The Angels nailed their first pick this year, grabbing a premium talent while still saving nearly a million dollars below slot value, which set them up really well for the rest of the draft. I wasn't always a fan of how they spent the rest of their bonus pool, but they got to go over slot and get the guys they wanted because of those first round savings without sacrificing talent. They leaned heavily into power hitters, especially when it comes to senior signs like Matt Coutney (65 career home runs including JuCo), Sonny DiChiara (63), Luke Franzoni (52), Dylan Phillips (44), Brendan Tinsman (40), and Casey Dana (36). Coutney, DiChiara, and Franzoni especially (in addition to non-senior sign Zach Neto) put up flat-out video game numbers in 2022, so it does appear the Angels collected some of the loudest stat lines in college baseball with this class. Interestingly, California is regularly the state that produces the most draft talent, but the Angels steered completely clear of their home state and instead drafted not one, not two, but three pitchers out of Oklahoma State. Lastly, I'd like to note that the Angels tend to push their college draftees rather aggressively, so numerous guys are already up at AA.
Full index of team reviews here. Full rankings here.
1-13: SS Zach Neto, Campbell. My rank: #10.
Slot value: $4.41 million. Signing bonus: $3.5 million ($912,500 below slot value).
I love this pick for the Angels, and given that they got nearly a million dollar discount, it's one of my favorite picks of the entire first round. Zach Neto raked his way to an unbelievable .405/.488/.746 slash line as a sophomore at Campbell last year, then after showing very well in the Cape Cod League, he somehow bested all three slash numbers in 2022 to finish .407/.514/.769 with 15 home runs and a 19/39 strikeout to walk ratio over 53 games. Neto does a ton of things well, so it's hard to know where to start. He employs a big, slow leg kick that resembles a pitching motion, but keeps his hands and head quiet so as to not negatively impact his swing. With plus bat to ball skills, strong pitch recognition, and the ability to grind out at bats, there is very little concern that his setup will hurt his ability to hit MLB pitching. To boot, he struck out just 7.4% of the time this spring and just 10.7% of the time against better competition on the Cape. The Miami native is undersized at a skinny six feet tall, but that doesn't stop him from registering high exit velocities and showing potential for above average power from his lean, athletic frame. He finds the barrel extremely consistently and has feel to lift the ball, and all told it could be a 20+ home run bat that regularly posts on-base percentages nearing .400. A shortstop at Campbell, Neto is plenty athletic enough to stick there with solid range, and as a guy who received some innings on the bump for the Camels, he has enough arm to stick as well. I really like this profile and I think the Angels got exceptional value with a below-slot signing in the middle of the first round. He's off to a hot start to his pro career, slashing .313/.400/.500 with two home runs and an 8/4 strikeout to walk ratio over twelve games between High A Tri-City and AA Rocket City.
3-89: RHP Ben Joyce, Tennessee. My rank: #84.
Slot value: $702,100. Signing bonus: $997,500 ($295,400 above slot value).
I think most of us have heard of Ben Joyce by now, but if not, let's talk about one of the most unique profiles in college baseball. First off, Joyce has battled arm injuries throughout his time in college, including Tommy John surgery in late 2020 in addition to a myriad of other issues, and began his career at Walters State JC in Tennessee before transferring to Tennessee in 2021. Finally healthy for a full season in 2022, he registered a 2.23 ERA and a 53/14 strikeout to walk ratio over 32.1 innings for the Volunteers, almost entirely out of the bullpen. What makes him special, of course, is the stuff. His fastball consistently sits in the 101-103 range, and he registered the fastest pitch ever recorded by a right handed pitcher in baseball history when he hit 105.5 on the gun. Throw in the flat approach angle he puts on the pitch and it's straight up unhittable. The Knoxville native adds a hard, short slider that gets into the upper 80's, though the pitch stands out more for its velocity than its movement and mainly plays up because hitters have to be geared up for his fastball. There's a changeup in there, but it's a distant third pitch. Joyce is generally around the zone with his fastball, even if he doesn't have pinpoint command, but does struggle to land that slider for strikes. The 6'5" righty also throws with high effort and has missed a ton of time with various injuries, so it's a pure relief profile. Those injuries do call into question his durability as a whole, and the Angels don't have a great track record of keeping pitchers healthy, as it is. That said, Joyce can dominate with just his fastball alone, and if he stays healthy, he could be in the big leagues very, very quickly. There is closer upside here if he can learn to command his slider as well. He's gotten into two games for AA Rocket City so far, allowing two runs over two innings while striking out one and walking one.
4-118: RHP Jake Madden, Northwest Florida State JC. My rank: #107.
Slot value: $512,900. Signing bonus: $997,500 ($484,600 above slot value).
