The 2024 MLB Draft has concluded, and it’s time to make definitive judgments about which groups did one of the best and worst earlier than most of the gamers have even signed their offers. Simply kidding — whereas I do have a couple of team-specific ideas beneath, this piece is extra about what unfolded throughout the draft as a complete. I texted people within the business (scouts, executives, and brokers) to see what they considered the general outcomes, and in the event that they seen a continuation of broad business traits or noticed conduct particular to this yr’s proceedings. I’ve included a few of their ideas beneath.
Groups Leaning On School Contact Hitters
If there was a common response from crew personnel during the last couple of days about this draft, it was that, particularly on Day Two, groups prioritized school hitters who had demonstrated bat-to-ball means. Rutgers shortstop Joshua Kuroda-Grauer (A’s) and Texas Tech catcher Kevin Bazzell (Nationals) received issues kicked off within the third spherical, after which gamers who both want a swing change, like Oklahoma State’s Zach Ehrhard (Crimson Sox, fourth spherical), or to get a lot stronger, like Eli Serrano (Mets, fourth spherical), had been additionally frequent Day Two choices. There’s a rising variety of groups that might fairly have contact abilities on board to start out after which attempt to add or increase different stuff, like energy or swing mechanics, later. The final sentiment is that hitting is more durable to show. This isn’t common (the Orioles took Vance Honeycutt within the first spherical), and I feel it will possibly simply be argued that having an up-the-middle defensive match (particularly the athleticism to play shortstop or heart subject) is each bit as innate and doubtless scarcer. One other variable that appears to have motivated this reasoning brings me to my second overarching theme…
The Altering Run Setting in School Baseball Has Made Energy (and Different Traits) Harder to Belief and Consider
There have been items written about this elsewhere, and it was a typical chorus amongst crew personnel in the course of the lead as much as the draft and after. No matter is altering the run surroundings (there are some business rumors/conspiracy theories about bat juicing in school baseball), it gained’t have an effect on whether or not or not a hitter makes contact. Hitting a baseball is sometimes called the toughest factor to do in skilled sports activities, and as pitchers get higher and higher, discovering guys who can truly do it’s a league-wide precedence. I do assume we’re using the asymptote of pitcher improvement so far as quantum leaps in method are involved and that hitter dev is beginning to catch up, however orgs can nonetheless apply pitching dev methodology to arm after arm.
The Mariners’ Draft
That is the second yr in a row that the Mariners’ pursuit of over-slot excessive schoolers meant they pivoted to older gamers sooner than different golf equipment. Whereas their 2023 class yielded extra younger gamers as a result of they’d so many picks, this yr’s Ryan Sloan choice within the second spherical (he may very well be greater than $2 million over slot) led them to a number of 23-ish-year-old seniors and grad college students on Day Two. Kansas reliever Hunter Cranton (higher 90s with plus-flashing slider — he’s going to maneuver shortly), Oregon righty Brock Moore (moved into starter position late within the season and held 94-96), and two-way participant Grant Knipp (one of many hardest throwers on the Mix, 95-97) had been the extra outstanding of the six seniors they chose. I’ve written this earlier than: There’s worth in being the primary crew to start out taking these guys since you get one of the best ones. Normally while you draft big-bonus excessive schoolers, you find yourself with a top-heavy class and are liable to being gentle on depth. The Mariners averted that.
We Simply Had the Fewest Excessive College Gamers Drafted, Ever
At the least, inside 20 rounds, excluding the five-round 2020 draft. A few of that is particular to the expertise make-up of this class, which was gentle on excessive schoolers. You understand the sensation you get while you first open a bag of chips and see how few are literally in there? That’s what’s felt like scouting this highschool class final summer season.
There are different forces at play right here as effectively. Participant improvement is extra pricey now due to crucial modifications made to how minor leaguers are paid and housed. MLB has slashed away 60 minor league associates from its golf equipment’ farm techniques in response to the rise in per participant price, and likewise reduce the draft in half, from 40 rounds to twenty. A discount in minor league roster spots and the dearth of post-draft, short-season associates (the outdated Northwest, Appalachian, and Pioneer Leagues), the place newly drafted school gamers typically started their careers, creates a expertise bottlenecking impact on the school stage. Main League Baseball (word the capitalization — I’m referring to the enterprise entity right here) has an incentive to outsource participant improvement to varsity baseball, and it’s a symbiotic relationship as a result of the NCAA would like to have a extra gifted and watchable “product.”
