Cleveland Sports Forum

I read a Dodgers' executive who said that it was much easier to evaluate pitchers because of the pandemic.

"One Underrated 2021 MLB Draft Pick We Like From All 30 Teams" from Baseball America

Indians: Hunter Stanley, RHP — Yes, he’s 23 years old but Stanley has found added velocity to go with his plus command. The stuff is more OK than overwhelming, but Stanley’s ability to throw three pitches and spot all of them makes him an interesting 11th-round find.

[Tomlin was a 19th round pick so this kid has more chance than Josh did. Which reminds me however how hard a worker Tomlin was and is to make a significant big league career]

"Four 2021 MLB Draft Classes We're Excited After Day Two" from BA

Npt ours

What’s with the Cleveland Indians drafting all these college pitchers? Terry Pluto
Updated Jul 13, 2021; Posted Jul 13, 2021



A FUTURE TRIBE STARTER
Mississippi starting pitcher Doug Nikhazy celebrates as he strikes out the last batter of the seventh inning against Florida State in an NCAA college baseball tournament regional game. The lefty had a 12-2 record and 2.45 ERA this season. AP

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By Terry Pluto, The Plain Dealer
CLEVELAND, Ohio – Ten pitchers?

The Tribe drafted 10 college pitchers in their first 11 picks? How can a team needing outfielders do that?

I received a few emails from Tribe fans asking me some version of that question.

I admit, I love college pitchers near the top of the draft – especially for the Indians, who know what to do with these guys. But 10 does seem excessive.

“College pitching was the strength of this draft,” said Tribe scouting director Scott Barnsby. “We really did plan to take the best player available. It didn’t mean we didn’t look at position players. It wasn’t the plan going in. But as the best player available, this group of pitchers lined up on our board.”




Another Tribe source told me they were prepared a few times to take a position player, only to see that player selected a few picks before their turn. This is not like other drafts, where you can trade picks to move up.

WHAT IS THE BIG PLAN?

Consider what the Tribe has done best for more than a decade – develop pitchers.

Nearly all have been college pitchers. Some came in trades from other teams (Trevor Bauer, Corey Kluber, Mike Clevinger). Some were drafted (Shane Bieber, Aaron Civale, Zach Plesac, Josh Tomlin, Cody Allen, James Karinchak).

My guess is the Tribe subscribes to the gospel of “You can never have enough pitching.” Or as manager Terry Francona once said: “When you think you have too much pitching, get more.”

The onslaught of injuries this season demonstrates how most teams need more pitching. Think about how the advantageous position of having a wealth of starting pitching – even in the minors – puts a team in position to make trades.

Research has shown a few points in this area:


1. The hardest thing for a team to do is sign and develop viable MLB starting pitchers.

2. The most expensive commodity in free agency and via trade often is established starting pitching.

3. Pitching prospects with some success in the minors are highly valued on the trade market.

The Tribe used three of their five draft picks in 2020 on college pitchers. As I wrote Monday, first-rounder Logan T. Allen has already moved up to Class AA Akron. Second-rounder Tanner Burns is probably not far behind as he’s pitching well at High-A Lake County.

MADE A BIG JUMP
Cleveland drafted Nick Sandlin in the second round in 2018 and he opened the season with the Tribe. cleveland.com




THEY CAN MOVE UP FAST

If you look at the Tribe’s rotation, the top three are Bieber, Civale and Plesac. All were drafted in 2016. All three were in the rotation by the middle of 2019.

Karinchak is a key part of the bullpen. He was drafted in the ninth round of 2017 and in the majors by the end of the 2019 season. The Tribe picked Nick Sandlin (Southern Mississippi, second round) in 2018. He made the opening-day roster this season.

Looking at some of the pitchers drafted by the Tribe, you can see at least a few arriving in Cleveland within a few years.

Former Tribe assistant GM Dan O’Dowd worked the draft for MLB Network. He said Tribe first-rounder Gavin Williams (East Carolina), “Can be the absolute best pitcher taken in this draft.”


Ole Miss product Doug Nikhazy had a 24-6 record and 2.81 ERA in his college career. He’s a first-team All-American and just a big-time college pitcher.

