2019 Draft Review: Arizona Diamondbacks

First five rounds: Corbin Carroll (1-16), Blake Walston (1-26), Brennan Malone (1-33), Drey Jameson (1-34), Ryne Nelson (2-56), Tommy Henry (CBB-74), Dominic Fletcher (CBB-75), Tristin English (3-93), Glenallen Hill Jr. (4-122), Conor Grammes (5-152)
Also notable: Avery Short (12-362), Jerrion Ealy (31-932)

The Diamondbacks had an extra first round pick after failing to sign last year's first rounder Matt McLain, picked up a pair of compensation picks for losing Patrick Corbin to the Nationals and A.J. Pollock to the Dodgers, earned a competitive balance pick through the lottery, and obtained an additional competitive balance pick in the trade that sent Paul Goldschmidt to St. Louis. In all, that gave Arizona four of the first 34 picks and eight of the first 93, enabling them to play around with their massive bonus pool and bring on a ton of talent. They went underslot with five of those picks (potentially six if Tommy Henry signs underslot) and used their massive savings to reel in overslot picks in Glenallen Hill Jr. and Avery Short later in the draft, and they may not be done as they still have a few hundred thousand dollars left in that bonus pool. Overall, this massive influx of talent featured five consecutive pitchers after first rounder Corbin Carroll, a personal favorite of mine, there were so many picks that I didn't even get a chance to write about guys like seventh rounder Spencer Brickhouse, a power hitter from East Carolina, or 24th rounder Dylan Eskew, a high-upside high schooler from Tampa.

1-16: OF Corbin Carroll (Lakeside HS [WA], my rank: 8)
With their first of eight million or so picks this year, the Diamondbacks started it off strong and took a player I really like. Carroll is an outfielder from Seattle whose short stature, skinny frame, and lack of present power are no problem when you consider the rest of the package. Listed at 5'10" and 165 pounds, Carroll has exceptional feel for the barrel, so much so that he can actually hit for close to average power if he wants to and he still won't have to worry about too much swing and miss. He also uses his speed and instincts to play very good defense in center field, and that speed plays up on the bases too. On top of it all, he's reported to have a fantastic work ethic, and he should move quicker than most high school players. Carroll's ultimate projection is that of a high on-base, high stolen base, leadoff type of hitter who can also hit 10-15 home runs per season, maybe more if he fills out a little bit. He signed away from UCLA at slot for $3.75 million and is slashing .316/.316/.368 with a stolen base and six strikeouts over his first five games in the complex-level Arizona League.

1-26: LHP Blake Walston (New Hanover HS [NC], my rank: 42)
The Diamondbacks went underslot here, and perhaps no underslot signing at this point in the draft could have given them as much upside as Blake Walston. The Wilmington, North Carolina left hander is 6'4" and has an ideal pitchers' frame, albeit without much man strength on it yet. He sits in the low 90's when he's at his best, but his velocity fluctuates a lot and he is usually down somewhere in the 80's later in games. His curveball can also be a true plus pitch at its best, and even when it loses power and gets loopy, it still has good shape and he should have no trouble refining it into a consistent out pitch. Walston also adds a slider and a changeup to round out his four pitch arsenal, and his command is fairly advanced for his age, especially given how inconsistent his stuff can be. Walston will need some work on his mechanics, but ultimately getting on a pro conditioning program will hopefully help him get that fastball velocity up and get more power on his breaking balls, so he has ace upside. As a bonus, Walston is fairly young for the class and only turned 18 at the end of June. He signed for $2.45 million, which was $200,000 below slot and which kept him from attending NC State.

