2024 MLB Draft Chat

[Sports Guy]

Im hoping for high end HS talent that drops due to signability concerns, with at least one of the first 2 picks.

[OsFanInOhio]

46 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Im hoping for high end HS talent that drops due to signability concerns, with at least one of the first 2 picks.

Just don’t get your hopes up too high. We’ve shown no tendency towards that. 

[RZNJ]

51 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Im hoping for high end HS talent that drops due to signability concerns, with at least one of the first 2 picks.

There’s only two HS picks that would be considered big slides down to #32 and that’s Griffin and Rainer who are both projected to be gone between 6-15.

[Go_Os]

6 hours ago, Rbiggs2525 said:

The Elias era has liked to take projectable college arms which hasn’t been successful yet. I would like to see them go with the High School arm approach of the past with Grayson, DL, Hunter Harvey, Bundy. Obviously there is some risk to this but I like managing a kids arm and number of pitches at 18 compared to 22.

I like Caminiti, William Schmidt and a few other HS arms.  I really want us to load up on high upside pitching.  Our offense is good to go for the next 5 years and our rotation is a mess.

[Greg Pappas]

25 minutes ago, Go_Os said:

I like Caminiti, William Schmidt and a few other HS arms.  I really want us to load up on high upside pitching.  Our offense is good to go for the next 5 years and our rotation is a mess.

I have a couple of thoughts regarding this. 

• While both HS'ers you mentioned are very talented, the O's are typically risk-averse, and HS pitchers are the least likely group of drafted talent to have successful ML careers. 
• Even so, HS pitchers typically can take 4-5 years or more before arriving in the bigs and pitching well enough to be quality contributors.  This goes against your thoughts of trying to get pitching up to fortify the rotation during the next five years. 

Pitching, as you said, is very much needed, so they may draft some early this draft, but I'd think it would be collegians.  We'll see though, maybe they'll do things differently this time around.

[Rbiggs2525]

1 hour ago, Go_Os said:

I like Caminiti, William Schmidt and a few other HS arms.  I really want us to load up on high upside pitching.  Our offense is good to go for the next 5 years and our rotation is a mess.

I agree. Last year we took 5 CF and 5 college arms. This year I’d like to see 5 HS arms and 5 SS.

[sportsfan8703]

I found this today on USA Today. Honeycutt is growing on me. We like athletes. GG profile. Lots of big bombs, walks offs, for a big time program.

The power/defense combo is what we like. Plus, NCAA bat.  Just R/R  

Let some other team fool around with what is Benge and developing Brecht. Give me the hitter that our development team can refine.

Imagine an OF being patrolled by EBJ in CF, Honeycutt in LF, Cowser in RF. 

The OF would be just as elite defensively as our IF is. 

Edited July 11 by sportsfan8703

[Rbiggs2525]

The team has actually done an excellent job developing high school hitting talent when taking them. Henderson, Mayo and Hernaiz are a few to name.

[RZNJ]

3 hours ago, sportsfan8703 said:

I found this today on USA Today. Honeycutt is growing on me. We like athletes. GG profile. Lots of big bombs, walks offs, for a big time program.

The power/defense combo is what we like. Plus, NCAA bat.  Just R/R  

Let some other team fool around with what is Benge and developing Brecht. Give me the hitter that our development team can refine.

Imagine an OF being patrolled by EBJ in CF, Honeycutt in LF, Cowser in RF. 

The OF would be just as elite defensively as our IF is. 

Honeycutt strikes out more than Fabian did.  Over 80 K’s this year.   
 

He has all of the tools except for one.

[RZNJ]

2 hours ago, Rbiggs2525 said:

The team has actually done an excellent job developing high school hitting talent when taking them. Henderson, Mayo and Hernaiz are a few to name.

Right.  I could see them popping one of these guys, one HS, one college, but both projected to stick at SS and Lindsay in particular has a CF profiled as well.  Culpepper led team USA in all three slash lines.   A team that included Condon and Caglione.

27. Kellon Lindsey

SS / OF

Ht: 6'0" | Wt: 175 | B-T: R-R

Age: null

School: Hardee HS, Wauchula, Fla. Commit/Drafted: Florida 
Age At Draft: 18.8 
BA Grade: 55/Extreme
Tools: Hit: 50. Power: 40. Run: 80. Field: 55. Arm: 50. 

