Spanky99

lol... that's not what you said, and that WAS our team moving forward? You're a fool, keep digging *******.

11. Tigers — Bryce Rainer, SS/RHP, Harvard-Westlake HS, Studio City, Calif. Rainer was far and away the best player at a relatively down field of talent at USA Baseball’s National High School Invitational two weeks ago. He had all five of the hardest-hit balls of the event and has largely received unanimous positive feedback about his hitting ability and overall performance this spring in Southern California with one of the nation’s most premium high school programs. He’s not a pure-polish-no-tools SoCal hitter either. His raw power projects as plus, he has a 70-grade arm now and his defensive actions will give him every opportunity to stick at shortstop and be a very good defender there. Like Yesavage on the pitching side, Rainer could benefit from the fact that the shortstop capital in this draft is below-average and fits much closer to the top 10 picks and Konnor Griffin today than he did before the season started. 12. Red Sox — Vance Honeycutt, OF, North Carolina This is around the range where the class is just wide open with little to no consensus. It does seem like Boston could be a fit for Honeycutt though, who is sort of like a college version of Konnor Griffin. The tools are excellent and his power/speed combination is probably second to none in this class, but his hit tool questions persist and he’s nearing a 30% strikeout rate for the second season in his UNC career. Honeycutt is slashing .313/.419/.681 with 16 homers and 22 stolen bases and has more than 50 homers and 70 bags in his three-year career while playing an excellent center field. There’s a huge range of opinions on where Honeycutt fits but for now I’ll keep him toward the higher end thanks to his tools and premium defensive profile. 13. Giants — Cam Smith, 3B, Florida State Smith continues to have an excellent followup season as a draft-eligible sophomore. He’s hitting .405/.484/.656 with significantly more contact and fewer strikeouts than his 2023 freshman season. He also has a shot to stick at third base with big league physicality, arm strength and raw power. Some scouts question how Smith’s going about his business in the box this year and wonder how it will translate to pro ball. He is more grounded in the box with less rhythm and is using an extreme opposite-field approach that has hampered his ability to get the ball in the air to the pull side and fully tap into his power. Most scouts note he has plenty of raw power in the tank and credit him for his adjustments even if they wonder how the swing will look in five years. 14. Cubs — Seaver King, SS/OF, Wake Forest Like Kurtz, King started the year a bit slowly and scouts wondered whether or not his D-II success with Wingate would translate fully to the ACC. He’s figured some things out over the last few weeks though and is currently riding a 10-game hitting streak. On the season he’s hitting .321/.380/.642 with 13 home runs, eight stolen bases, a 12.5% strikeout rate and a 7.5% walk rate. King expands the zone too often, but he does have a unique ability to get the barrel to all quadrants of the zone and outside of it and still drive the ball hard. His exit velocities could separate him from other middle infielders in the college ranks. Some scouts have also been impressed with the defensive ability he’s shown at shortstop this spring. 15. Mariners — James Tibbs III, 1B/OF, Florida State Tibbs has received plenty of first-round buzz of late and he’s been inching closer and closer to the teens. I feel pretty bullish about him at this point because at this stage teams are going to look around and wonder where the best hitters are and that player might just be Tibbs at this stage. He’s universally praised among scouts for his feel for hitting. He’s currently slashing .396/.497/.826 with 16 home runs, 14 doubles and twice as many walks as strikeouts. If he feels like a nontraditional No. 15 overall pick, it’s because he’s quite limited defensively. He will have to stick in a corner outfield spot—where he might not be a great defender—or first base. He reminds me a bit of Trevor Larnach in the 2018 draft (who went 20th overall) and in a weaker draft class that profile might go off the board a bit sooner. Ultimately, hitting is the most important tool and Tibbs has proven himself to be quite good in the batter’s box. 16. Marlins — Caleb Lomavita, C, California Lomavita still seems to be the favorite to be the first catcher off the board, though I’m not confident there’s a huge gap between him and whoever is next—whether that is the bat-first Malcolm Moore or glove-first Walker Janek. Lomavita could be the best blend of hitting and fielding at the position. He’s in the midst of a career-year with a .347/.419/.640 slash line, 12 homers, a 16.3% strikeout rate and 5.2% walk rate. While he’s a strong athlete and likely to stick behind the dish, Lomavita is also one of the freest swingers of this first-round mock. He expands the zone far too frequently. That approach is a real question and something scouts will bear down on down the stretch to try and get the best gauge of his true hit tool as possible. His 37.2% chase rate is second only to Caglianone among college hitters in this mock and his overall 54.3% swing rate is the most aggressive. 17. Brewers — Tommy White, 3B, LSU Like all players in this range of the draft White has flaws. His 2024 draft season might be the worst single-season of his career, but for a player like White that’s still a year where he’s hitting .331/.418/.601 with 13 homers and as many strikeouts as walks. Those who are lowest on White think of him as a two-tool player who doesn’t quite fit in the first round. Those highest will point to his tremendous collegiate track record, raw power and bat-to-ball skills. Ultimately, I think someone toward his higher range of outcomes will find the track record of hitting too appealing to pass up. 18. Rays — Kaelen Culpepper, SS, Kansas State Culpepper might not have a carrying tool to rely on, but he’s athletic with above-average arm strength, above-average bat speed and has quietly put together a solid three-year career with Kansas State. He’s hitting .315/.397/.549 with seven homers, nine doubles and 12 stolen bases. Those highest on him see an up-the-middle athlete who can do a lot of things well and has a chance to stick at shortstop. His biggest critics might point to underwhelming batted ball data (light exit velocities and a 75% contact rate) and say he’s not going to play shortstop in the long run. 19. Mets — Carson Benge, OF/RHP, Oklahoma State Benge is an exciting athlete with tools on both sides of the ball. He has big arm strength and has been up to 96 mph on the mound. As a lefthanded hitter, he has shown impressive plate discipline and contact skills this spring with perhaps a bit more power potential waiting to be unlocked at the next level. He’s only hit six home runs so far this spring—one off his seven from 2023—but has encouraging exit velocity data and raw power if he can learn how to elevate to the pull side more consistently in the future. He’s hitting .312/.433/.558 with a 16.5% strikeout rate and 18% walk rate and gets some back-half-of-the-first-round buzz. 20. Blue Jays — William Schmidt, RHP, Catholic HS, Baton Rouge, La. I initially had Schmidt going off the board in the late teens, but got some pushback that might be a bit too aggressive. That makes sense to me given the industry’s tendency to slide prep righties and push college bats up the board on draft day, but I’m not sure how far the top prep arm in the class is going to last. Schmidt isn’t the sort of pitching prospect that Noble Meyer was a year ago, but he has velocity, size and elite feel to spin the baseball. His feedback this spring has been largely positive, though like every prep arm it’s easy to see him going later on an overslot deal.

