2024 MLB Draft

I thought that too but I just read what I posted on Smith. Could’ve been a razorback’s sportswriter’s slant……or perhaps the most by the White Sox.

 

Yep googled it - most by a White Sox.

 

Remember Chase Centala, frehman pitcher for the Gators in 2021, then transferred to UCF? He was drafted by the Marlins in the 20th round and signed for $50,000.

 

That's a lotta $$$Cent-ala$$$.

 

Legend has it that when the 1919 White Sox won the AL pennant Charlie Comiskey served his team flat champagne in the locker room.

Also that same years Comiskey "rested" Eddie "Knuckles" Cicotte for two weeks before the World Series so that he couldn't win his 30th game and get a contractual bonus.

An historically cheap organization.

 

Pretty sure it was a record for a left-handed pitcher in the draft

 

Bill Veeck!!!

 

Kellon Lindsey signs with LAD: Lindsey is signing with the Dodgers for an underslot deal of $3.3 million, compared to the $3,676,400 value of the No. 23 pick:

 

Cags signs with Royals for 7.5 mil (just over slot).

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Not done yet, Gator Nation <a href="x.com">pic.twitter.com/hYbG17HSZY</a></p>&mdash; Colby Shelton (@ColbyShelton9) <a href="">July 29, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

I'm glad Shelton is staying, but announcing your intentions to stay with a song whose very first lyrics are "If I could escape/I would" is an odd choice.

 

I was a bit skeptical of the hype last fall and wish he had performed well enough this season to be a high pick. That said, I see him as the most likely to have a breakout season if he puts in the sort of work some other guys have- ranging from Wyatt and Jac to Evans and others- who have made big improvements year to year.

 

Agree. Also, if Heyman and Kurland can rebound from their sophomore slumps (Kurland's partially caused by the hand issue) that would help improve offensive production as well. The whole team has to work on cutting way down on strikeouts.

 

If I tracked this right, the only guy we're left to sweat over is Brendan Lawson, the infielder who's one of our better signees and was drafted in the 19th round by the Cardinals. Lawson has said he's coming to UF, but that was before being drafted. If this Cardinals fan site is correct, they've signed every draft pick except Lawson, and they're already well over their bonus pool, which would be very good for us.

 

Shelton would have been a top-5 round pick had he not put out a higher bonus number than pro teams were willing to give. Washington took a flyer on Shelton in the 20th round hoping that they might have some excess pool money but after signing both of their two high school draftees for well above slot, there was not enough left to meet Shelton’s demands.

 

If they will just work on hitting it where it’s pitched we will cut our strikeouts in half I truly believe.

 

And willing to take a walk.

Many of these kids were the stud hitter on their HS team and transitioning to hitting the other way for a base hit or hitting behind a runner is a new way of hitting to them. Not what they did in HS.

 

SEC Leaders
Strikeouts
1. Gavin Grahovac-AM 95
2. Tyler Shelnut-UF 88
3. Dakota Jordan-MS 84
4. Colby Shelton-UF 82
5. Jace Laviolette-AM 81
6. Alan Espinal-VU 79
7. Jared Jones-LS 76
8. Hunter Hines-MS 74
8. Brody Donay-UF 74
8. Kavares Tears-UT 74
8. Luke Heyman-UF 74
12. Ethan Petry-SC 73
12. Cade Kurland-UF 73
14. Drew Culbertson-MO 68
15. 2 tied at............ 67

Ty Evans had 58 SO in 193 at bats and Ashton Wilson had 24 SO in 68 at bats. That's a lot of K's from our best hitters. For comparison Jac had 26 SO in 248 at bats.

 

So I’ll ask again—(and I know the answer is Cags was more disciplined and worked harder to improve his approach) if the coaches could motivate Cags to the level of approach that they did, why not coach our other hitters up with the same methods and mentality?

I saw way too much “damn, I missed my pitch” that one pitch per at bat or just total non-pitch recognition swinging wildly at three pitches out of the zone.

 

Last season Cags struck out 58 times and walked 17 times, this season, was 26 SO and 58 BB. I thought he would come out swinging for the fences this season, but he clearly had a better approach and wasn't trying to hit home runs. The home runs will come, we need to have more baserunners and put more pressure on the other team's pitching.

If nothing else at the very least you have to change your two strike approach. We have too many good players to be 12th in the league in hitting and 11th in on base percentage.

Tony Vitello said something very interesting during the draft when Jac's number was called. He said last season they didn't have to throw Jac strikes, but this season they did. Meaning he used to chase balls out of the strike zone.

We need to have better plate discipline. Shortening up with 2 strikes should be a no brainer or you are sitting on the bench.