In a down year for high school talent in Florida, Lindsey quickly became the pop-up player to know in the 2024 class thanks to his athleticism, speed and defensive skills at shortstop. Lindsey is a lean righthanded hitter with a 6-foot, 175-pound frame and a background as a multi-sport athlete. He threw for more than 1,200 yards and 13 touchdowns as Hardee High’s quarterback last fall before moving to the diamond in the spring and showing scouts significant improvement as both a hitter and defender. Because of Lindsey’s 80-grade speed, there was some thought a year ago that he could slide from the infield and play an above-average defensive center field. This spring, he has shown all the hands, actions and arm strength necessary to stick at shortstop as an above-average defender in the long run. Offensively, Lindsey has quick, twitchy hands in the box and strong bat-to-ball skills, but he lacks pop and might have the frame of a player who never grows into anything more than average raw power. Given his speed, contact skills and defensive profile, Lindsey’s projected lower power output won’t hinder him if he is to profile as a top-of-the-order table-setter who sprays hard-hit line drives around the field. Lindsey is a Florida commit but should be drafted on day one with first-round upside. He earns plenty of Trea Turner comparisons thanks to his speed, size and contact skills.  
 

34. Kaelen Culpepper

SS

Ht: 6'0" | Wt: 185 | B-T: R-R

Age: 21

School: Kansas State Commit/Drafted: Never Drafted 
Age At Draft: 21.6 
BA Grade: 50/High
Tools: Hit: 50. Power: 45. Run: 55. Field: 50. Arm: 60. 

Culpepper is a well-rounded infielder with a 6-foot, 190-pound frame and lengthy track record of performance at Kansas State and in various summer leagues. His 2023 sophomore season was a breakout offensive effort, and he replicated that performance again in 2024 and is a career .312/.403/.529 hitter. He also played well in the Cape Cod League and was one of the top hitters for USA Baseball’s Collegiate National Team during the 2023 summer. Culpepper has an upright stance with a high handset and quick hands in the righthanded batter’s box. He uses a level swing and has raw power that should allow him to hit plenty of doubles but maybe a below-average total of home runs. He has solid contact skills, but is a better fastball hitter who will need to sharpen up his bat-to-ball skills against secondaries. Culpepper has a tweener defensive profile and is likely an above-average third baseman. He slid over to shortstop for the Wildcats in 2024 but might not have the actions to stick there. He has more than enough arm strength to stick on the left side of the infield, with a plus arm and great carry on his throws. Culpepper is an above-average runner and solid basestealer who has gone 27-for-31 (87.1%) for Kansas State. A team that views him as a shortstop could pop him in the first round, but he could slide a bit further than that with no clear carrying tool.

[Otter]

50 minutes ago, RZNJ said:

Honeycutt strikes out more than Fabian did.  Over 80 K’s this year.   
 

He has all of the tools except for one.

Exactly.  The tools are tempting, but if you can't actually make contact all the power and speed in the world doesn't matter.  Now if the O's see some glaring and fixable issue then I can see them taking him.  Otherwise, I'd guess they take a more conservative approach with their first pick but maybe riskier with #32.

[OsFanInOhio]

55 minutes ago, RZNJ said:

Honeycutt strikes out more than Fabian did.  Over 80 K’s this year.   
 

He has all of the tools except for one.

Comparing jr year to jr year, Fabian struck out 35% of his at bats vs Vance 32%. So not quite fair to say Vance strikes out more, just just cut down to 30% in his senior year. 

[RZNJ]

6 minutes ago, OsFanInOhio said:

Comparing jr year to jr year, Fabian struck out 35% of his at bats vs Vance 32%. So not quite fair to say Vance strikes out more, just just cut down to 30% in his senior year. 

Another problem I see with Honeycutf.  His freshman stats are almost identical to his junior stats in HR,  OPS,  AND strikeouts.   Looks like he tried to make an adjustment his sophomore year but he had a bad year.  So I see a player who went back to what worked but was basically the same player he was as a freshman.   I think that's a bad sign.

[sportsfan8703]

1 hour ago, RZNJ said:

Honeycutt strikes out more than Fabian did.  Over 80 K’s this year.   
 

He has all of the tools except for one.

I did not know that.  I guess the blurbs just gloss over that detail.  

I still trust our development team to get the most out of him.  Heck, keep drafting CFs.  It's such a valuable position.  It would be such a huge defensive advantage to have an elite LF with all that space in LF OPACY.  

I think we'll have to come off some players we wouldn't like to part with at the deadline.  Therefore, I think Elias goes bat here, and restocks the system.  

[sportsfan8703]

3 minutes ago, RZNJ said:

Another problem I see with Honeycutf.  His freshman stats are almost identical to his junior stats in HR,  OPS,  AND strikeouts.   Looks like he tried to make an adjustment his sophomore year but he had a bad year.  So I see a player who went back to what worked but was basically the same player he was as a freshman.   I think that's a bad sign.

What's your preference in hitters at between Waldschmidt, Benge, and Honeycutt?

Edited July 11 by sportsfan8703