1-33: RHP Brennan Malone (IMG Academy [FL], my rank: 19)
After going underslot with Walston, I thought it would take an overslot deal to sign Malone away from a UNC commitment here, but they surprisingly got him at slot. Malone moved from Charlotte, North Carolina between his junior and senior seasons to attend the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, and it helped him get more consistent with his stuff. The 6'3" righty now sits in the low to mid 90's with his fastball and gets good movement on it, and he adds a pair of breaking balls and a changeup. His curveball was his out pitch before this season and it can look plus at its best but often flattens out, but this year he added a slider which has become his new out pitch and which is much more consistent. His command has also improved from shaky to average, and his athleticism has helped him along the way. Malone, like Walston, has a high ceiling as a frontline starter, but he has less work to do to get there as he can already hold his velocity through games. However, I think Walston's ceiling is just a bit higher. Malone signed at slot for $2.2 million.

1-34: RHP Drey Jameson (Ball State, my rank: 50)
With their first college pick, the Diamondbacks went underslot and selected a high upside, high risk pitcher in Drey Jameson. The six foot right hander who grew up outside of Indianapolis is a draft-eligible sophomore, but he's very old for the class and would actually be on the older side for a college junior because he turns 22 in August. Jameson improved on his up and down freshman season to post a 3.24 ERA, a 1.16 WHIP, and a 146/32 strikeout to walk ratio over 91.2 innings this year. Not only is Jameson fairly short for a pitcher at six feet tall, he also weighs in at just 165 pounds and likely won't add too much more. Still, he has a live arm that produces a mid 90's fastball and a pair of good breaking balls, and he has the arm strength to maintain his stuff and velocity deep into games. That stuff enabled him to miss a ton of bats in the relatively weak Mid-America Conference, and he should continue to miss bats in pro ball. However, his command tends to come and go, and with a high effort delivery at his size, there are reliever questions. Optimists can look at the arm strength and stuff and project him as a potential mid-rotation starter, but pessimists would argue that his size won't hold up when he moves from the every-seventh-day college schedule to the every-fifth-day pro schedule, forcing him to the bullpen. Still, he could be nasty as a reliever. Jameson signed for $1.4 million, which was $750,000 below slot.

2-56: RHP Ryne Nelson (Oregon, my rank: 72)
Another college pitcher with a premium fastball, another underslot signing. Nelson was a two-way player for Oregon as a freshman and a sophomore, but he became a pitcher-only in the Cape Cod League (2.65 ERA, 26/9 K/BB in 17 IP) and continued with that as a junior this year in Eugene. After that strong showing on the Cape, it was an up and down year for the Las Vegas-area native as he split time between the rotation and the bullpen and finished with a 4.29 ERA, a 1.55 WHIP, and a 104/41 strikeout to walk ratio over 65 innings. Nelson's biggest strength is his mid to upper 90's fastball, which he was able to blow past Pac-12 hitters at a frightening rate this year, and he also adds a good slider that can get its share of swings and misses. However, he lacks much of a changeup and his command is very mediocre this year, so he ended up getting hit harder when he fell behind in the count or when he left balls over the plate. On one hand, he's fairly new to pitching and didn't focus exclusively on it until this year, and his athleticism could help him transition to the rotation and become successful there as he gets more refined. On the other, he's a college reliever who didn't get great results this year, and that's a tough hole to climb out of. His lack of command likely pushes him to the bullpen long term, but we'll see how he progresses. The 6'3" righty signed for $1.1 million, which was $180,000 below slot.