ARTICLEDRAFT MLB Mock Draft 2024 Version 2.0: Updated Picks For Every Team April 22, 2024 Welcome to MLB Mock Draft V 2.0 and our second in-season mock draft of the 2024 class. The college season is more than halfway finished and the draft itself is roughly three months away. That’s still plenty of time for more movement and for players to jump up boards, though things are starting to solidify—at the top of the class at least. The general feeling around the industry is that there’s a fairly clear-cut group of eight players at the top of the class with all of the same names in some order or another. Here’s that group in the order we’ll have them in our draft update coming later this week: Top 2024 MLB Draft Prospects Charlie Condon, OF, Georgia Travis Bazzana, 2B, Oregon State Jac Caglianone, 1B/LHP, Florida Chase Burns, RHP, Wake Forest Braden Montgomery, OF, Texas A&M Hagen Smith, LHP, Arkansas Nick Kurtz, 1B, Wake Forest JJ Wetherholt, 2B, West Virginia The first name after this grouping is almost always Mississippi prep shortstop and outfielder Konnor Griffin. There are scouts who would happily throw him into the first tier. Others have him as the next man up, but on the outside looking in. The top of the class looks better today than it did entering the season. But most scouts still view the 2024 class overall as lacking. “It’s definitely below average,” said one scout. “No brainer below average. I guess if you cut the draft off after the top 10 picks it would be a good draft.” There are 20 teams who will need to figure things out beyond the top 10. It seems fairly wide open in that range. Many scouts expect a run on college hitters thanks to a below-average class of high school players and a college pitching demographic that’s simply not performing as expected outside of the top two arms plus ECU righthander Trey Yesavage. For now, here’s our best projection of how the first round could play out as of April 22. 1. Guardians — Charlie Condon, OF, Georgia Condon has done nothing to weaken his grip on the top spot in the class after the first 39 games of the season. He still leads the country in homers at 26, is the only qualified D-I hitter with a slugging percentage north of 1.000 and through 39 games is slashing .483/.584/1.119 with some of the best batted-ball data in the class. Condon’s still-projectable frame and shockingly real defensive versatility are perhaps separators from the other top college bats in the class. I can’t think of a real reason to get cute with another name at this pick on April 22. It’ll be interesting to see how Condon is selected on the position front. He is most likely to land in a corner outfield spot, but has a legitimate chance to play third base and (less likely) center field in pro ball. Does a team try to get the most defensive value out of him? Or will they let him stand in an outfield corner in order to give his bat the path of least resistance to the bigs? 2. Reds — Jac Caglianone, 1B/LHP, Florida Caglianone has emerged as Condon’s biggest threat to the home run crown, which is not surprising in the least considering his immense raw power and the fact that he led all D-I hitters in the category last year. He put together a nine-game homer streak this month and is currently hitting .401/.495/.854 with 23 home runs. Caglianone has only doubled twice, which means 23 of his 25 extra-base hits on the season have been homers. He’s doing all of this while still maintaining a strikeout rate less than 10%, which is a significant step forward from his freshman and sophomore seasons. Caglianone’s chase rate is still among the highest of first-round bats, but his overall contact rate and in-zone contact rate has been reassuring. Caglianone and Condon will face off in the final weekend of SEC play from May 16-18. There will surely be plenty of heavy hitters from each of the top-five teams in to watch the two. 3. Rockies — Chase Burns, RHP, Wake Forest Burns and Arkansas lefthander Hagen Smith are still the top two arms in the class. There’s not much separating the two. Burns leads the country with 113 strikeouts, but Smith has a narrow edge with strikeout rate. Both have elite pure stuff to provide top-of-the-rotation upside. Burns’ last two outings have not been great by his standards but he’s still managed eight strikeouts in both outings and on the season he has posted a 3.19 ERA in 62 innings with a 46.3% strikeout rate and 7.8% walk rate. With a pair of 70-grade pitches and two more that are solid, it would be quite easy to make a case for Burns as high as No. 1 depending on your philosophy with pitching prospects. 4. A’s — Travis Bazzana, 2B, Oregon State Bazzana “falls” to No. 4 in this mock though it’s tough to get a gauge on how teams line up the top tier bunch beyond Condon at this point. Bazzana could be the best pure hitter in the class. He is an up-the-middle defensive player who should maintain that status in the long run. He is second in the country behind Condon with a .992 slugging percentage and 1.590 OPS and is slashing .439/.598/.992 with 19 home runs and eight stolen bases. At the same time, he offers less projection and upside than players like Condon and Caglianone provide, though his combination of contact skills, swing decisions and added pop this spring make him a fairly complete and well-rounded hitter. 