The Angels skipped round 2 (pick #47) thanks to their signing of Anthony Rendon this past off season.
David Calabrese hails from St. Elizabeth Catholic High School in Ontario Canada and was ranked the 67th best prospect by Baseball America and the 97th best prospect according to MLB.com. Calabrese, who doesn’t turn 18 until September is a speedy undersized outfielder with a left handed bat.
Keith Law particularly favored Calabrese, and ranked him as a first round talent at #19 in his talent rankings:
Calabrese gets a lot of comparisons to a young Jacoby Ellsbury as a plus-plus runner who rivals Crow-Armstrong for the best defensive center fielder in the draft. He’s short to the ball with a good approach, staying back to make more contact at the cost of power, although his body points to double-digit homers down the road. Scouts did get to see him briefly against young pro pitchers this March before his team’s tour of Florida ended abruptly, so they have a sense of how he might handle velocity or better spin. He’s also one of the youngest players in the class, turning 18 in late September, which will appeal to teams like Cleveland, the Dodgers, or the Giants who all value player age very highly in the draft.
Pete Crow-Armstrong is a speed/defense-oriented hitter from Harvard-Westlake HS that the Angels were rumored to be targeting in the first-round, so Calabrese in some ways is an alternative within that profile. Eppler has not been shy about collecting athletic prep outfielders in previous drafts, so this pick continues that trend. Calabrese has plus-plus speed (80 grade by some estimates) and is an excellent fielder. For the seasoned fan, this may still be a bit of a curious add though, given these guys are a dime a dozen in an Angels farm system that has so many other notable holes (cough! cough! pitching and catching cough!).
Still, Calabrese, by all accounts, is a solid addition to the Angels farm, though currently an Arkansas commit. Given the lack of a second rounder though, one assumes the Angels exchanged numbers with the player family before pulling the trigger on this selection.
Speedster with a good work ethic. The athletic article was great too. Hope he signs
Kid has serious speed, plenty of upside. Not familiar with the pitchers available but I doubt many had Top 50 talent grades.
Calabrese?
Can this Salami pitch?
Well best available and stuff.
I’m all for picking the BPA so pretty happy with this pick from Eppler and Swanson. Even though our system is filled with athletic outfielders we can always flip them for some pitching or positions of need in the future.
Plus there’s no guarantee Knowles, Adams, or even Adell and Marsh will pan out as we hope. So better to pick the best player available and increase your odds of netting a solid player.
Or you could pick the best pitcher available and load up that way and hope they pan out. Especially since the just flip them for pitching, never seems to pan out because every team needs pitching.
Paris last year was really young too – that’s an interesting thing going on there with Swanson to pick guys just out of Little League
they must fancy themselves as projectability experts
A Canadian with the All-American pick. I like it.
No arms available? Just another outfielder to add to a mountain of them that we keep being told can be flipped for a top of the rotation arm. Except they never can be flipped for the pitcher this team always needs.
I think the depth we have there is appropriate when you really think about it 1 or 2 years out. Goodwin and Upton are on their way out in the near future which means Adell AND Marsh both have to pan out. If we’re lucky enough for that to happen, our depth behind them is not that great at all if Trout starts to show some injuries in his 30s. Especially with guys like Adams and Knowles losing a minor league season of development
I’m not gonna pretend to be an expert on any of the pitchers available at that point in the 3rd round but if Keith Law had a first round grade on this guy and BA had him ranked in the 60’s (vs. the 99 at MLB.com)…I cant argue the value
Law does have some eccentric takes though. He thought Jo Adell was a huge stretch and ranked him at #50 in his talent rankings initially.
But it’s good that he has clear champions. Baseball America also was keen on him, with Ben Badler selecting him #43 in their staff draft, and they rated him a top three guy in both speed and defense in the draft.
Piece on him by the Athletic. 80 grade speed!
https://theathletic.com/1859728/2020/06/11/speedy-david-calabrese-looks-to-continue-streak-of-canadian-draft-success/
Law had him at #19 (he’s only 17 y/o!?):
Jinx! Merged that quote into the post ten minutes back. 🙂 So much for WP version control.
Why take an athletic prepster in the second round when you can take an athletic prepster in the third round? *galaxy brain*
Pretty sure this is Billy’s pick in the 2nd if we had one. Only two HS OF’ers taken before Calabrese. Evan Carter not raked and Isaiah Greene rank 62.