CBB-74: LHP Tommy Henry (Michigan, my rank: 75)
One of the centerpieces of Michigan's surprise run to the College World Series Finals, Tommy Henry has a live arm but has been up and down this spring. After posting a 3.09 ERA and a 77/26 strikeout to walk ratio as a sophomore, he came back this year with a 3.27 ERA, a 1.03 WHIP, and a 135/26 strikeout to walk ratio over 124 innings for the Wolverines, a heavy workload which will probably limit his pro innings this year once he signs. Henry is a 6'3" lefty from just outside Kalamazoo, Michigan, and he has looked very good at his best. He tossed 23 shutout innings with a 34/2 strikeout to walk ratio over his first three starts against SUNY Binghamton, The Citadel, and Cal State Northridge, then stepped up against a fearsome UCLA lineup in his next start and struck out ten over six innings. However, he put up an unsightly 6.50 ERA and a 42/15 strikeout to walk ratio in 45.2 innings in conference play, making it look like he just got lucky in that UCLA start. Then he confused us again by averaging eight innings per start in the NCAA Tournament and striking out 31 to just three walks over 31.2 innings (though three of those four starts came after the draft). When he's on, he sits in the low 90's with his fastball and adds a solid slider and an advanced changeup with good command, but during that run through the Big 10 as well as previously in his career, he sat closer to 90, his stuff flattened out a bit, and his command regressed from above average to average. Pre-draft, I wasn't sold on Henry because I didn't like the idea of drafting someone on Day One just due to a month of good pitching early in the season, but his very good post-draft performance has me more willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, and I might have ranked him ten spots higher if I re-did them today. Henry projects as a back-end starter if he can get to where he has been at his best more consistently, though he could be a #3 if he not only gets there but takes a step forward. However, pitching like he did in the middle of the season will get him bumped to the bullpen, and his early birthday (he turns 22 in July) doesn't help him. He hasn't signed because his season ended less than a week ago, and slot value is $844,200.

CBB-75: OF Dominic Fletcher (Arkansas, my rank: 102)
Fletcher, like Henry, is a bit of an enigma, but for different reasons. The younger brother of Angels infielder David Fletcher, Dominic has performed well at Arkansas despite lacking standout tools. Fletcher had his best year in 2019, when he slashed .313/.385/.528 with eleven home runs and a 54/28 strikeout to walk ratio, and that included a .305/.346/.500 run through SEC play. The Southern California native is only 5'9" and he doesn't show much raw power, but he got to what little power he has frequently at Arkansas and against high level pitching. However, for a 5'9" kid who needs to find the barrel consistently to make an impact, his plate discipline isn't great and that was especially apparent in SEC play, where he struck out 30 times (22.1%) to just six walks. If he wants his approach to work in pro ball, he'll need to get more selective and find pitches he can drive. Defensively, it's a similar story as Fletcher lacks speed but uses his instincts to get to a lot of fly balls in the outfield. He could be playable in center field, but left field would be the better overall fit and he could excel there. Overall, he projects as a fourth outfielder with some power and a decent on-base percentage. He signed for $700,000, which was $131,100 below slot, and he is slashing .300/.364/.400 with a double and a walk over his first three games at Class A Kane County.

3-93: 1B Tristin English (Georgia Tech, unranked)
A two-way player at Georgia Tech, English drew some interest as a right handed reliever as he posted a 3.70 ERA and a 20/7 strikeout to walk ratio over 24.1 innings as the Yellow Jackets' closer this year, doing so with a low 90's fastball and a couple of solid breaking balls. However, his future lies as a hitter after he slashed .346/.427/.710 with 18 home runs and a 30/17 strikeout to walk ratio over 57 games, also leading the ACC by a wide margin with 21 hit by pitches (Florida State's Matheu Nelson was second with 17). The Central Georgia native also slashed .300/.366/.510 with five home runs and a 15/6 strikeout to walk ratio over 32 games on the Cape, and with his 6'3" frame, it's easy to see his power playing up at the next level. He'll need to get a little more patient at the plate to start drawing some more walks, but he has 20-25 home run upside with decent on-base percentages if he can transition to pro ball well. Working against him is his age, as he's a college senior who already turned 22 in May, but seniors have succeeded before. Defensively, he's playable in either corner outfield spot and has done a good job at first base, so while the pressure will still be on his bat, he at least provides some moderate value in the field. He signed for $500,000, which was $127,900 below slot, and he picked up one single in four at bats in his first game with short-season Hillsboro.