I’ve requested folks if the pull of NIL cash in school is a part of the equation, and whereas it definitely is so far as selecting a college and navigating the switch portal is worried, folks with large league groups have persistently instructed me that the brand new cash flying round school baseball hasn’t actually impacted their means to signal gamers. Schools have supplied some gamers some huge cash to switch or keep at their college (the very best rumored quantity is within the mid-six figures), however even when, say, Texas A&M is providing you $500,000 or so to stay round, if the Angels draft you within the third spherical, your bonus goes to be a lot greater than that.
The Brewers’ Draft
The Brewers adopted up on their excessive school-heavy 2023 draft with an excellent youthful group this yr, and it reveals an fascinating technique. Their first spherical decide, Braylon Payne, was usually seen as a second-round prospect. His bonus is prone to be effectively beneath the $4.5 million slot worth of his decide, with some quantity of the surplus pool house diverted to the highschool pitching prospects they chose within the second and Comp B rounds, New Jersey excessive schoolers Bryce Meccage and Chris Levonas. Additionally they popped excessive schoolers in rounds 9 and 10, after which took a number of on Day Three. Not all of those guys are going to signal however a number of of them will. Recall final yr that Brewers received Cooper Pratt’s deal carried out for $1.3 million within the sixth spherical after which additionally signed a number of excessive schoolers for between $250,000-$550,000 on Day Three of the draft. Day Three picks don’t have bonus slots that scale back your crew’s pool if the participant doesn’t signal, so apart from slightly alternative price (the faculty man they’d have in any other case taken in spherical 14 or no matter), the Brewers can now negotiate with a bunch of higher-upside highschool gamers between now and the signing deadline and determine what mixture of bonuses and gamers offers them one of the best general class.
A number of groups do a model of this yearly, however no one does it to this diploma. Whether or not it was precipitated by the character of this specific draft class or simply how the board fell within the first spherical (i.e. the Brewers didn’t like who was left on the board, so that they pivoted to this technique), we simply don’t know.
Excessive College Pitching Is The Rags
Is it attainable groups are valuing highschool pitching much less and fewer as time goes on, and that we’ve now hit some type of backside? In a draft that was the deepest in highschool arms amongst all of the participant demographics, one of the best one (for my part), William Schmidt, determined to tug his title out and go to LSU fairly than be drafted. The following-best one, Cam Caminiti, had an “sudden” fall and was the primary highschool pitcher chosen at decide 24 in a weaker draft. (I had Caminiti ranked twenty first, so whereas my draft night time chat was dropping its thoughts that he was falling, he went about the place I had him.)
The time it takes highschool pitchers to develop (each from a technical perspective and from a sturdiness standpoint) and the danger that they gained’t (take into consideration how totally different pitching as soon as every week for two-and-half months is in comparison with a full-season professional workload) is influencing crew conduct. And possibly lower than “crew conduct,” it’s affecting “decision-maker conduct.” You may’t play when you don’t have a seat on the desk, and I do assume extra continuously the self-interest of executives is trumping groups’ greatest pursuits. When you have one or two years to avoid wasting your job, why take a highschool participant who gained’t be prepared for one more 5? I don’t assume each crew or government is behaving this manner (Pittsburgh wants good large league hitters ASAP, but they took Konnor Griffin and several other different excessive schoolers regardless of the danger/time ingredient as a result of they imagine within the expertise), however the quantity is rising.
Groupthink on the Rise
One other frequent response from business personnel this yr was one thing like, “We’re all making selections wanting on the similar information and, more and more, primarily based on related interpretations of that information.” This intersects with the faculty contact hitter level above. Groups are fastball vertical method angle and hitters’ contact and chase charges, they usually have regression fashions which can be fed the identical information as their opponents’ fashions, partly as a result of MLB (and its cheaper homeowners) needed to keep away from an arms race on this house. Individuals in profitable organizations diffuse to unhealthy ones when the unhealthy ones make a brand new GM or POBO rent, and the methodology of the profitable orgs spreads to the crummier groups. That is occurring sooner than particular person groups could make a leap in scouting or dev, and we’re approaching a type of equilibrium the place the aggressive benefits can be mined from the interpersonal nooks and crannies of this course of and the technique with which groups decide. I feel you would argue that orgs which can be much less inclined to stick to data-based strategies are in a greater place now than ever earlier than as a result of the various data-driven groups find yourself competing for a similar gamers. If there’s a science- or analytics-driven hole between groups, it’s in the way in which participant improvement is taken into account as they decide their draft targets.