5. White Sox — Braden Montgomery, OF/RHP, Texas A&M Montgomery’s name comes up most frequently after the first four players listed in front of this pick. He has continued to put up a monster season in his first year in the SEC. He’s hitting .376/.518/.906 with 22 home runs, a 21% walk rate and a 15.4% strikeout rate. His top-end exit velocities are among the best in the class. Montgomery has the physicality and tools to supplement his performance numbers and batted ball data under the hood. If you wanted to nitpick him you could say that his contact skills aren’t quite at the level of the other hitters around him—though he’s neck and neck with Caglianone here—but he has consistently shown impressive swing decisions and on-base skills. Additionally, he profiles as an above-average right fielder with a 70-grade arm. He continues to get top-five chatter though he feels closer to No. 5 than No. 1. 6. Royals — Hagen Smith, LHP, Arkansas In terms of strikeout rate and batting average against, no pitcher in the country has been as dominant as Hagen Smith this spring. His 48.3% strikeout rate is tops among qualified D-I arms and so the .136 opponent average he’s posted. Smith allowed three earned runs in his first outing of the year (just one inning against James Madison) and since then he has allowed just six earned runs in 40 innings. He’s currently generating a 47% miss rate on all of his pitches, sitting 94-96 with his fastball from the left side and batters are hitting just .087/.125/.152 against his slider. He’s a nightmare matchup at the moment. Potential critiques include the Tommy John surgery on his resume, a walk rate that is higher than you’d like for a top-10 pitcher (10.6% this season and 12.7% for his career) and perhaps some questions about what his third pitch is going to be beyond the fastball/slider combo. Even with those, he fits as a tier-one arm in the class. It wouldn’t be shocking if he were the first pitcher off the board. 7. Cardinals — Nick Kurtz, 1B, Wake Forest Kurtz was hitting under .300 for the first 25 games of the season. But if you look at his overall production he’s still managed to be one of the very best hitters in the country thanks to exceptional plate awareness and power that has surfaced in a huge way in April. His 26.1% walk rate is second among D-I hitters and his 14.4% chase rate is the best of any college hitter you’ll see in this mock draft. His 17 homers are tied for ninth in the country which is perhaps not ideal for a top-of-the-draft first baseman but much more impressive when you consider he had just two homers through his first 20 games. Being a first base-only profile could hold Kurtz back among the top tier players, as could his more lengthy injury history. But his offensive track record and toolset seems as safe as any in this draft class. 8. Angels — JJ Wetherholt, 2B, West Virginia One of the players in our top tier of prospects in the class has to come off the board last and in this version it’s Wetherholt, who has simply been on the field less than anyone else. Wetherholt missed a significant amount of time dealing with a hamstring injury, but he returned to action earlier this month in a limited role as a DH. The bat has been as advertised. He’s hit or walked in all 14 games this season and is slashing .326/.492/.535 with bat-to-ball ability and zone control skills that stack up with the elite hitters in these areas like Bazzana and Kurtz. If a team before this spot thinks Wetherholt is the best pure hitter in the class still—which is a perfectly reasonable claim—it’s possible a hamstring injury won’t be enough for them to pass him up. If Wetherholt does make it here, he seems to fit the advanced college hitting profile the Angels have prioritized in recent drafts. He also hits the ball harder than the 6-foot-4 first baseman they drafted in the first round last year. 9. Pirates — Konnor Griffin, OF/SS, Jackson Prep, Flowood, Miss. As mentioned previously, Griffin is the first name up for most scouts after the big eight group of college players. He’s done everything he’s needed to do this spring and still has perhaps the most exciting raw toolset and foundation of athleticism in the draft class. If he hits he will be as good as any prospect already off the board and better than most. That if is significant though because his hit tool requires more projection and is significantly less polished than any of the bats I currently have going in front of him. The Pirates in recent years have targeted college players or more polished hitters (in the case of Termarr Johnson) with their top-10 selections so Griffin would be a change of pace for them but one that provides plenty of excitement. 10. Nationals — Trey Yesavage, RHP, ECU It’s probably easier to say which pitcher is No. 3 on the board than which pitcher is No. 1 thanks to how consistent Yesavage has been this spring. He doesn’t have quite the electricity that Burns and Smith provide and some scouts might have qualms with the delivery, but it’s hard to argue with what he’s done: A 1.92 ERA in 10 starts and 61 innings with a 42.8% strikeout rate and 8.1% walk rate. Third in the country with 101 strikeouts. Third in the country with a 34.7 K-BB%. Fourth in the country with a 0.85 WHIP. One earned run or fewer in seven of 11 starts. Six or more innings in eight of 11 starts. He’s posted each week and been extremely consistent all spring. While his stuff is not Burns or Smith-esque it’s plenty good with a fastball averaging 94 and touching 97 and three secondaries that are solid-average or better. Look around at the other college pitchers available and let me know what you find. That vacuum at the demographic will only benefit Yesavage on draft day.