In the third round, they picked Florida’s Tommy Mace.

MLB.com wrote: ”Mace didn’t have the flashiest year on paper last season, pitching to a 4.38 ERA, but his metrics are what are the most intriguing. The Indians have proven to be well above average at finding optimal pitchers to groom into successful big leaguers, and having those types of eye-catching metrics are what the organization is always looking for.”

The Tribe has the reputation of knowing the kind of pitchers they want to draft because they know how to develop them. Last year, O’Dowd told me Cleveland “was the best at developing pitchers” in all of baseball right now.

WHO REALLY KNOWS?




I haven’t seen these guys pitch. Nor has the vast majority of fans or those of us in the media writing about the draft.

But I do know the Tribe values college pitchers who are smart and have good control. They must have at least a 90-92 mph fastball. But they don’t need to light up the radar gun – although top pick Gavin Williams does that as he’s hit 100 mph this season.

Looking at some of the information on the Tribe’s lower-round picks, I’m intrigued by Rodney Boone. He went to UC-Santa Barbara (the school of Bieber and Kyle Nelson), where the eighth-rounder had a 21-5 career record and 2.52 ERA, striking out 11 per nine innings.

Fangraphs wrote this about Boone: “Boone managed to strike out 127 hitters in 98 innings this year while sitting just 86-88. His fastball has huge carry and a flat approach angle that helps it play at the top of the strike zone, and Boone peppers that area with it consistently. Boone also has a bat-missing secondary in his parachute changeup, an odd pitch that seems to float around the strike zone. ... Boone can also land his curveball for a strike. ... He’s a candidate to add velocity after college because of how fluid and flexible his delivery is.”


Fifth rounder Tanner Bibee from Cal-Fullerton had 6-6 record and 3.61 ERA for a team that was 20-35 this season. Bibee walked only 2.1 per nine innings.

I’m just tossing out names. They picked Georgia’s Ryan Webb in the fourth round. He was a projected second-rounder before hurting his arm in the spring and having Tommy John surgery in May.

In the past, the Tribe took Vinnie Pestano and Plesac after they had Tommy John surgery and that worked. The miss was Brady Aiken, the team’s first-rounder in 2015 who never came back after the operation to pitch effectively.

Will it work out? Who knows? But the odds of finding at least a few big-league starters from this group of college pitchers from top programs puts the odds in the Tribe’s favor.

'You're joking, right?': Indians draft Gators trio
July 13th, 2021
Mandy Bell



Indians draft RHP Mace No. 69
When Indians’ fans hear the phrase, “The Streak,” they’re mentally teleported back to 2017 with moments from Cleveland’s incredible 22-game winning streak flooding through their minds. But for players like Tommy Mace from the University of Florida, that phrase has a completely different meaning.

• 2021 Draft Central

The Florida Gators baseball team is creating a streak of its own, but instead of it involving wins and losses, it’s based around its highly talented players getting drafted by the same big league team. First it was A.J. Puk and Logan Shore, both of whom were drafted by the A’s in 2016. Brady Singer and Jackson Kowar both joined the Royals in 2018, and Feleipe Franks and Wil Dalton were both selected by the Red Sox in 2019. After no Gators were selected in the shortened 2020 MLB Draft, Mace and two of his teammates continued the trend in 2021.

• Indians select hard-throwing righty at No. 23

Mace was selected by the Indians in Competitive Balance Round B as the 69th overall pick. He was on the phone congratulating Cleveland’s second-round pick, Doug Nikhazy, when someone gave him the news that Jack Leftwich, a fellow Florida hurler who just so happens to be Mace’s roommate and good friend, was selected by the Indians in the seventh round.

“I mean, we definitely joked about it,” Mace said of the possibility of he and Leftwich continuing the streak. “It was never something that we thought would ever come true. … Now it’s me and Jack that have been drafted by the same team out of Florida. And they were all best friends.”

It’s no different for Mace and Leftwich. The two were roommates this past year and previously lived right down the road from each other. They’re throwing partners and close teammates, as Leftwich posted an Instagram picture of him and Mace on the field at the end of the Gators’ season. The caption read: “end of an era love you @tommymace47”.


