2021 7th round pick (197): Connor Pavolony - C - (Junior) Tennessee

[lovetoaster]

6'1 195 R/R

[lovetoaster]

Quote

Catcher Connor Pavolony was a major part of Vitello’s rebuild, starting behind the plate for three years. The junior hit .260 with seven home runs in 49 games while dealing with a plethora of minor injuries and a fractured hand that sidelined him in SEC play.

https://www.rockytopinsider.com/2021/07/11/tennessee-baseball-players-commits-to-watch-for-in-mlb-draft/

[lovetoaster]

Quote

Pavolony got off to a slow start at the plate and battled injuries as a junior, but his batting average climbed significantly later in the year despite a sore hand, and he’s still seen as a solid prospect heading into this draft. He has one of the strongest arms of any catcher in this class, and it’s a shame that a hand injury prevented him from consistently showing that down the stretch in 2021. Pavolony could go a bit higher than expected, though, because he has great defensive skills and some offensive power potential for that position. Some of Pavolony’s home runs at Tennessee were tape-measure shots. Scouts tend to notice those things.

https://247sports.com/college/tennessee/LongFormArticle/Tennessee-Vols-Baseball-Vols-players-signees-to-watch-for-in-2021-MLB-Draft-167600614/#167600614_4

[Sports Guy]

The overslot guys are pouring in now!

Maybe this guy can be traded for Trout!

[lovetoaster]

I'm paraphrasing, but Callis said that he may have been drafted in the third round last year, but this year caused him to drop a little. 

[Moose Milligan]

Yeah, I'm not seeing the overslot guys that we did last year.

Maybe because last year was such a short draft it was more obvious as to who those guys were.  

[Can_of_corn]

10 minutes ago, lovetoaster said:

https://www.rockytopinsider.com/2021/07/11/tennessee-baseball-players-commits-to-watch-for-in-mlb-draft/

I'm not a batting average guy but .260?  That doesn't seem a good sign.

[MurphDogg]

Many of the earlier picks have been helium guys who came on strong this year. Pavolony was the opposite, was on all sorts of watch lists entering the season, then had a middling year. 

[LookinUp]

8 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

Yeah, I'm not seeing the overslot guys that we did last year.

Maybe because last year was such a short draft it was more obvious as to who those guys were.  

I wrote it earlier, but Shepherd and Faleris were going back and forth on twitter yesterday saying they didn't think Cowser was an under slot guy.

Sounds like the kid from Kentucky might not be either. 

My guess is Elias thinks he got his Jordan Westburg in one of these 3-5 round guys. By that, I mean athletic guy who's just scratching the surface on what he can be.

[Yossarian]

3 hours ago, MurphDogg said:

Many of the earlier picks have been helium guys who came on strong this year. Pavolony was the opposite, was on all sorts of watch lists entering the season, then had a middling year. 

That's called hedging your bet.  Brilliant.

[Tony-OH]

Initial thoughts:

Pavolony definitely is one of those defense first catchers though he had some upside with the bat prior to the draft. 

[Dreadnought]

Has a chance to advance in the next few weeks after tonight's signing.    2 Class A catchers - Cannon and Handley - hurt.   Delmarva currently featuring a guy out of DSL/FCL and Ogren, converted this year to backstop.   Aberdeen has non-touted Rodriguez just promoted and Burgess, batting .091, (not a misprint).    You would think a brief stint in FCL would lead to Class A soon.  

Edited July 25, 2021 by Dreadnought

[Frobby]

13 hours ago, Dreadnought said:

Has a chance to advance in the next few weeks after tonight's signing.    2 Class A catchers - Cannon and Handley - hurt.   Delmarva currently featuring a guy out of DSL/FCL and Ogren, converted this year to backstop.   Aberdeen has non-touted Rodriguez just promoted and Burgess, batting .091, (not a misprint).    You would think a brief stint in FCL would lead to Class A soon.  

What happened to Cannon and Handley?   Are they out for a long time?

[Tony-OH]

22 hours ago, Frobby said:

What happened to Cannon and Handley?   Are they out for a long time?

The Orioles are not giving out information on player injuries. They are being treated as state secrets for some reason. Its silly. 

Back to Pavolony though, I could see him going to Delmarva pretty quickly because his defense and current injury situation at the catcher's position within the organization. 

[CHIP]

2 hours ago, Tony-OH said:

The Orioles are not giving out information on player injuries. They are being treated as state secrets for some reason. Its silly. 

Back to Pavolony though, I could see him going to Delmarva pretty quickly because his defense and current injury situation at the catcher's position within the organization. 

From the Todd Karpovich article quoting Cannon, "As for Cannon, he is still nursing a hamstring injury from earlier this month against Lynchburg. He heard a pop as he was running for first base and then had trouble walking."  

Handley didn't look comfortable his last AB on 16th (where he did a late check swing).  Ironbirds put him on 7 day IL on the 20th so he could return on Wednesday the 28th.    Having watch the Ironbirds put him back into games/series early in the year when he clearly wasn't healthy makes me think the medical staff if finally protecting the players by placing them on IL