Hi shitstain, lol

So now you're comparing JPR to Atkins??? Gotcha... Atkins f*** your girl Sil?

Royals have been the best team we faced, save for the Yankees.

How so, where's this evidence? International baseball and weather is your end game. That will never fly in professional sports. Of course weather isn't an issue, it's an act from mother nature, lol.

That dude is an ugly man, from both good friends and a work experience... ugly AF.

And television/media deals...

Not all the time, but when it's in your kitchen, Boom! We saw it all night.

Ticket holders will stick that right up MLB's ass, idiot. Weather is one thing, I gave an example in my previous post, use your head for more than a hat rack, man. Not to mention television markets and implications.

Your opine is stupid, stupid. You called me out. The Rockies beat the Padres 10-9 last night scoring 6 runs in the bottom of the 9th, meat. Do tell?

Kimbrel's about to blow the game against the A's...

Okay. I know you are Eeyore.

JPR WAS s***!!! cf

Isn't that in another hour ?

Yeah, that would solve a lot of s***, lol.

No, it shows they're dumn and Barger was kicking the door in, he's here and playing for a reason. Plenty of faith has been shown.

I said that, and why can't a former CF move to LF, Barger's an IF and was getting reps in RF. Seems simple to me.

English please?

He's an infielder transitioning to the OF, it happens, he should've had reps in LF for sure, I don't get why they didn't just switch him to RF though, he has the arm++ for it.