2019 Actual MLB Draft Day(s) Thread

[CaliforniaRaisin]

10th rounder Wyatt Hendrie was ranked 357th by BA:

 

357

Wyatt Hendrie

Antelope Valley (Calif.) JC C

Notes:

 

Ht: 5-11 | Wt: 200 | B-T: R-R

Commit/Drafted: Never Drafted

Scouting Report: Hendrie popped up in a weak California junior college crop as an athletic catcher with advanced defensive skills. Hendrie is short but solid at 5-foot-10, 200 pounds, has a plus arm and is the rare catcher who is an above-average runner. His receiving is still a bit rigid because he is new to catching after primarily playing the outfield in high school, but he has the ingredients to project as an average or better defensive catcher. Hendrie is a contact hitter with a flat swing who hit .410/.479/.660. He controls the barrel and manages the strike zone well, but his power projection is limited because his swing is very compact. Hendrie is considered signable and projects to go late on the draft’s second day or early on the third day.

[Post Count Padder]

Nice get with Hearn. So 7 pitchers, 1 infielder and 2 catchers? Interesting. And those 8-10 rounders seems like severe underslots so I'd guess we have some more money to play with yes?

[Regular Show]

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I don't know why anyone would think this guy is an underslot deal... Yeah, he did go in the 9th round, but HS pitchers usually sign slot or overslot deals. The kid has some talent and I honestly have no clue how much it'll take to sign him, but it won't be at slot value at #282 ($149,800).

Edited June 5, 2019 by Regular Show

[Regular Show]

From the latest Klaw chat:

 

Bob Pollard: What are your thoughts on the Cubs #1 pick, not so much his ability but was he selected in the appropriate spot?

Keith Law: I had him ranked 32nd in the class, and they took him 27th.

 

Clay, Rutherford, NJ: Are the Cubs looking for 2019 bullpen help through the draft?

Keith Law: I believe they’re looking for 2020 bullpen help.

 

RJS: I’m sensing a theme among the Cubs picks so far, and I can’t say I’m disappointed. Fair to suggest they’ll try most of the pitchers taken through 5th round as starters or might McAvene stay in the pen and try to move up quickly that way? Thanks for the chats, KLaw.

Keith Law: McAvene has three pitches to start, but that does change his time frame and they may choose to move him faster as a reliever.

 

Aaron C.: You’ve called this the “worst pitching draft” in your 18 years involved with it. So, what year got dethroned, sir?

Keith Law: I’d have to think about that one; this is substantially worse than any I can remember. The 2006 draft felt that way at the time, but produced Kershaw and Lincecum.

Keith Law: Sorry, 2006 felt like a weak pitching draft, not as weak as this year’s though.

 

Dave: How should college baseball deal with pitcher overuse? Pitch counts? Appearance caps? Because we see yet more gross overuse again this postseason.

Keith Law: MLB should pull any support for college baseball until the NCAA agrees to abide by PitchSmart guidelines, including changing the draft rules to make players eligible at any time (after their freshman or sophomore years) unless the NCAA relents. MLB has all the leverage here.

 

Totally agree on changing that and letting players leave after their freshman or sophomore year if they feel they're ready. I'm noticing some top prospects (like Carter Stewart) going the JC route so they can re-enter the draft the following year. It's unfair that top prospects waste some of their top earning years down the road by staying in college for 2/3 years.

[texascub]

12th rounder is Hunter Bigge, RHP from Harvard.

[Brian]

 

had to

[Tryptamine]

Cubs have signed 6th round pick Hearns for 2nd round money.

[texascub]

Yankees take Jack Leiter in the 20th round.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

https://twitter.com/billazbbphotog/status/1136346254957432832?s=21

[We Got The Whole 9]

Hot takes so far on the Cubs draft:

 

- The only two I give even a half serious shot to start at the highest level off of first impressions are Jensen and the lefty

 

- Oh yay, multiple pitchers with TJ surgery under their belts already! That’s so good because it’s already out of the way and these guys can develop to their heart’s content!