4-122: SS Glenallen Hill Jr. (Santa Cruz HS [CA], my rank: 127)
After five straight college picks, the Diamondbacks went back to the high school side and took Glenallen Hill Jr., son of 13 year major leaguer Glenallen Hill who was mostly a fourth outfielder in the 1990's. Junior played his high school ball out in Santa Cruz, which I imagine isn't the worst place to grow up, and he shows a very interesting skills package despite only standing 5'9", which makes him the fourth "little guy" that the Diamondbacks drafted. The switch hitter has plenty of bat speed in both of his swings and shows good loft from the right side, helping him hit for average power despite his size. He doesn't make the most consistent contact, and that will definitely be something to work on in pro ball, but finding the barrel a little bit more will help him become a true threat at the plate. Defensively, he was drafted as a shortstop but will likely have to move to center field, where he can use his plus speed to become an above average defender once he gets more reps. Hill is raw and needs a lot of work, but he has high upside if he can make the necessary adjustments and become a faster Willie Calhoun. He signed for $850,000, which was $381,000 above slot, and he's slashing .185/.214/.370 with a home run, three stolen bases, and a 12/1 strikeout to walk ratio over his first seven games with Corbin Carroll in the Arizona League.

5-152: RHP Conor Grammes (Xavier, unranked)
Grammes, like English, was a two way player in college with draft aspirations both ways, but he ended up being selected as a pitcher. He came to Xavier without much fanfare, as he managed to walk on to the team after emailing the coach. I played against him in high school and while he was a good shortstop at McLean in Northern Virginia, he didn't stand out on the field as much as you would expect from a future fifth rounder, so the progress he has made with the Musketeers is remarkable. Grammes put up fantastic numbers over three years as a hitter for Xavier, slashing .334/.396/.513 with 25 home runs in 168 games. He also posted a 3.95 ERA, a 1.38 WHIP, and a 79/46 strikeout to walk ratio over 68 innings as a starting pitcher this year, and that's what he'll be doing in the Arizona farm system. Grammes sat in the mid 90's as a starter but when he transitions to relief in pro ball, he should be able to sit in the upper 90's with his big fastball. However, given that he is new to pitching and has been a two-way player as well, his fastball is just about his only weapon at this point. His slider is inconsistent and can flatten out, and his command is well below average because he throws from a high-effort delivery. Now that he is giving up hitting, focusing on his slider and command will be his priorities, and he could turn himself into a set-up man at the big league level. He signed for $300,000, which was $50,300 below slot.

12-362: LHP Avery Short (Southport HS [IN], my rank: 111)
The D-Backs built up a bunch of savings with their early picks, and while some of that went to signing Glenallen Hill Jr. away from Arizona State, and even bigger chunk went to grabbing Indianapolis-area high schooler Avery Short in the twelfth round. Short is only 18, but he looks like a college pitcher because his pitchability is so advanced. He sits in the high 80's with his fringy fastball and can occasionally bump it into the low 90's, but he adds a good curveball and slider that can generate swings and misses already in addition to a changeup. He also has very advanced command for his age and mixes his pitches effectively, so he should be able to move more quickly than the typical high school arm. The 6'2" lefty could add some velocity once he gets on a pro conditioning program, and just a little more velocity is all he needs if he wants to be a back-end starter in the majors, if not more, so long as he maintains his command. If Short can improve not just his velocity but his secondary pitches as well, he could be a mid-rotation starter. It took $922,500 to sign him away from Louisville, which counts for $797,500 against Arizona's bonus pool.

31-932: OF Jerrion Ealy (Jackson Prep HS [MS], my rank: 65)
Signability was a concern with Ealy, and evidently his asking price was too high for teams to match and he'll end up at Ole Miss. The Diamondbacks actually have a few hundred thousand left in their bonus pool and could offer him upwards of $500,000, but even that seems a little light to draw him away from school and that money will probably go elsewhere, such as to 16th rounder Brock Jones, a lefty with a nice curveball or to 24th rounder Dylan Eskew, a live armed righty with some upside who ranked 119th on my list. Ealy is arguably the best athlete in the class as he is also a five star running back recruit and will play both sports at Ole Miss. He's following the trend of short draftees and stands just 5'10", but he's built like a tank and packs a lot of strength into his shorter frame. The Carthage, Mississippi native who attended high school an hour away in Jackson had first round hopes coming into the season, but a poor senior season dropped his stock to more of a second round talent. He hits for power but his swing mechanics are very raw and need a lot of work, which caused him to perform poorly this spring against mediocre Mississippi high school competition. His top of the scale athleticism plays very well in center field, where he figures to be a plus defender with a strong arm, as well as on the bases, where he should use his speed to steal plenty of bases. Getting those swing mechanics ironed out will be the biggest challenge for Ealy, but if he can do it, he could be a five tool player at the major league level. We'll just have to wait a few years to let him play for the Rebels.

