News and Notes: Guardians Restock Their Pitching Trove on Draft Day Two

News and Notes for Tuesday, July 16th, 2024

The Guardians continued what seems to be regarded as a strong showing in the MLB draft on day two by selecting eight pitchers, three from high school and five from college.

The notable names from rounds 3-10 seemed to be Joey Oakie, a right-handed high school pitcher from Iowa selected with the 84th pick and Chase Mobley, a right-handed high school pitcher from Florida selected with pick 295. So far, the Guardians have drafted ten pitchers (two lefties and eight righties) and two hitters (not particularly abnormal for an organization which usually builds their hitting through international free agency and pitching through the amateur draft). No bonuses have been announced but if you peruse the Covering the Corner comment threads, you will note our resident draft expert, DelGua, speculating that the Guardians probably don’t have much or any bonus pool savings to this point, likely because of their decision to go a little more high-school heavy with pitchers (four prep arms so far). For whatever my view is worth, DelGua seems to be right on the money there (pun intended).

Let’s get to know the Guardians’ draftees from yesterday a little bit:

84. Joey Oakie, RHP, 6’3” 200 lbs, 18.2 years old, HS Iowa. MLB Pipleline blurb, Perfect Game blurb.

113. Rafe Schlesinger, LHP, 6’3” 200 lbs, 21.6 years old, University of Miami-Florida, MLB Pipeline blurb, Perfect Game blurb.

Schlesinger has overcome a challenge with a tic disorder and seems like a very easy kid to root for to become our next dominant lefty reliever.

146. Aidan Major, RHP, 5’11” 200 lbs, 21.2 years old, West Virginia University, MLB Pipeline blurb, Perfect Game blurb,

175. Caden Favors, LHP, 22.10, 6’3” 205 lbs, Wichita State, Perfect Game blurb.

205. Cameron Sullivan, RHP, 18.4 years old, 6’2” 200 lbs, HS Indiana, MLB Pipeline blurb, Perfect Game Blurb.

235. Donovan Zsak, LHP, 21 years old, 6’3” 185 lbs, Rutgers.

265. Sean Matson, RHP, 22.1 years old, 6’2” 220 lbs, Harvard.

295. Chase Mobley, RHP, 18.1 years old, 6’5” 205 lbs, HS Florida, MLB Pipeline blurb, Perfect game blurb.

Of the 21 picks the Guardians made in 2023, five were high school pitchers, of their 20 picks in 2022, six were high school pitchers, and in 2021, two of their 20 picks were high school pitchers. So, I don’t think the NUMBER of high school pitchers they’ve selected so far is out of the norm, but it does seem that selecting three of them in their top six picks is a perhaps a little bit of a departure from their normal approach. It shows a confidence in their ability to develop pitching throughout their minor league system.

I did see a couple analysts wondering if the Guardians can sign all the talent they got in this class, so, we’ll see if Antonetti and company can meet the challenge:

Meanwhile, Jose Ramirez participated in the home run derby and made it to the second round by pulling fly balls. I was proud of how he showed that you don’t need to hit the ball a country mile to be an effective home run hitter and not disappointed to see him be done after 33 homers total and looking exhausted.

The MLB All-Star game is tonight and Steven Kwan will bat leadoff for the American League while Jose bats sixth.

We’ll see when Josh Naylor, David Fry and Emmanuel Clase get in the game (I’m especially fine with Fry getting one AB late against a lefty given his elbow issues this season).

The last ten rounds of the MLB draft resume today at 2pm EST. You can follow on MLB.com.