Hope you enjoyed the adrenaline and drama of Round One of the 2021 MLB Draft. Mock drafts were obliterated across the nation as teams went rogue, took discounts, caught falling stars, and generally did the unpredictable.
Today, starting at 10AM Pacific time, Day Two commences with pick #37 and rolls along an a quick pace from Round Two through Round Ten, so there will be nine Angels selections to contemplate, beginning with their first at #45.
There are still six of my seven Round Two dream dates on the board. Take a look at this article (I know, I know, it’s long and full of sidetalk) if you want to consider a few names for Rds 2-10 that might pique your interest. My six surviving 2nd Round targets include, in rough order of preference:
Jaden Hill, Ky Bush, Andrew Abbott, Braden Montgomery, Dylan Smith, Robert Gasser
There are also 3 names that Baseball America and/or MLB Pipeline still consider first round talents who have not been called yet:
Will Taylor, Bubba Chandler, Anthony Solomento, Jaden Hill, Jud Fabian, Joshua Baez, Peyton Stovall, Ethan Wilson, Izaac Pacheco, Adrian del Castillo, Wes Kath, Lonnie White Jr, James Wood
That’s a lot of prep talent still undrafted, and it’s hard not to imagine the Angels scooping up Taylor or Chandler if they’re available at #45, as they’ve been connected to them both for months. I’d still love to see Jaden Hill make it to them, or one of the other names I highlight above, but we’ll see soon enough. Names come off the board at 10AM.
I know I sound like a broken record at times but with Minasian brought in KC’s college pitching draft guru guy I was stoked and hoped for a college pitching heavy draft.
Not pretending to know all about these 10 guys but I do know who was involved in the picks and that they fit obvious needs. To my semi-informed mind that makes a good draft.
But it also seems to be a theme across several systems, with the Dodgers going ten pitchers, Cleveland and San Francisco going nine of ten, the Mets going eight of ten. Eight from Detroit.
With the new three batter rule, you need pitchers to be effective for six outs at least every outing.
Pitching is more of a premium now.
It is easier to trade pitching for position players.
There will be many many position player not drafted available to pick up as FAs.
As free agents you will have a better idea of how the position players are possibly going to develop.
Limited slots in the new and WORSYIER minor leagues. With the free agents you can pick up a little extra and have them play for the limited openings.
I like the all pitching draft. Way more flexible this way.
Arte is always going have the need for big name bats, we can let him sign whomever he pleases.
If this plan works (we’ll see) Arte can sign his bi-yearly splash hitter and it’ll be OK. The real hope is that this will solve the fact that, even if Arte wants to spend on them, there just aren’t that many good pitchers on the market each year, much less ones who want to come here specifically. We just plain NEED a pitching pipeline. Places like Cleveland, Atlanta, Tampa, Minnesota, Milwaukee, KC, Detroit, St Louis all figured this out already. Here’s hoping we are doing it too.
But can we avoid those free agents with the forged birth certificates, crack addictions, steriod enhancements, scotch taped bodies or acquired loss of willingness to play anymore, please?
Thx.
I’m really okay to stop spending $240 million on aging vets whose best days were with other teams. This might be a good way to go.
10 college pitchers. Never seen it before, unlikely to see it again.
If you squint just so, it’s five starter candidates, and five clear backend bullpen types.
It definitely changes the system’s look (and outlook), and is a not-so-tacit admission that Eppler/Minasian overdid it on the pitching pipeline trades.
Better late than never for a correction.
And with pitching always in demand, we may be able to get some parts that we need with this draft.
That’s one of four reasons that the timing was right to do this this year.
One, the Angels have very few positional needs at the MLB level for a couple years. They could extend Iglesias at SS, and forego the expensive SS market next offseason. Their OF depth chart is significant – they don’t really have to buy much.
Two, they’re having success drafting decent Latin position players now. Several of the crop at the ACL look very interesting.
Three, they are also having success bringing in free agent minor leaguers in their mid-20s to build out the upper levels of the system. Guys like Stefanic and Izzy Wilson, who they didn’t draft.