“I FaceTimed [Leftwich], and he answered and he just started laughing,” Mace said. “I was like, ‘You’re joking, right? You’re joking around with me.’ He’s like, ‘No, no, we’re teammates.’ And I was like, ‘Wow, that’s unbelievable that that actually happened.’”

• Draft Tracker: Complete pick-by-pick coverage

Not only did it happen, but the two were joined by another fellow Gator when right-hander Franco Aleman was selected in the 10th round. This marks the sixth trio from the University of Florida to ever get drafted by the same organization in the same year and the second to go to Cleveland (2002: Pat Osborn, Keith Ramsey and Aaron Davidson).

“Well, I think if you ask a lot of people, the SEC is an elite conference and one of, if not the best, conferences in the country,” Indians director of amateur scouting Scott Barnsby said. “One, it just fell that way, but two, we’re excited to add players that came from that elite program. We feel like that should actually benefit them in the long run.”

Mace thinks so too, noting that having that support will be key in making his transition to pro ball. But it’s the way he will mesh with the rest of the organization that will prove to be the determining factor of his success.


Mace said it was imperative for him to land with a team that will put him on the right path to succeed. Although he didn’t have the flashiest of numbers last season, pitching to a 4.38 ERA, it’s his metrics that make him so intriguing. The scouting reports on him heading into the Draft raved about his spin rate, which is something that an analytics-based team like the Indians crave. And after Cleveland’s player development staff has proven what it can do with pitchers like Shane Bieber, Aaron Civale and Zach Plesac, Mace is ready to jump on board.

“A big, durable workhorse,” Barnsby said of Mace. “He’s 6-[foot]-6, and we feel there’s still some projection left in the frame. He’s touched 97 [mph], pitches with a plus-fastball. There’s two different breaking balls with Tommy -- both of them are effective.”

The Indians selected 19 pitchers (18 collegiate arms, one high school), including Mace, in the 20-round Draft. While the organization labors for months -- or in some cases, years -- over getting to know the players they draft inside and out, fan bases don’t usually learn about their favorite team’s draftees until later in their professional careers. So, what is Cleveland getting in Mace that can’t been read on his stats sheet?

“For Indians fans, Tommy Mace is just a hard worker that wants to compete in the big leagues for as long as possible with the Indians,” Mace said, “and try to win games and get in the playoffs and win the World Series.”

• Nikhazy among Indians' Day 2 pitching haul

Step one of his journey to make that dream a reality will start in the very near future. And it’ll only help to have his two close friends in Leftwich and Aleman by his side.

“I think it'll definitely help you be more relaxed and be yourself,” Mace said. “That's very, very important in your development, is just to be relaxed and be yourself and let you do what you need to do on and off the field. And having those guys around you to support you is key.”

I think the scouts took 2020 off.

Did they have anything to scout?

Good point!

Guardians draft picks with top-10 round slot values

Round 1, Pick No. 16: $3,935,500
CBA Round A, Pick No. 37: $2,100,700
Rd. 2, Pick No. 54: $1,406,400
Rd. 3, Pick No. 92: $669,900
Rd. 4, Pick No. 121: $497,700
Rd. 5, Pick No. 151: $371,600
Rd. 6, Pick No. 181: $284,000
Rd. 7, Pick No. 211: $222,200
Rd. 8, Pick No. 241: $179,900
Rd. 9, Pick No. 271: $161,100
Rd. 10, Pick No. 301: $151,900
Rd. 11, Pick No. 331:
Rd. 12, Pick No. 361:
Rd. 13, Pick No. 391:
Rd. 14, Pick No. 421:
Rd. 15, Pick No. 451:
Rd. 16, Pick No. 481:
Rd. 17, Pick No. 511:
Rd. 18, Pick No. 541:
Rd. 19, Pick No. 571:
Rd. 20, Pick No. 601:


The 2022 MLB Draft is a three-day event spanning Sunday through Tuesday of MLB All-Star weekend in Los Angeles. The Sunday evening kickoff includes the first two rounds and will be held live with representatives from each team on hand, as well as several potential draft picks and MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred.

