As you know, I was not happy with what the Guardians did yesterday. They drafted to what are already strengths in their farm system, left-handed hitting outfielders and college starting pitchers. They failed to draft to weaknesses of their farm system, catchers who can hit (only two in farm collegesystem, Naylor and Lavastida), corner infielders with power (only one in system, Noel), right-handed hitting outfielders with power (only one in our farm system, Planez).
Who's left to draft
In my first day summary post I pointed out that this is an unusual year. Eighty picks have been made and 68 of them were ranked 80th or better and 77 of them were ranked 123rd or better. All 80 picks were used on players ranked in the top 200 of the draft. That is, I think, historic. So there is not much left to pick from in terms of highly-ranked prospects who went undrafted the first day and fit our needs. Let's look who is left:
Prospects ranked 11, 46, 57 (catcher), 60, 74 (catcher), 76, 77, 79, 82, 83, 84, 89, 90, 92, 94, 100, 102, 103,107, 109, 110, 114, 118, 119, 120, 121 (catcher), 122, 125 are high school prospects. As I mentioned in a previous blog the NIL money that colleges can offer players now will likely impact these guys making it more likely they will go to college. 11, 46 and maybe 57 are most at risk as they would likely have been drafted by now if teams thought they were worth the bonuses their talent and what they could make in NIL money would demand. Plus, HS kids drafted at this point are high risk as far as making the majors at all and usually require a longer development path, even if you can meet their budget demands.
Prospects ranked 60, 71, 72, 81, 86, 88, 93 and 101, 111, 112 116, 117 and 124 are all college pitchers
The players left in the draft who fit what Cleveland needs
Nate Gold, 2B, Boston College (ranked 87th best prospect)
Dominic Keegan 1B/C, Vanderbilt (ranked 97th) - Power hitter, questionable defense
Tyler Locklear 3B/1B , VCU (ranked 98th) - Good power, average hitter, questionable defense
Nolan McLean 3B/RHP - Oklahoma State (#113) - Good power, questionable hitting, defense.
So, what we are looking at in terms of position players are really Gold and Keegan with Locklear and McLean.
Our best hope is that Keegan stays around until we pick at 96. After that, look for more college pitchers and college guys who might not be ranked, including college seniors and maybe a HS flyer or two.
I don't want to use the word bleak but if Gold and Keegan are unavailable when we draft in the 3rd and 4th rounds, we are looking at having to take guys who, if not pitchers, are not really very good prospects and, if they are, likely will be difficult to sign...assuming we can find guys who fit what our system needs.
More to come...
Round 3 - The Guardians drafted Joe Lampe, a college OFer from Arizona State. He is a leadoff hitter type. Yet another left-handed hitting outfielder without power. Obviously looking at Kwan and Tom, the Guardians like to draft ths type of guys. However, you can see that Kwan and Tom do not have base-stealing speed.
Keegan, Locklear and Gold are still on the board entering the 4th round.
Round 4 - The Guardians picked Nate Furman a left-handed hitting, contact-only second baseman from UNC Charlotte. This is the first guy not listed in MLB's top 250 prospects. Typical Guardians pick. Interesting that the A's selected another UNC Charlotte hitter, a third baseman, power-first guy. It will be interesting to see if Furman or the thirdbaseman, McCabe turn out to be better.
Keegan gone to Tampa Bay. Keegan playing two positions that the Guardians are short on, first base and catcher. Really disappointed given the players the Guardians drafted. Luke Gold still available. Note that both Keegan and Gold bat right-handed. I don't know why the Guards focus on LH hitters. But they do.
Round 5 - The Guardians select Guy Lipscomb, Jr. a left-handed hitting outfielder from Belmont University. Speed guy, contact guy, another LH hitting outfielder without power. Not listed in MLB's top 250. Their second pick in a row not in the top 250.
Gold gone 4 picks before the Guardians selected. About 50% of 5th rounders this year were in MLB's top 250.
Round 6 - The Guards picked Dylan DeLucia, a RHP from U. Mississippi. He was not listed in the MLB top 250. His fastball is 89-95, so a little substandard and his secondary stuff is not that solid yet. He has one thing going for him: He was a hero in the post-season this year.
The Twins got Jorel Ortega who I really liked in the 5th round so loved him at this pick but alas, he wasn't available and the Guards probably wouldn't have picked him since he hits right-handed. He apparently had more extra basehits compared to strikeouts this year. I don't know, except for the handedness, why they didn't take him in the 5th round.
NOTE: See a lot of college guys pitching in the high 90s, low 100s getting drafted. Not that I want to draft more pitchers but when we draft one, wouldn't you think, with our pitching development system, that we would go for velo first and then teach command/control and secondary stuff? I would. I also might have looked for college relievers who are polished.
The Guardians have not drafted a catcher on the second day and, for me, that is a good thing. Defense-first catchers should not be first or second day picks. They needed Susac in the first and Keegan in the 4th to balance their system. Heck, they neded a right-handed hitting outfielder to balance their system and they needed so power-hitting corner infielders to balance their system.
So far, second day is even less sexy and more disappointing than the first day, for me.
Time for a 5 minute break before we go to Round 7.
Round 7 - The Guardians pick Javier Santos Tejada, a 6'0" RHP from Georgia Premier Academy HS. Not surprisingly, he was not in MLB's top 250 draft prospects
Round 8 - The Guardians select Jackson Humphries, a 6'1" LHP high school pitcher. He was ranked 128th on MLB's top 250 prospects so you can consider this the HS flyer pick I was talking about. My guess is that they can shave some money off early round bonuses to scrape together a bonus for this guy. Still, the fact that no one has drafted him up to this point tells me that he likely is strongly committed to go to college and is likely to get enough NIL money to keep him from signing. Time will tell, however, and maybe we can steal a 4th round talent in the 8th round here.
Round 9 - The Guardians select Austin Peterson, a college RHP from U. Connecticut
Round 10 - The Guardians go dipping in the HS flyer pool again, this time to draft Jacob Zibin, a 6'4" RHP from TXNL HS. Again, the concern here is that flyer picks on HS players may not work this year because, in addition to strong college commitments, these kids know they can make NIL money close to what the pro teams are paying them as bonuses AND take the chance of improving in college to get an ever bigger bonus in 3 years.
That's it for now. I will have a summary available tonight.
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