 

- Schlaffer showing off some strength, athleticism, and arm speed here:

 

 

- Impressed they found a half decent, projectable, athletic prep lefty in a class with like three of them

 

- If Hearn and the 7/2 catcher they’re tied to sign, the Cubs will have added two bat first LHH catchers to the system. That’s interesting/notable because LHH catchers aren’t common even before getting to the ones who can actually hit. What’s it been - Jason Kendall, Mauer, and Jason Castro at the ML level over the past couple decades? Very tiny group of players

Kendall was RH, FWIW

[jersey cubs fan]

I'll update this original post with Cubs' picks.

 

1.27: Ryan Jensen, RHP, Fresno State - MLB.com rank: 99, BA rank: 109; (Pick Value: $2,570,100)

 

2.64: Chase Strumpf, 2B, UCLA - MLB.com rank: 41, BA rank: 42, ESPN rank: 57; (Pick Value: $1,050,300)

 

3.103: Michael McAvene, RHP, Louisville - MLB.com rank: 171, BA rank: 179 (Pick Value: $565,600)

 

4.132: Chris Clarke, RHP, Southern California - BA rank: 216 (Pick Value: $426,600)

5.162: (Pick Value: $318,200)

6.192: (Pick Value: $247,000)

7.222: (Pick Value: $194,400)

8.252: (Pick value: $162,700)

9.282: (Pick Value: $149,800)

10.312: (Pick Value: $142,200)

11.342:

12.372:

13.402:

14.432:

15.462:

16.492:

17.522:

18.552:

19.582:

20.612:

21.642:

22.672:

23.702:

24.732:

25.762:

26.792:

27.822:

28.852:

29.882:

30.912:

31.942:

32.972:

33.1002:

34.1032:

35.1062:

36.1092:

37.1122:

38.1152:

39.1182:

40.1212:

LIAR

[Tim]

Always worth sharing this link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/1/d/1R9hzhGo0Q_29g2bfa2yQwHYqNN799JzkCP7HyK-XCKY/htmlview#

[Regular Show]

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[craig]

8th rounder DJ Herz was ranked 243rd by BA:

 

....has been up into the mid-90s this spring, but normally settles into the 88-91 mph range, with a below-average arm action and delivery. Last summer at East Coast Pro, Herz threw out of a funky, crossfire delivery and opened up at 87-90 mph, but ticked the velocity up as his outing progressed. ....some have seen a sharp slider that projects as a solid-average offering, while others have serious questions about his feel to spin. Either way, the pitch lacks consistency at the moment, and Herz will also need to improve his strike throwing.

 

With all the "pitch lab will magically cure everybody" optimism from the Athletic, Herz sounds like the prototype for a pitch-lab project. If he's athletic and can throw hard already sometimes, the pitch lab seems exactly the sort of thing to help him figure out how he's doing it on the uncommon occasions that he does throw hard. And if he sometimes throws a sharp slider, lab might hopefully help him figure out how to lock into the good version. Sounds like a really fun, interesting developmental project for the development people.

 

Will be curious how much superslot he gets?

[craig]

I’m totally cool with how this draft is going if they sign Kimbrel. Otherwise this is pretty boring

 

Tom is totally cool!

[WrigleyField 22]

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Damn I was really hoping 5'1" wasn't a typo.

[craig]

Cubs have signed 6th round pick Hearns for 2nd round money.

 

Not to be overly nit-picky, but I think they have "agreed" as opposed to "signed". I believe that means they have agreed to what the deal will be, continent on other guys signing.

 

But, basically they won't want to actually contractually sign a super-slot guy until the sub-slot guys have actually passed their physicals and actually signed their deals to the agreed-upon underslots. The slot and sub-slot guys can sign as soon as they want (and pass their physicals), but superslots need to wait for the discretionary money to become available.

[Regular Show]

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Short recap for the Cubs' draft picks 1-10. It's only 2 minutes long. Interesting stuff on Schlaffer. Kiley says Strumpf can be an everyday guy with some swing tweaks.

[Brian]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/Savermetrics/status/1136426923955957760[/tweet]

 

I will never call him DJ, he is forever Davidjohn

[craig]

Some Q's or things I'm interested in, or thoughts:

1. Will be interesting to see how much over Hearn, Herz, and Schlaffer sign for.

2. Given that they call and discuss $$ before selecting anybody, and based on recent history, pretty much a lock that the first 20 guys are all going to get signed. And that nobody HS in the 30's will.