When: July 17, at 7pm EST; July 18, at 2pm EST; July 19, at 2pm EST
Where: Los Angeles
TV: MLB Network (first 80 picks) and ESPN (first round)

Does anybody watch the MLB draft? They're all no-names.

Keith Law on the first pick of the Guardees.

16. Cleveland Guardians: Chase Delauter, OF, James Madison
No. 35 on the Big Board

The Guardians taking Delauter shouldn’t surprise anyone. They’re one of the most model-heavy teams, and Delauter grades out well by a lot of advanced metrics, as well as performing very well on the Cape last summer against better pitching than he typically faced in the spring for JMU. Scouts questioned the swing and the way he opens his hips early, and he struggled the few times he faced better lefties this spring before a concussion and broken foot ruined his season. He’s one of the younger college players in the class, turning 21 this October, which the Guardians also favor.

Scouting report: Delauter had about as bad a spring as any of the players who came into 2022 as first-round candidates — he was dominated by the two left-handers in the Florida State rotation in a series that was very heavily attended by scouts, and just a few weeks later broke his foot, ending his season after 24 games. His gaudy stat line this spring was boosted by a comical 13-for-22 performance with five homers and 10 walks in midweek games against inferior opponents. Delauter opens his front side way too early as he tries to cheat to get to velocity, and thus becomes vulnerable to offspeed stuff moving away. Florida State’s lefties just attacked him with fastballs and he struck out six times in those two games, giving teams the book on how to approach him. There could be more here with a lot of swing and mechanical work, but scouts are concerned he just can’t get to velocity consistently without that early move. He’s played mostly center for the Dukes but will end up a corner in pro ball.

Guardians draft grade: Cleveland takes ‘best hitter in entire draft’
by Scott Rogust6 hours ago Follow @ScottRogust

The Cleveland Guardians selected who MLB Network called “the best hitter in the entire draft” with the 16th overall pick.

The 2022 MLB Draft began on July 17, the night before the Home Run Derby and two nights prior to the All-Star Game at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Calif. The class was headlined by Jackson Holliday and Druw Jones, the sons of former MLB stars Matt Holliday and Andruw Jones. Then, there was the shocking selection by the Texas Rangers, who took Kumar Rocker with the third-overall pick.

This year, the Cleveland Guardians held the No. 16 overall pick, and they used it on James Madison outfielder Chase DeLauter.


Guardians select Chase DeLauter with No. 16 pick in 2022 MLB Draft
When DeLauter’s name was announced, the MLB Network broadcast dubbed him “the best hitter in the entire draft,” and compared him to Houston Astros outfielder Kyle Tucker. That will certainly catch the attention of Guardians fans, especially since the team drafted him in the middle of the first-round.

What are the experts saying about DeLauter? Here is what MLB Pipeline said of the James Madison outfielder ahead of the 2022 MLB Draft:

“DeLauter could be a middle-of-the-order type of hitter. He’s put up gaudy numbers at JMU, beating up the pitching in the mid-major Colonial Athletic Conference. He has at least plus raw power and even though there’s a little drift to his lower half that causes him to be more of a front-foot hitter at times, he’s so big and strong he can still out-leverage pitching. Some might question the length in his swing path and some scouts point to being overmatched against Florida State to start the season as proof that it won’t work against better pitching, but he had no problem getting to his power with wood on the Cape, and the fact he has more walks than strikeouts in his career points to a solid approach.”

Keith Law of The Athletic had this to say about Cleveland’s selection of DeLauter:

“DeLauter had about as bad a spring as any of the players who came into 2022 as first-round candidates — he was dominated by the two left-handers in the Florida State rotation in a series that was very heavily attended by scouts, and just a few weeks later broke his foot, ending his season after 24 games. His gaudy stat line this spring was boosted by a comical 13-for-22 performance with five homers and 10 walks in midweek games against inferior opponents. DeLauter opens his front side way too early as he tries to cheat to get to velocity, and thus becomes vulnerable to offspeed stuff moving away. Florida State’s lefties just attacked him with fastballs and he struck out six times in those two games, giving teams the book on how to approach him.”

