The Official 2023 MLB Amateur Draft Thread

[Warfarin]

6 hours ago, Revad said:

Maybe I just don’t remember it well, but it seems to me that the Adell pick, which was risky, didn’t get as much criticism as Schanuel, whose only flaw is he plays first base. 

I think the recent era of player development has shown that one of the harder skills to teach is strong plate discipline.  Adell was and continues to be freakishly athletic, but if you struggle to make contact and/or correctly identify your pitch, that significantly hampers a lot of the impact that your athleticism could potentially have.

I think in general, it seems to be a better idea to draft players who have a very good eye, and then look to develop other aspects of their game.  Schanuel's ceiling may not be as high as various others, but he seems to be a really good hitter who has fantastic plate discipline.  This organization needs good hitters, and it seems that our high draft picks reflected this emphasis.

[Warfarin]

18 hours ago, arch stanton said:

Maybe they just felt that Paris or Jackson were closer to cracking the ML level as infielders than anyone the could draft in that spot so why not just take the 1B who spent the year crushing baseballs?

They did draft some middle infielders, just later in the draft.

I'm sure there are various factors at play, but this organization does need position players with advanced hit tools/offensive abilities more than it needs high ceiling type MI'ers at the moment.  Neto appears to have SS locked down for the foreseeable future, O'Hoppe (and maybe Quero?) will probably have C locked down, and we have Trout to man CF for the next few years (and maybe Rada thereafter, but there's time to figure out Trout's CF successor).

What this organization does need is corner IF/OF who can hit.  It also needs LHH.  Enter Schanuel, who seems like as close to a certainty as a draft pick can be in terms of a hitter who will likely reach the majors based on their offense.

Rios doesn't really have a defensive home, but his offense is his carrying tool.  I don't know much about Redfield, but my understanding is his hit tool is also fairly advanced.

I saw the 2021 draft as the "we need pitchers" draft, and I see the 2023 draft as "we need hitters" draft.

[Revad]

11 hours ago, Warfarin said:

I saw the 2021 draft as the "we need pitchers" draft, and I see the 2023 draft as "we need hitters" draft.

This makes sense.  I understand the concerns and get that underwhelmed feeling some are expressing but really Minasian has his guys in place and they’ve been quite good so far with the drafting.  Just have to wait and see.  @Dave Saltzer has talked favorably about last year’s draft especially.  

[Angel Oracle]

Hopefully, Schanuel starts playing soon.

[totdprods]

16 hours ago, Warfarin said:

I saw the 2021 draft as the "we need pitchers" draft, and I see the 2023 draft as "we need hitters" draft.

Looking back at all those arms now and dang, a lot of them have gotten wild as shit this year. Not just the guys at AA. 

[mmc]

 

[AngelStew43]

Mods, can this thread be bumped to the top, at least until the deadline to sign our draftees?  

Thank you!

[Stradling]

@John Smith

[AngelStew43]

Thanks for all that you guys do.  

[mmc]

 

[John Smith]

 

 

@CarlosACollazo

of Baseball America has reported the Angels have signed 18 of their 19 draft picks in 2023, third-rounder Alberto Rios is the only remaining unsigned -- Angels have about $862.6K remaining before going over 5% taxed bonus permittance, Rios' slot value is $901.5K

 

[mmc]

 

[Revad]

Plus several undrafted free agents, so shouldn’t the AW prospect gurus be busy on a list revision.  Of course, there could be some action at the trade deadline.  Where do the top picks belong?

[Second Base]

5 hours ago, Revad said:

Plus several undrafted free agents, so shouldn’t the AW prospect gurus be busy on a list revision.  Of course, there could be some action at the trade deadline.  Where do the top picks belong?

Schanuel, Rios, Redfield, Kent and Wimmer are likely to join the top 30 on my list. We'll see where everyone else is at though. And the deadline could shake things up too. If they sell hard (Ohtani, Renfroe, Mous, Escobar, Moore, Estevez) there's a chance that only Schanuel, Rios and Kent only emerge in the top 30. And similarly, if they buy, we could see Fontanelle sneak in. 

