Re-drafting 2019 draft

[Sports Guy]

Gunnar going 4th will ruffle some feathers I bet.

[Pickles]

I'm surprised Adley is still #1.

[Can_of_corn]

1 minute ago, Sports Guy said:

Gunnar going 4th will ruffle some feathers I bet.

I'm sure someone will manage to be offended.

The top four are a very impressive group of young players.

I'd say it is still too early to tell who the greatest of them will be.

[waroriole]

I’d probably do the top 4:

Gunnar

Corbin

Adley

Witt

[bpilktree]

WAR last year

Gunnar 6.3 

Carroll 5.4 

Witt 4.4

Adley 4.3. 
 

Gunnar is at least a year younger than everyone.  If you are Marlins you would be doing cartwheels if he fell to you.  

[Jammer7]

You could argue any order for the top four. I would have Gunnar third, over Carroll, but that’s just my opinion. Ask me again five years from now, and Gunnar might be #1.

[Tony-OH]

As much as I think Adley is one of the best catchers in baseball, who here would take him over Gunnar right now? I think it's fairly close, but I'll take an impact shortstop who is three years younger who's offensive upside is higher. 

 

[Bahama O's Fan]

I think the thing for me with taking a catcher is they have a shorter shelf life as a catcher than a SS. This is why I was in the Witt camp. I love Adley and think he is amazing, but inevitably, he will stop catching before Gunnar and Witt are playing the infield (barring a freak injury), then what is his value at 1B or DH?

[btdart20]

Taking the best C in Adley over Witt might be questioned, but to be able to draft/sign another guy later who's at least in the same tier as Witt later in the draft is a coup.  I'm much more impressed with Adley/Gunnar than I would have been with Witt/Gunnar.

[Sports Guy]

2 hours ago, Tony-OH said:

As much as I think Adley is one of the best catchers in baseball, who here would take him over Gunnar right now? I think it's fairly close, but I'll take an impact shortstop who is three years younger who's offensive upside is higher. 

 

Yep..Adley would be 4th on this list for me.

But all of these guys are potential MVP candidates, so you can’t really go wrong with any order.

[Frobby]

I’d rather have Gunnar than Adley over his career.   I’d rather have Adley for the years in which the team controls him.  There’s just something about the way a catcher impacts his team.  Look at the way the O’s turned around almost instantly when Adley joined the team.  

These are four really excellent players, and Kirby isn’t too bad himself.  
 

[dabirds]

They also had the below to say under winners of that draft.   And they had Joey Ortiz going #22 to the Rays with Hernaiz just missing the first round.

 

Baltimore Orioles

This is an 80-grade draft, right? Sure, you can feel free to remove some praise because any team with the No. 1 pick would have happily taken Adley Rutschman, but Baltimore acquired not just one but two franchise pieces with Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson. There’s a legitimate argument to be made right now that they drafted the best two players in the class. On top of that, the Orioles drafted Joey Ortiz, who ranked as a Top 100 prospect in 2023 and was among the top 32 picks in our redraft, and also landed Darell Hernaiz, who was in consideration and later traded to the A’s. They have another big leaguer in Kyle Stowers, who they picked in the supplemental second round.

[dabirds]

Here is their reasoning

 

1. Orioles — C Adley Rutschman

Actual pick: C Adley Rutschman

Original Drafting Team (Round.Pick): Orioles (1.1)
Draft Rank: 1
Best BA Rank: 2022 No. 1 overall prospect

Rutschman was the consensus top talent in the 2019 draft class and scouts at the time considered him the best position player prospect since Bryce Harper in 2010. That made the choice easy for the Orioles, and he has lived up to his amateur reputation in every regard by providing a well-rounded offensive skillset, excellent defensive chops and tremendous leadership to guide an up-and-coming Orioles team into the future. 

Rutschman has been the best catcher in the game since he debuted in 2022, with 10.5 fWAR that tops backstops like Sean Murphy (9.2), Cal Raleigh (8.8), Will Smith (8.3) and JT Realmuto (8.0). He has been the 13th-best player in baseball overall using that same metric. He’s shown pristine zone skills since day one with a walk rate in the 13-14% range in both of his first full seasons, and showed promising development by cutting his strikeout rate from an already impressive 18.3% mark to 14.7% in 2023—tied for the 14th-best strikeout rate among qualified big leaguers.

He was expected to be a franchise catcher on draft day in 2019 and that’s exactly what he has become.

[dabirds]

4. Marlins — SS Gunnar Henderson

Actual pick: OF JJ Bleday

Original Drafting Team: Orioles (2.42)
Draft Rank: 30
Best BA Rank: 2023 No. 1 overall prospect

There’s a legitimate case to be made that the Orioles wound up with the two best players in this draft class. Getting not one but two franchise hitters in one draft is a monumental fete. After being just a league-average hitter over the first two months of the season (98 wRC+), Henderson cut his strikeout rate the rest of the way from 30% to 23%, posted a 133 wRC+ and led all rookies with 28 home runs while winning AL Rookie of the Year and a silver slugger award.

Of this top five group of players, Henderson did have the highest strikeout rate by a decent margin, but his walk rate was also better than each of the other three high school products and his .234 isolated slugging was the best of the bunch. He should be a good defender at shortstop if he stays there, and can be an elite Gold Glove type defender at the hot corner depending on how Baltimore wants to align its infield defense.

[dabirds]

And last snippet under Bobby Witt being #2

Here’s where the controversy could begin. Witt Jr. was the consensus No. 2 prospect on draft day, to the point that Royals scouts watching him during the spring would consistently make jokes about scouts from other teams showing up: “Why waste your time? You aren’t picking him.”

There’s a solid case to be made that Corbin Carroll, Gunnar Henderson or Michael Harris would be the pick in hindsight. All three of those other hitters have been more productive on a per-game basis than Witt. But we’re still projecting what will happen in the future and I can’t help but think Witt has the highest pure upside of the group. I come back to this quote from a scout in 2019 before the draft:

“If there’s a hill you want to die on, saying that you like Bobby Witt’s tools is a good one to defend.”