2023 MLB Draft Thread

You're going to hear a lot about Waldrep's split (the ESPN guys on the draft show just spent the entire segment talking about it), and it's going to be tempting to look at that as draft hype, but guys, the splitter is every bit as good as the chatter. It's an elite, plus-plus pitch.
 
Houck has some swing and miss concerns and may out grown SS and have to be moved to 3b so that may be why he’s fallen some. He was thought to go around 10.
 
Waldrep sounds like a future reliever to me. I have to think the Braves scouting department thinks they can change a few things and he could take off. With the state of the Braves I cant be mad at drafting a college pitcher that could help the MLB team fairly quickly. I feel like the MLB team just needs back end starters and good cheap young relievers to fill out the MLB roster. We need to develop some cheap talent over the next few years to give payroll flexibility. So if Waldrep just develops into a good closer I would be more than happy with that.
 
Lombard before Houck must mean Houck has some signability issues.
 
cajunrevenge said:
Waldrep sounds like a future reliever to me. I have to think the Braves scouting department thinks they can change a few things and he could take off. With the state of the Braves I cant be mad at drafting a college pitcher that could help the MLB team fairly quickly. I feel like the MLB team just needs back end starters and good cheap young relievers to fill out the MLB roster. We need to develop some cheap talent over the next few years to give payroll flexibility. So if Waldrep just develops into a good closer I would be more than happy with that.
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I mean he has 3 potentially plus pitches. That doesn’t sound like a reliever to me.
 
One can never really know, but I wonder if Hauck's bonus ask is higher than what the Braves were comfortable meeting. We'll know more as the draft rolls on. I see Lombard, Jr., was just drafted and I think Hauck was higher on pretty much everyone's board (which sometimes doesn't mean a whole lot).
 
Guys, I know many of you will be shocked by this and it's completely off brand for me, but I LOVE this pick. It's exactly what I want in a first rounder. This guy has some risk to him but he has legit star upside. I feel like we got a guy who could have gone 10-15 picks earlier without raising any eyebrows.
 
From Twitter - 2023 Stuff+ on Waldrep’s pitches:

Fastball (94-97, T99) - 144 (44% above league average)
Splitter - 129 (63.4% whiff rate)
Slider - 130
Curveball - 135

I’ll say that the splitter being his lowest pitch on Stuff+ absolutely doesn’t match the eye test, but this just shows the full arsenal. There is so much to work with here.
 
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