The MLB draft has been going on since Monday night when the first round, Compensation Round A, and Competitive Balance Round A all happened in primetime on MLB Network. I brought you pick-by-pick analysis of the draft and that can still be seen here if you want to see who the top-43 picks were. However even though the first round is over there are still plenty of interesting names that went in rounds 2-10 on Tuesday, though I’ll only talk about rounds 2-5 because after that, the odds of making it to the bigs drops off dramatically.
Round 2
With the third pick in the second round (pick 46 overall) the White Sox took Steel Walker, an outfielder from the University of Oklahoma. Aside from having one of the coolest names in the draft, Walker is one of the best pure hitters amongst the college ranks this year and has already shown proficiency with a wood bat as he led the Northwoods League with a .406 average in the summer of 2016. Walker has a line drive stroke that produces at least average power to this point but also sprays the ball to all fields nicely and keeps him from getting pull happy. A top of the order type hitter, he isn’t afraid to draw a walk or do what he needs to do to get on base, the hit tool will have to carry him while he moves from right field to left in all likelihood. The arm is just too fringy to stay in right full-time but overall he is a very nice addition to the White Sox farm system after being taken in the second round.
A few picks after Walker went, Oakland snagged their second athletic college outfielder at pick 50 overall with the selection of Jameson Hannah out of Dallas Baptist. Not only does Hannah possess a quick, smooth, left-handed stroke that barrels up balls regularly and provides mainly gap-to-gap doubles power, but should improve to bring potentially 20 homer pop too, but he also made history as the first ever position player taken sooner than round four from Dallas Baptist. The key tool he owns is his blazing speed that allowed him to steal 28 bags in 30 attempts in his 173 games in the Missouri Valley Conference. At age 18 and 19 he played in the Cape Cod League, the premier summer college league, and hit over .300 combined including a 20-game hit streak to end his most recent summer league season. There is enough in the toolbox to keep him in center, even with his below-average arm, but a move to left as a Brett Gardner type could also happen down the road.
Just after the second round ended, the first pick of the Competitive Balance Round B, number 69 overall, Miami took their second catcher of the draft in selecting Will Banfield out of Brookwood High School in Georgia. Banfield is the best defensive catcher in the draft this year. His defense could be his calling card throughout pro ball until the bat catches up, as it’s not unusual to have a catcher’s bat be behind early. The framing and receiving skills he has are already pro-ready and the 1.7-1.8 second release and accuracy cut down a lot of would-be base stealers. Banfield has above-average raw power from his build but he has had trouble barreling up pitches on the All-Star circuit and in the high school season. He is the second-best catcher in the draft but he could be hard to sign with a commitment to Vanderbilt in tow and not going as highly as some thought he might, given that he was ranked the 34th best prospect coming into the draft.
Immediately following Miami’s selection of Banfield, Oakland was on the clock once more and used the 70th overall pick on a college infielder by the name of Jeremy Eierman out of Missouri State University. The 2017 season was a good one for the Bears’ shortstop as he showed 20-homer, 15-steal production and was one of just two to do it that year. However, in 2018 he changed his approach and the power numbers dropped by more than half (23 to 10), as did the buzz around him. The bat tool grades at a 45-level right now mainly due to his .185/.258/.277 slash line in two years on the Cape and just a .247 BABIP. The power is graded at a 55 right now with 42 homers in 175 college games being the main showing of that. His arm is the best tool in his possession at 65-grade and may forecast a move to third base with how his total package is taken into consideration.
Round 3
The Tigers started off the third round with a selection of a kid with a familiar last name. Kody Clemens is the youngest son of Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens and he his perhaps the best pro prospect of the bunch. His career at Texas was hampered by Tommy John surgery that caused him to spend the 2016 season at DH. The 2018 season was his breakout campaign and garnered him the Big 12 Conference Player of the Year honors after leading the league with 21 homers from second base. The approach is solid when he’s healthy with a .344/.432/.700 slash line showing what he can do in his senior season in 59 games. Clemens has enough range and arm to stick at second base and profiles as a .260-.270 hitter with 20-homer pop, based off his one big year of production at Texas. And that is the issue for Clemens, the projections are on one year and not the entire college career like other “safer” players. Either way the Tigers have a potential Didi Gregorius type middle infielder on their hands.
In the middle of the third, Toronto took the high school teammate of their first round pick, Jordan Groshans, in right-handed pitcher Adam Kloffenstein. Kloffenstein was thought to be a second-round caliber arm heading into the draft but slipped a bit and may be tough to sign here as he does have a commitment to TCU in hand. If Toronto can indeed sign him they are getting a 6’5” 200 lb. competitor on the mound who uses his three-pitch mix, though that’s deceiving, to keep hitters off-balance well and change speeds. His main pitch is his low-90s heavy sinking two-seamer that stays down, but he does have a four-seamer that will touch 96 while also shaping his tight slider into a curveball or cutter at times and mixing in a changeup with tumble. The consistency on those pitches isn’t there yet, but that’s to be expected with a prep arm. He does repeat the easy delivery well and can still add a bit of bulk to his frame which gives him the upside of a number 2-3 starter in a rotation when all is said and done.
Near the end of the third, Boston added a right-handed pitcher from Texas Christian (TCU) with the 100th overall pick. Durbin Feltman was strictly a reliever/closer in college but features some of the nastiest top-two pitches in the draft. In 2017 he had 17 saves, second in NCAA Division I and a school record to boot. He then used his 95-97 mph running fastball, that touches 99, and his power slider, that grades at a 70 just like the fastball, to start 2018 with 13 straight scoreless outings. Feltman also has a changeup on occasion but it’s clearly behind the other two plus-plus offerings. That combined with his 5’11” 190 lb. frame and the effort in his delivery make him strictly a reliever and possible closer in the pro ranks. Feltman’s polish, performance, and developed stuff could have him being the first arm to the majors this year with Boston looking like a contender in the American League.
Round 4
Seven picks into the fourth round, Atlanta added to their huge stable of young arms with the selection of Stanford RHP Tristan Beck at 112th overall. Beck threw two seasons in college as a stress fracture kept him off the mound all season in 2017. When he is on the mound however he is a complete pitcher, though lanky, with three good pitches to work from. A fastball that sits 91-92 with excellent command and a great changeup that may be his best pitch in the arsenal. A curveball adds to the repertoire but it can float at times and make it hittable. Two seasons at the top of the Stanford rotation, one of the best D-I teams in the country, is nice experience but still it’s a smallish sample size compared to others in the draft class. A combined 2.74 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, 14-9 record, and a 7.62 K/9 rate is what he posted in the 28 starts he had. The college résumé isn’t a lot to go off of but it may just be enough like it was for Cal Quantrill, a teammate of his who went 8th overall last year.
Round 5
At this point in the draft, teams are mostly grabbing projects they hope will work out or capitalizing on the college bats remaining to add depth to their system. The latter is what the Yankees did with their selection at 157th overall by taking Brandon Lockridge, a centerfielder out of Troy University in Alabama. He went undrafted out of high school, the 6’1” 185 lb. speedster worked on his game in college until he maxed out as a .305/.385/.440 hitter who stole 36 bags in 41 attempts in his final two seasons. There is relatively little pop in his bat with just 10 total homers in his three-year career at Troy but the contact is a bit above-average and that’s workable in center. He’s previously a second baseman and he may in fact move back into the infield if his fringe arm can’t keep him in center long-term. Having traded away Dustin Fowler and Jorge Mateo last year, the Yankees needed some more speed in their system and that’s what Lockridge brings.