Vance Honeycutt

[RZNJ]

7 hours ago, doccat said:

He can’t make any type of contact at all or even put a ball in play in the low minors.

 

I find that completely alarming for a high profile college junior taken in the first round.  
 

But a large percentage of first rounders don’t ever make it…. Even guys picked at 1-1.  

 

 

Honeycutt only struck out 20% his sophomore year but he also hit .257 with 12 homers.  But, at least we know he made adjustments in college and tried to make more contact before reverting back to what worked better for him in college.

I don’t think his performance is a “nothing burger”.    It might not be the worst thing though.  I would suspect that Honeycutt might be more open to making whatever changes the Orioles hitting instructors have in mind.

I do think, even this fairly SSS is further confirmation that Honeycutt needs some pretty significant swing/setup/approach changes that some evaluators were suggesting pre-draft.

[RZNJ]

7 hours ago, Rbiggs2525 said:

Would make everyone feel better if he was hitting 300 and striking out under 30% of the time. If he’s doing this through 100 AB next season I’ll start to worry. I think there is something to be said about shutting down for a month after long college season, then starting back up. Not making excuses for the kid.

He probably had 2+ weeks against live pitching in Florida and now 3 weeks against A and A + pitching.   It’s possible that it’s just rust and timing.   Didn’t seem to effect Anderson, Stafford, Overn, and O’Ferrall that much who all pretty much hit right away in Delmarva.    

[EdwinRip]

Definitely a total bust.  Not sure if he should even come back next year.

[RZNJ]

9 minutes ago, EdwinRip said:

Definitely a total bust.  Not sure if he should even come back next year.

Well, no one is calling him a total bust.    Nice try.

[RZNJ]

A good read.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/40530039/2024-mlb-draft-prospect-north-carolina-outfielder-vance-honeycutt

[glenn__davis]

10 hours ago, RZNJ said:

Our 1st round pick has struck out 21 times in 48 PA.   At Aberdeen, he’s 0-12 with 8 K’s.   Those are facts.   Your opinion could be that those numbers mean nothing or they are cause for concern but there’s nothing wrong with talking about it.  It’s news.

I wouldn't say there's anything wrong with talking about, I just think trying to draw any sort of conclusion at all from his performance at this point is a bit DocJJ-esque.  No offense intended to the good doctor.

Everyone knew he was a bit of a project.  

[RZNJ]

35 minutes ago, glenn__davis said:

I wouldn't say there's anything wrong with talking about, I just think trying to draw any sort of conclusion at all from his performance at this point is a bit DocJJ-esque.  No offense intended to the good doctor.

Everyone knew he was a bit of a project.  

One persons conclusions are merely another person’s observations and commentary.  I’m not drawing any long term conclusions.   I’m merely observing that the level of futility he’s displayed so far is probably worse than any Elias college draft pick, 1st round or 10th round, ever.   Even knowing he’s a bit of a project who probably needs significant adjustments, it’s a bit alarming to see the amount of swing and miss especially when you combine that with the lack of power.

At this time next year, he could be in Bowie, hitting .280 with a 25% strikeout rate and be our #1 or #2 prospect.   Certainly possible.    That doesn’t change the fact that his debut has been abysmal to this point.

[Sports Guy]

53 minutes ago, glenn__davis said:

I wouldn't say there's anything wrong with talking about, I just think trying to draw any sort of conclusion at all from his performance at this point is a bit DocJJ-esque.  No offense intended to the good doctor.

Everyone knew he was a bit of a project.  

Right. I think there’s a difference between discussing it and what many are doing.

 

[clapdiddy]

57 minutes ago, RZNJ said:

A good read.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/40530039/2024-mlb-draft-prospect-north-carolina-outfielder-vance-honeycutt

Nice article.   When the Orioles picked him, I have no doubt that they knew his flaws but still felt his talent was too good to pass up with the #22 slot.  Let's hope he figures it out.   Heck, how many guys drafted at 1/22 make it anyway?

[Sports Guy]

Just now, clapdiddy said:

Nice article.   When the Orioles picked him, I have no doubt that they knew his flaws but still felt his talent was too good to pass up with the #22 slot.  Let's hope he figures it out.   Heck, how many guys drafted at 1/22 make it anyway?

The Os took him because they were seeing through the flaws and saw an immense talent with high upside.

But they have to fix the flaws for him to be anything more than an AAAA player. It's really that simple.

[DocJJ]

I think everyone knows the draft is also a crapshoot and there's a lot of luck involved.  Everyone knows 25 teams passed on Mike Trout.  Some were concerned he hadn't faced a lot of elite level competition in his neck of the woods (New Jersey I think?).  

31 teams passed on Aaron Judge.  There were concerns he couldn't hit low pitches and was only an ok center fielder.  (Of all the freakin' ML teams, why did it have to be the Yankees who hit the jackpot???). 

 

So, maybe the logic is when you're picking outside the top 10 guys, you take a guy with the best tools and maximum potential and hope you hit the lottery...  And if you don't, well... a lot guys taken outside the top 10 don't make it anyway...

[OriolesMagic83]

9 hours ago, DocJJ said:

I think everyone knows the draft is also a crapshoot and there's a lot of luck involved.  Everyone knows 25 teams passed on Mike Trout.  Some were concerned he hadn't faced a lot of elite level competition in his neck of the woods (New Jersey I think?).  

31 teams passed on Aaron Judge.  There were concerns he couldn't hit low pitches and was only an ok center fielder.  (Of all the freakin' ML teams, why did it have to be the Yankees who hit the jackpot???). 

 

So, maybe the logic is when you're picking outside the top 10 guys, you take a guy with the best tools and maximum potential and hope you hit the lottery...  And if you don't, well... a lot guys taken outside the top 10 don't make it anyway...

Just to show what an exact science the draft is, every team passed on Albert Pujols 12 times.

[RZNJ]

12 hours ago, OriolesMagic83 said:

Just to show what an exact science the draft is, every team passed on Albert Pujols 12 times.

Or Mike Piazza 50 times.   Then again, there are some things you can’t account for.

[Tony-OH]

I'm not going to draw any conclusions off his start to his professional career, but the amount of miss is enough to give me a little pause. 

Now, he could very well be a slow starter kind of guy who because of his late start is why he's really struggle to find his footing, but he's going to need a lot of reworking this offseason.

Either way, we'll know a lot more after next season then we know right now. No reason to write him off, but also no reason to be overly optimistic. 

There's lots of talent in there. This will be a great test for the hitting development staff.

[OriolesMagic83]

2 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

I'm not going to draw any conclusions off his start to his professional career, but the amount of miss is enough to give me a little pause. 

Now, he could very well be a slow starter kind of guy who because of his late start is why he's really struggle to find his footing, but he's going to need a lot of reworking this offseason.

Either way, we'll know a lot more after next season then we know right now. No reason to write him off, but also no reason to be overly optimistic. 

There's lots of talent in there. This will be a great test for the hitting development staff.

I have been one to minimize these few games of exposure to the minors after being drafted.  0 for 16 at Aberdeen in concerning to me.  I guess all I can do is know development staff will be working with him this offseason to make changes and hope for the best.