[Dave Saltzer]

9 hours ago, Revad said:

Plus several undrafted free agents, so shouldn’t the AW prospect gurus be busy on a list revision.  Of course, there could be some action at the trade deadline.  Where do the top picks belong?

Some of us have already been hard at work on this, but a lot of discussion occurred to wait until after the trade deadline. 

 

3 hours ago, Second Base said:

Schanuel, Rios, Redfield, Kent and Wimmer are likely to join the top 30 on my list. We'll see where everyone else is at though. And the deadline could shake things up too. If they sell hard (Ohtani, Renfroe, Mous, Escobar, Moore, Estevez) there's a chance that only Schanuel, Rios and Kent only emerge in the top 30. And similarly, if they buy, we could see Fontanelle sneak in. 

I agree with these guys, but would also add Minacci.

 

Then again, I believe that we will see about a third of our list either being open spots due to aging out in the Majors or trades. And, who knows if we get a bunch of new prospects back in trades. 

[Angelsfan1984]

So do we think Schanuel would rank in the top 2-3 of the Angels farm? Do Neto or O'Hoppe still qualify?

[Vladdy Issues]

7 minutes ago, Angelsfan1984 said:

So do we think Schanuel would rank in the top 2-3 of the Angels farm? Do Neto or O'Hoppe still qualify?

MLB.com still has O'Hoppe as the Angels number one prospect (I guess not enough at bats in the majors)

https://www.mlb.com/prospects/angels

[BTH]

10 hours ago, Angelsfan1984 said:

So do we think Schanuel would rank in the top 2-3 of the Angels farm? Do Neto or O'Hoppe still qualify?

O’Hoppe does. Neto doesn’t.

Schanuel probably ranks 3/4, depending on how you view Rada.

[Chuck]

 

[AngelStew43]

So, how many 3B prospects did we draft?  2 or 3?  I think even Anthony Rendon can read the writing on the wall. 

[Angel Oracle]

38 minutes ago, AngelStew43 said:

So, how many 3B prospects did we draft?  2 or 3?  I think even Anthony Rendon can read the writing on the wall. 

Or they use him part-time at 1B, 3B, and DH after 2024?   Say 60-80 starts tops assuming good health (huge assumption)?

Edited July 20, 2023 by Angel Oracle

[Stradling]

Or they drafted guys who hit the ball hard and a couple play 3rd base. Also the guy out of Stanford is limited defensively from what I’ve read. 

[AngelStew43]

On 7/19/2023 at 4:22 AM, Dave Saltzer said:

Some of us have already been hard at work on this, but a lot of discussion occurred to wait until after the trade deadline. 

 

I agree with these guys, but would also add Minacci.

 

Then again, I believe that we will see about a third of our list either being open spots due to aging out in the Majors or trades. And, who knows if we get a bunch of new prospects back in trades. 

Dave, do you have anything on the UDFA out of Columbia, SS Andy Blake?  It seems that the organization was very pleased to get him, as he received a $100K signing bonus.  Also, at 6'4" and 220, he seems very large to stick at SS, possibly another 3B candidate?

[Angel Oracle]

1 hour ago, AngelStew43 said:

Dave, do you have anything on the UDFA out of Columbia, SS Andy Blake?  It seems that the organization was very pleased to get him, as he received a $100K signing bonus.  Also, at 6'4" and 220, he seems very large to stick at SS, possibly another 3B candidate?

Hitting .350 in the Cape Cod league so far (65 PAs) with only 9 Ks, only downside is only 2 BBs

The past 2 years at Columbia (Ivy League POTY in 2023) over 437 PAs:  32 doubles, 6 triples, 21 HRs, 80/37 Ks/BBs

There’s a reason they paid an UDFA $100k.

Could be a diamond in the rough?

Edited July 20, 2023 by Angel Oracle

[mmc]

UDFA #10