is unusual for a high-K guy.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=tullar000cam

 

Looks like the higher hits number may have been to improve his control?  
6 BBs in 25 innings while still putting up 40 Ks

[mmc]

14 hours ago, mmc said:

Up to 5 now already

 

6

And 7

 

[jsnpritchett]

5 minutes ago, mmc said:

6

And 7

 

Burns is a 5th-year senior catcher.  Looks like he barely played until this year.  Took a ton of walks (he's probably just org filler, but interesting that even those guys seem to be falling into the on-base skills category).

McGillis is another 5th-year guy.  He'll be 25 in January. Strange stats this year: 31 hits, of which 14 were HR. Walks a good amount.

[Chuck]

 

[jsnpritchett]

2 minutes ago, Chuckster70 said:

 

Interesting. I wonder if there's more to the story here? 

[jsnpritchett]

 

 

[totdprods]

10 minutes ago, jsnpritchett said:

Interesting. I wonder if there's more to the story here? 

Maybe the dude just really wanted to play for the Angels or college and didn’t even bother talking with other teams.

[jsnpritchett]

1 minute ago, totdprods said:

Maybe the dude just really wanted to play for the Angels or college and didn’t even bother talking with other teams.

My point is that if he was ranked as high as the low 200s by some folks, it's odd that he wasn't drafted at all. It's not like he was a HS guy who fell due to signability concerns. 

[Vladdy Issues]

14 minutes ago, jsnpritchett said:

Interesting. I wonder if there's more to the story here? 

could it be the Angels are building a reputation for being an organization that will fast track you to the Majors if you're good and not play with your service time like other teams?

[Angel Oracle]

Could be that Kent, Wimmer, and Wallace are all getting a piece of the extra slot money?  More so Kent and Wimmer 

Edited July 12, 2023 by Angel Oracle