DeLauter put up strong numbers at the plate this past season with the Dukes, slashing .437/.576/.828 while recording eight home runs, 35 RBI, and 38 hits in just 24 games. He did miss time due to a broken foot.

In his three years at James Madison, DeLauter posted a .402 batting average, a 1.235 OPS, 15 home runs, 70 RBI, and 103 hits. He was walked 62 times and struck out 45 times.

When it comes to the Guardians, they are successful when it comes to evaluating talent. If DeLauter lives up to his reputation of having the best bat in the entire 2022 class, Cleveland will be ecstatic.

Chase DeLauter
Drafted 16th overall
OFCleveland Guardians R
July 17, 2022

The Guardians have selected DeLauter with the 16th overall pick in the 2022 first-year player draft.

ANALYSIS
DeLauter has been a well-known prospect in this class dating back to his exploits in the 2021 Cape Cod League, where he had a .986 OPS, nine home runs and more walks (21) than strikeouts (18) in 34 games. That data point is noteworthy not only because it was with a wood bat, but because he hasn't faced great competition in three years in the Colonial Athletic Association with James Madison.

At 6-foot-4, 235 pounds, he's already got an XXL frame, and his left-handed swing can get long, so the main concern is how he will handle the type of velocity he will be seeing regularly for the first time in pro ball. There is a chance he ends up as a strong-side platoon bat. DeLauter runs well for his size, but he will likely move from center field to right field, and it seems unlikely he will attempt many steals in his mid-20s.

He broke his left foot midway through his junior season, so it's unclear if he will be able to debut during this minor-league season.

1st round pick a college outfielder; they haven't tried that approach for awhile. Tall guy with all 5 tools and possibly a swing that's too big. Sounds too much like Brad Zimmer to inspire me with any confidence.

small market compensation round pick a tall college RHP with several good pitches including a great changeup, excellent control. Sounds familiar
2nd round pick shorter college LHP not the hardest thrower excellent command. Sounds familiar.

v\16. Guardians


Pick: Chase DeLauter
School: James Madison
Position: OF

Instant Analysis: There's a lot to like with DeLauter. He's physical and athletic, runs well for his size, has plus raw power and a keen eye for the strike zone. The knock on him is that the lofty numbers he has posted in college have come at James Madison, but he also dominated last summer in the Cape Cod League. I think it all translates in pro ball, with DeLauter a strong candidate to jump into the Top 100 Prospects list next year if he goes out and hits in the minors as expected.

Scouting Report: DeLauter exploded during the summer of 2021 in the Cape Cod League, when he hit .298/.397/.589 with nine home runs, 21 walks and 18 strikeouts with Orleans. That performance with a wood bat, combined with his gaudy numbers with James Madison and a loud set of physical tools, elevated him into the top tier of 2022 draft prospects, with some scouts citing him as the top player in the class.
DeLauter scuffled out of the gate initially in a tough matchup against Florida State, with a swing path that looked steeper and stiffer than it did over the summer. He quickly found his form and went on to hit .437/.576/.828 with eight home runs and more walks (28) than strikeouts (21) for the Dukes before a broken left foot ended his season after just 24 games.
DeLauter is a large and physical, 6-foot-4, 235-pound center fielder who looks like he should be in a corner outfield position, but he’s a surprisingly good runner for his size and has turned in double-plus run times in the 60-yard dash. That speed, plus solid instincts, have led some scouts to believe he can at least start his career in center field, and he has the plus arm strength to profile in right if he slows down or is forced off the position by a better defender. DeLauter’s statistical portfolio will be more heavily criticized as a small school hitter, but he has shown a precocious batting eye and rarely expands the zone with good contact as well.
DeLauter has plus raw power that translated to a wood bat in the Cape Cod League, and while he never hit double-digit home runs with James Madison, he also never played more than 26 games in a season and was well on his way in 2022 before getting injured. He hasn’t faced a large sample of elite velocity, which will be another question he’ll need to answer at the next level. DeLauter fits somewhere in the middle of the first round on talent.