The Angels gave Ben Joyce a million dollars if you count the $2,500 contingency bonus players receive in addition to their regular bonus, and Jake Madden got the same a round later. Madden is another Tommy John survivor who looked untouchable at his best this year at Northwest Florida State JC, but did battle inconsistency as blister issues bothered him throughout the spring. The end result was a 4.53 ERA and a 76/24 strikeout to walk ratio over 47.2 innings, and you can note that those 76 strikeouts were good for a very strong 35.7% strikeout rate. His fastball sits in the mid 90's and has been up to 98, coming in with plenty of running and sinking life from a three quarters arm slot. He adds a solid, short slider and changeup, but for now he stands out more for his power than his refinement. The 6'6" righty is a premium athlete with a ton of projection remaining and he moves extremely well on the mound, though his mechanics do need refinement. He has a long arm action and he kicks his leg out towards third base on his way to the plate, and he has trouble repeating that delivery and can lose his arm slot. As a redshirt freshman that only turns 21 in December, he has time to figure things out and the Angels are buying into the body and athleticism. They likely believe his inconsistency stemmed from those blister issues as well as from having missed the 2021 season with TJ, so they're hoping to get those offspeed pitches and his command up to par quickly. There is a very high ceiling here if they can do that.
5-148: 1B Sonny DiChiara, Auburn. My rank: #164.
Slot value: $383,200. Signing bonus: $172,500 ($210,700 below slot value).
As with Ben Joyce, Sonny DiChiara (pronounced d'share-uh, also known as Sonny D) was one of the most prominent names in the SEC this spring. He spent three years at Samford and blasted 41 home runs over 126 games in the process, then transferred to Auburn this spring and took it to another level by slashing .383/.549/.777 with 22 home runs and a 55/68 strikeout to walk ratio over 61 games against some of the best pitching in college baseball, giving him 63 career home runs if you're keeping track. DiChiara is all bat, and it's a good one. Listed at 6'1", 263 pounds, he looks every bit of it in the box and possesses the plus raw power you'd expect from a big guy like that. It's more strength than bat speed, but he taps that power very consistently in games so it doesn't matter. He is extremely patient in the box, walking 23.8% of the time in 2022, but he will punish you if you come into his zone. He naturally saw a ton of offspeed stuff in 2022, as you might expect looking at his numbers and sheer imposing presence in the box, and does possess some swing and miss. The Birmingham-area native also turned 23 in July, so he's older than most of his peers in college baseball and will want to move quickly. A first baseman only who may have to move to DH, nobody is mistaking him for a speedster out in the field and his value will be entirely tied to his bat. Still, he should move quickly through the minors and could be an every day first baseman sooner rather than later, one that could hit 20+ home runs a year with middling, walk-driven on-base percentages. He's already well on his way to that, slashing .289/.491/.395 with one home run and a 17/11 strikeout to walk ratio over twelve games at AA Rocket City in his home state.
6-178: RHP Victor Mederos, Oklahoma State. My rank: #208.
Slot value: $291,400. Signing bonus: $227,750 ($63,650 below slot value).
Victor Mederos is a guy that has been around. He has pitched for five different schools in the past five years – Coral Reef High School, Monsignor Pace High School, Westminster Christian High School, the University of Miami, and most recently, Oklahoma State – and will now join the Angels organization for yet another new uniform. A highly regarded talent out of Westminster Christian that could have gone in the top three rounds of the 2020 draft had he been signable, Mederos instead wound up on campus at Miami and pitched to middling results, bringing him to Stillwater. He again wound up with middling results, posting a 5.59 ERA and a 62/21 strikeout to walk ratio over 66 innings, but the Angels love the arm strength and will look to see what they can do here. He sits in the low to mid 90's with his fastball and has touched as high as 99, but the pitch is straight and plays below its velocity. He shows both a curveball and a slider, which have flashed plus as far back as high school, but they're inconsistent and can blend into each other. His hard changeup can get firm at times but also flashes above average, giving him a powerful four pitch arsenal that shows plenty of promise at his best. The 6'2" righty has tremendous arm strength and is generally around the zone when he trusts his strength and doesn't try to overthrow, but he can lapse into doing so and that's when his command gets scattered. The Angels will want to do something with his fastball to get more life on it, or if not, turning his offspeed pitches into more consistent threats could help keep hitters off the fastball and allow it to play more to its plus velocity. There is a lot of relief risk at this point given all the inconsistency, but I wouldn't count him out just yet as a starter if the Angels can figure something out. In his first game at High A Tri-City, he tossed two no-hit innings with one strikeout and one walk.
10-298: 1B Matt Coutney, Old Dominion. My rank: unranked.
Slot value: $152,800. Signing bonus: $7,500 ($145,300 below slot value).
This is a similar pick to Sonny DiChiara, though Matt Coutney played in the C-USA rather than the SEC and signed for a fraction of what DiChiara got. Coutney played two years at Colby JC in Nebraska, then transferred to Old Dominion and broke out in 2022 to slash .376/.473/.808 with 27 home runs and a 54/38 strikeout to walk ratio over 58 games. At one point, he had a five hit, two home run game against Middle Tennessee State, and at another point he blasted ten home runs in an eight game span in April. He taps his power with a very leveraged left handed swing, channeling his strength extremely well and causing the ball to just jump off his bat. He finds the barrel extremely consistently and his power plays to all fields, as he's fully willing to go the other way and do damage if that's what the situation calls for. There is some swing and miss in his game and he struck out in nearly 20% of his plate appearances in 2022, so it remains to be seen how the Edmonton, Alberta native performs against quality offspeed stuff in pro ball, but there is a nice baseline here to work off. Coutney is limited to first base and will have to out-hit DiChiara, Luke Franzoni, and other first basemen in the system to earn playing time. DiChiara is already in AA and Franzoni is in Low A, though Coutney did single, homer, and walk in his first three plate appearances down in the Arizona Complex League.
