Gavin WIlliams

Unfortunately McGreevy was off the board when it came the Indians turn.   They still picked a college pitcher in Gavin Williams who will turn 22 in a couple of weeks.    He actually went undrafted last year in the 5 round draft likely due to a finger injury he sustained even though he was rated at the #90 draft prospect by MLB in 2020.

He can get it up to triple digits and has a 3-4 pitch mix, making him a little more appealing than Ryan Cusick who went next to the Braves.

He dropped his walk rate from 11% to 6% this year.

He is a college senior who has less leverage than college juniors.   His slot bonus is $2.93 million so they might be able to get him at a discount and use the residual for a later pick.

There must be something going on with Ty Madden from Texas as he was a college pitcher and the #9 prospect in the draft but Madden, at this point, is still on the board. 

Summary: Would have rather had McGreevy but the Cardinals saw what I saw and grabbed this high floor guy first.   Williams floor is lower than McGreevy's but he is older and might make it to the majors in pretty short order if everything falls into place.   I guess Williams floor is a late inning reliever but his stuff says that he could easily be a #4 starter with a chance to be a #2 down the road.  

A college pitcher is what this slot in the draft for the Indians was screaming for and that's what they got.   Let's hope their stellar pitcher development machine cranks out Williams as a top ML pitcher.

FYI, 9 college pitchers off the board in the first round so about what the experts expected.   So far, not a lot of high ranked college pitchers besides Madden still left on the board so no gems there right now.

Next up pick 59.  The top college players still on the board are two outfielders (Jud Fabian, Ethan Wilson) and a pitcher (Jaden Hill).   Any of those three would be good if they were there at that pick.   The best remaining college pitchers after that are Tommy Mace (45), Matt Mikulski (51) and Andrew Abbott (51).  Christian Franklin (52) is the next highest ranked college outfielder.   There are two college catchers ranked relatively highly but PLEASE, no college catchers.