2019 Draft Preview: High School Outfielders

This isn't a particularly deep class of high school outfielders, with the Atlanta area usually sending us a boatload but remaining quiet this year, but once you get past the top two rounds or so, more names do start to appear. Most of the better bats in this high school draft class will be found on the infield (see Bobby Witt, Brett Baty, Rece Hinds, Tyler Callihan), but it's not empty and there certainly are some headliners.

Tier I: Riley Greene, Corbin Carroll
The two headliners in this year's high school outfield class live three thousand miles apart on perfectly opposite corners of the country, and their skill sets might be just as far apart as well. Riley Greene, playing ball in Orlando and committed to Florida, is the best pure bat in the high school class save for Witt. Greene is imposing at the plate at 6'1" and gets to his plus raw power very consistently, making him as safe a bet as any high schooler to hit in pro ball. He has a big swing, but his very good approach at the plate and hand-eye coordination help him keep his swing and miss rate low, and those two traits combined should help him grow into 25-30 home run pop in the majors. Combine that with his projected high on-base percentages, and Greene should be a solid middle of the order hitter down the road. He's just so-so in the outfield, likely ending up in left field, but he won't be a liability and the added pressure on his bat won't be an issue. He'll definitely go in the top ten picks, more than likely in the top six. Seattle native Corbin Carroll is safely behind Greene on most draft boards, but he provides a very different vision of a player. At a listed 5'11" and 160 pounds, he doesn't look like an impact hitter, but he has one of the best hit tools in the country among high schoolers with an exceptional feel for both the barrel and zone that help him get on base consistently even against high-level competition. Carroll does a good job of using his load to gain ground on the ball, allowing him to drive through the ball and giving evaluators hope that he can add power down the road as he fills out. He's a good defender in center field who should be able to stick there, with his plus speed helping him track down balls in the gaps. He looks to go somewhere in the top half of the first round, though closer to the middle than the front.

Tier II: Sammy Siani, Maurice Hampton, Jerrion Ealy, Trejyn Fletcher
If Greene and Carroll were about as different as it gets, then the four players in this tier (save for Siani) are actually pretty similar. Sammy Siani, younger brother of Reds 2018 fourth rounder Mike Siani, plays ball in Philadelphia and offers an interesting tool set. He's just 5'11" but he has a smooth, uppercut swing that could produce close to average power down the road. Despite his power-oriented swing, he actually does a very good job of getting the bat on the ball consistently and catching up to good pitching, so with less of a need to worry about his strikeout rates climbing to high, he can continue focusing on trying to drive the ball into the gaps and over fences. He's pretty good defensively so that's a slight boost, and he has a fairly wide range of outcomes due to his potential power upside. He looks like a second round pick at the moment. Over in Memphis, Maurice Hampton offers some really interesting upside with his intense athleticism (he's committed to LSU to play both baseball and football) and present tools. Hampton has a quick swing and above average raw power, though like most two-sport athletes, he needs to refine his hit tool and learn to translate his batting practice power into game power. He also needs to get a little more patient at the plate, as increasing his walk rate could help him employ that SEC cornerback speed on the bases. Defensively, that speed makes him a solid center fielder, though he's raw there as well. With an August birthday, Hampton is one of the younger players in the class. which will give him some extra time to refine his game if he chooses to give up football. He looks like he could go in the comp round, but signability will make that uncertain. Interestingly, Hampton isn't the only two-way SEC recruit this year, as Jackson, Mississippi's Jerrion Ealy is committed to Ole Miss as a running back. At 5'10" and 190 pounds, he's built like a running back, too, and that athleticism makes him a really interesting baseball prospect. Ealy hits the ball hard and showed impressive feel for the barrel over the summer, but it's been a rough spring as he has shown that he has a long way to go offensively. His mechanics need to be ironed out so that he can smooth out his swing and add loft, and given his mediocre performance this spring, he comes with a lot of risk. He's better defensively than Hampton at this point, showing a better chance to stick in center field, though he's also a full year older with an August birthday. When Hampton turns 18, he'll turn 19 less than three weeks later, and he looks more like a second or third round pick, also clouded by signability concerns. Trejyn Fletcher isn't committed to an SEC school to play football, but it's a good thing we're talking about baseball because Vanderbilt has a spot waiting for him in its dugout for next season. Despite the lack of gridiron skills, Fletcher is just as interesting as Hampton and Ealy because he reclassified from a junior to a senior this year (which would be age-appropriate for him anyways), and oh yeah, he might be the best high school baseball prospect in Maine history. The Portland native is just as raw as you would expect for a kid from what I as a Virginian consider the Arctic, showing a very choppy, short swing that won't work in pro ball. That said, he's extremely athletic and has been rising on draft boards recently, shooting up potentially into the second round, and his solid glove and strong arm will buy the bat some time to develop. He has high upside and a lot of risk, but it looks like he might get drafted early enough for a team to keep him from following the path that infielder Ryan Flaherty paved from Portland to Vanderbilt.