11-328: RHP Caden Dana, Don Bosco HS [NJ]. My rank: #112.
Slot value: up to $125,000. Signing bonus: $1.5 million ($1.125 million against bonus pool).
Last year, the Angels made a huge splash in the twelfth round when they brought in high school lefty Mason Albright for roughly $1.25 million, a record for day three of the draft. They did something similar this year by signing high school righty Caden Dana for $1.5 million in the eleventh round, breaking Albright's day three record. Dana's massive signing bonus is roughly equivalent to slot value for the 51st overall pick for some context, and it might have helped that the Angels not-so-coincidentally drafted and signed his older brother Casey out of UConn five rounds later. The younger Dana sits in the low 90's right now, getting up to 95-96 at his best with some steep plane. His curveball flashes plus with hard bite, and this spring he has added a shorter slider and can flip in a firm changeup. It's all about power from a very strong, 6'4" frame, and he could continue to add power to his stuff as he develops. He generally locates his fastball well, though his command of his offspeeds is less consistent, so that will be a point of development. There is also some effort to his delivery, which could point him to the bullpen if his command doesn't improve, but the New York native is plenty physical enough to start should that develop properly. The Angels are betting big on the arm strength and that nasty curveball, with hopes to get a #2 starter that could have developed into a first rounder at Kentucky. He tossed two shutout innings on one hit in his first start in the Arizona Complex League.
15-448: RHP Bryce Osmond, Oklahoma State. My rank: #219.
Slot value: up to $125,000. Signing bonus: $129,500 ($4,500 against bonus pool).
Along with sixth rounder Victor Mederos and seventh rounder Roman Phansalkar, Bryce Osmond marks the third pitcher the Angels drafted out of Oklahoma State in this class. Like Mederos, Osmond was a highly touted prep arm in the 2019 cycle and had a chance to go in the top three rounds, but signability pushed him to Stillwater where he has been uneven. He struggled to a 7.42 ERA in 2021, then after seeming to turn a corner in the Cape Cod League over the summer, finished 2022 with a 4.75 ERA and a 77/31 strikeout to walk ratio over 60.2 innings. He had actually pushed himself into top five round consideration in April, but allowed ten runs (nine earned) over his final two starts then sat out of the postseason with arm soreness. At his best, Osmond sits in the low to mid 90's with his fastball and has been up to 96, but hitters pick it up easily and it lacks life. His best pitch is a plus slider that misses a ton of bats when it's on, but it can flatten out frequently. The Tulsa-area product adds in an average curveball and changeup, giving him a strong four pitch mix when things are going right. He's very athletic at a still-projectable 6'3", but he struggles to repeat his fairly simple delivery and can lose the strike zone or leave pitches over the heart of the plate. Throw in the arm soreness creating durability concerns, and he may be best served by moving forward as a fastball/slider reliever, where the former could add a tick of velocity and outplay its generic movement. The Angels could still stretch Osmond out as a starter, but he would need considerable work getting more consistent with his offspeed stuff and command to cut it in that role.
19-568: OF Luke Franzoni, Xavier. My rank: unranked.
Slot value: up to $125,000. Signing bonus: $75,000.
The Angels weren't done rounding up the most fearsome college hitters they could find, grabbing one more in Xavier masher Luke Franzoni. After three solid years in Cincinnati, Franzoni busted out for a massive 2022, slashing .354/.485/.821 with 29 home runs and a 64/53 strikeout to walk ratio over 58 games, and those 29 home runs finished second in college baseball to Texas' (now the Diamondbacks') Ivan Melendez. He's a big, strong power hitter that loves to get his arms extended, showing plus power to all fields that obviously plays up in games. The New Jersey native is a three true outcome type right now, with comfortably more than half of his plate appearances ending in a home run (10.7%), a walk (19.6%), or a strikeout (23.7%). That strikeout rate is particularly concerning given that he played against average competition in the Big East, and it jumped to 31.7% in a fifteen game stint in the Cape Cod League this summer. As a likely first baseman that will have to compete with Sonny DiChiara and Matt Coutney to climb the ladder, he'll really need to cut down on that swing and miss moving forward in pro ball. Unlike DiChiara and Coutney, however, Franzoni does have an outside shot to play a corner outfield position serviceably. He is slashing .200/.394/.320 with a 13/8 strikeout to walk ratio though seven games at Low A Inland Empire, giving him one of the three true outcomes now in nearly two thirds of his plate appearnaces.
No comments:
Post a Comment