3. It will be interesting to find out how old Clark really is. College junior, the draft sites list him as having been only 19 last month, just turning 20. *IF* that's really true, then I'm especially intrigued. But I suspect that may not actually be correct, and that one false listing got copied everywhere else? But *IF* it's actually true, and his UCLA success was as a teenager, plus he's so smart that his parents had him skipping one or two grades, I'm curious to see whether he'll both be smart enough to get the absolute max out of the talent he's got, and whether he might still add velocity and skill.

4. I'm also really curious to see which if any of the relievers get used as starters next year. I'd guess probably all of them; even if their future is in relief and the Cubs expect nothing different, they still may want to give them the regular scheduled innings that a starter has, and the usage and development of all their pitches.

5. I'm also really curious to see how many innings they give to the relievers this summer. Usually with a college starter, they've already burned 90+ innings during the spring, and the Cubs are very limited in adding more. So for most college starters, it's <15 pro innings during draft summer. But for the relievers who only pitched 30-50 innings, I wonder if they might be more interested in giving them 15-25 innings this very summer?

[Brian]

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[Regular Show]

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We covered this on our post draft podcast review of all 30 clubs, but it’s worth pointing out a few clubs that stood out for their strategy with their higher picks.

 

We thought there were more signable six-figure high school prospects in this draft than usual, and some teams clearly targeted that demographic during day two. After beginning their draft with several college players, some of whom will likely be underslot signs, the Cubs drafted three likely overslot high schoolers on the second half of Day 2. They took a similar approach both last year and the year they drafted Kyle Schwarber and Dylan Cease, though this year’s prep group is a little less splashy from a scouting/projection perspective, and more interesting from a player dev point of view.

 

Waiting for Raisin to make a 2020 MLB Draft Thread because there is a lot of relevant info on that (and later draft classes) in here. The Cubs definitely had an interesting strategy this year and were clearly targeting pitchers. Not sure if that was wise (considering the quality of pitching in this draft), but I like most of the pitchers the Cubs targeted. We'll see how this strategy works out in a couple years.

[Cubswin11]

One thing I find interesting about the Cubs’ draft is all the multi-sport preps. They drafted 12 HS players and among them Herz, Letzgus, Collier, Bingham, and Auer played at least football. Collier and Bingham were recruited as football and baseball players, the first two played three sports in HS, Auer deadlifted 505# this spring...

Is it really that rare for guys who are draft prospects out of HS to be good athletes in HS at other sports? I don’t really think it is. I get there’s a theme with the guys we took but I don’t think it’s that unique

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I keep reading his best secondary pitch is a changeup (which is awesome). It always seems like it's harder to teach a pitcher how to throw a good changeup vs. teaching them how to throw a good slider/cutter. A good delivery from the little I've seen. The fastball has some good movement already. Solid frame (6'2" & 170 lbs.) and it looks like he can add some more muscle.

 

I can't wait to talk to a local scout who's seen him on the mound.

[Regular Show]

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[tweet]https://twitter.com/cubsguy20/status/1136650267942895617[/tweet]

“Pro Day at Wrigley was amazing and a moment I really had to take in. Just having that sense you’re playing in a stadium that is in a neighborhood, honestly feels like you’re at home. When I stepped on the field you could see all the rich history from the ivy wall to the World Series Championship in 2016. I was extremely excited when I got the invite and tried to take in every moment of it. After the pro select day, I told my parents “this is where I wanna play ball and get drafted” and luckily it turned out that way and I’ve very blessed and ready to make the best out of my opportunity.”

My Fastball and Curveball have always been my go to pitches. I have been playing for the best teams and the best competition when I was 8-16 and that was all I threw. We would always long toss the with 4-Seam Grip and the curveball always just came natural. Going into my senior year, I knew I had to develop a changeup even though I didn’t need it in High School ball but I needed it down the road. So I non-stop long tossed with my changeup grip and I used it a few times in high school but once I feel as I fix up my mechanics and master my changeup I will be somewhat of a complete pitcher.”

 

This is the only video I can find of him pitching. Not a great angle, but I can kinda see the throwing across the body issue mentioned in scouting reports and he throws slightly crossfire towards home plate. It's hard to break it down without better quality and a better angle and pitch velos. Here it is:

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