Tier III: Chris Newell, Trey Faltine, Glenallen Hill Jr., Joshua Mears
These four don't offer quite the upside of the previous four, or if they do, they have a bit less of a chance to get there. Chris Newell, like Siani, lives in the Philadelphia area, and he actually has a fairly similar left handed swing to him. However, while Siani is currently hit over power due to his feel for the barrel, Newell is more power over hit and is already driving the ball with more authority than Siani, at least when he gets to it. There is more swing and miss in his game, giving the uppercut less of a chance to work in pro ball, and he has a fairly similar defensive profile to his crosstown Trey Faltine has one of the more interesting profiles among the guys who aren't SEC football players, as he's probably the most versatile player in the entire class. Faltine, from the Houston area, can play any position but catcher and he's also a legitimate pitching prospect, which I'll leave for a later writeup while I throw him in the outfield group for this one. Offensively, he has a great feel for the barrel with a swing that is more geared for contact than for power, and at 6'3", he could add some power down the road. He's not exceptionally fast but he can play any position, using his instincts to perform well anywhere from shortstop to center field. Despite his feel for the game, he overall lacks the current in-game impact of some of the players ahead of him, but once he decides what position he wants to play and gives up pitching (if he ends up as a position player at all), he should be able to channel his focus into becoming a top of the order hitter with high on-base percentages, some power, and average to slightly above average speed. He looks like a third or fourth rounder at first glance but could sneak into the second round. Glenallen Hill Jr. is the son of former big leaguer Glenallen Hill, and the Santa Cruz native has used his big, powerful swing to put himself on the map as a potential power hitter despite standing just 5'9". He's not too much unlike the Rangers' Willie Calhoun in that regard, though he's faster, can switch hit, and is limited to the outfield defensively. Hill's swing is a thing of beauty, but he has struggled with contact at times and because of his size, the power plays closer to average. Those two issues combined make him more of a third or fourth round prospect, though he has some real upside if he can find a way to get to his power consistently and use his speed to play good defense in the outfield. Lastly, Seattle area-native Joshua Mears doesn't quite match his cross-town opponent Corbin Carroll, but he's got some pop coming from a 6'3", 235 pound frame. Combine that with a good swing that generates plenty of whip and loft, and that will get scouts' attention. He has some swing and miss in his game and he's mediocre defensively, but the upside at the plate if he can gain a better approach at the plate will make him a solid pick in the third or fourth rounds.

Others: Hylan Hall, Dasan Brown, James Beard, Hudson Head