Lastly, they’ve successfully flipped college pitching for MLB position players a lot in the past half-decade. Simmons, Upton, Iglesias, Bundy were all acquired this way. They’ve had less success timing trades and upgrading pitching from their positional prospect stock.
Great start to the draft. Perry is obviously not an idiot
That gives me solace. I’m also irrationally high on Bauchman and Bush. If they can both stick as SPs we really got something
Andrew Peters, South Carolina. So Rounds 1 through 10 – all pitchers
Doyers all pitchers through 10 as well
Interesting. Giants first 9 were pitchers.
Going to be interesting to see not just if we improve our pitching but how much our pitching improves relative to the rest of MLB.
Everyone needs pitchers that can get you at least six outs.
Cleveland: 9 of 10 were also pitchers.
That’s three good drafting systems there in CLE, LAD, SFG.
and now, ANA
can Jonathan Cannon be next? A college pitcher with a name like Cannon.
I actually wanted him…. but alas.
Has there ever been a more USC name than Chandler Champlain?
Straight out of Fitzgerald. Or Brett Easton Ellis, not sure.
Braden Olthoff was #6 in my KC and the Sunshine Band dream scenario!
C’mon – now the draft room is just reading my stuff. 🙂
Should we be concerned of potential pine tar usage lol
https://twitter.com/bmags94/status/1414694474064666624?s=19
I mean, he’s a crazy command specialist on the Michael McGreevy model. In fact MLB Pipeline had him with the second best command in the class last month.
Who knows what substances he uses to paint like that.
Great video. No idea if was using something but he definitely got in their heads.
Another Southern College pitcher….. I’m so happy it’s like I ate a bowl of sunshine.
Now they’re just making prospects up.
Cullen Kafka
Yeah, right, Colorado, like that’s a real person.
high swag name
poor kid, named after some bohemian breakfast cereal.
or some Lebanese beef dish as it turns out
If he were only Sullen Kafka, he’d be right on point. Teen years all sewed up.
Due to the pandemic, maybe some of theses pitchers we drafted would have been ranked higher had they played a normal season last year? So could be a decent strategy.
Holy Crap! A Southern College Pitcher!
Summarizing names and reactions here:
https://crashingthepearlygates.com/2021/07/12/day-two-results-rd-2-10-all-in-on-the-bullpen/
If nothing else this draft indicates a serious shift in direction for the Angels as a franchise. Perhaps it won’t last forever, but the dearth of arms situation needed to be addressed.
Definitely a course correction draft. It’s not unprecedented among other clubs, but pretty much so for the Angels.
I am loving this draft. All college pitchers all draft long. Finally! Keep ‘em coming.
Cleveland, Detroit, Angels…. who will draft moar pidchars!?!?
Off the subject of the draft, but did anyone else catch Stephen A. Smith’s rant about it “not being a good look” that Ohtani uses an interpreter?
What an idiot.
Let’s send Stephen A. to a network in Japan so he can see what it is like. He learns, we get rid of Screamin’ A. Win win.
Steven A Smith, and the kissing up to him that goes on there, was the thing that finished MSM for me.
Stephen A. Smith ?
I try very hard to avoid everything that guy says. He’s a pompous blowhard. On top of that he is an idiot and a corporate shill.
Does that answer your question?
Sometimes Steven A Smith needs an interpreter.
COLLEGE PITCHER!
From the SEC
gave up a lot of homeruns, 8 in 30 innings
But does he have swag?
what’s his comp in swag? we need to know
That’s a hard skill to teach. He’s ready.
He’s perfect for our bullpen, then.
Seventh heaven indeed.
another pitcher
Hey Turk’s (still with some) Teeth. Do you think there is a run on pitchers this year because on the pandemic impacted draft and collegiate system?
Umm. There’s that. There was a big backlog after 2020.
But I think this is clear win-now signal from the Angels. There are a lot of reasons why this makes sense for them, but it’s still a little astonishing.
Cheap ass Arte only hiring collegiate baseball scouts from the South. He probably made Perry personally scout the rest of the country
I’m 100% sure that’s what happened.
😂