Ok, so we picked some guys yesterday. Let’s pick some more today.
It was actually a very interesting day for the Angels. First a local high school kid was picked, going very much against recent trends. Then there were high contact college kids surrounded by a college power bat who had cut his K rate in half from last year. All in all it showed a very new direction for the Angels.
Read those links as you wait for Angels picks. Hopefully you enjoy them.
I was able to join the Zoom chats with both Mcllvaine and Jared yesterday. Here are some takeaways:
You can tell Mcllvaine felt far more valued and was given far more input into this draft. He said Perry would come into scouting meetings with notes for the scouts. Mo just listened to the scouts.
Best player available regardless of development time was the directive from Mo, which was also a big change.
Contact rate is a big thing with Mcllvaine. When talking about power and speed he said “none of that other stuff matters if you can’t hit the ball.”
Jared was so excited to be drafted by the Angels he could barely hold it in. But he did a good job. Better than I could have done at 17, I think.
I did open a bit of a can of worms when I asked him about his college scholarship to play for Tennessee (where his brother plays) which then led to follow up questions about signability and whether the camps had spoken about that prior to the draft from other media folks. They have and he intends to be an Angel.
Enough for the behind the scenes stuff, but hope it adds to your morning.
All draft coverage is on MLB.TV and MLB Network today.
