Top of 2023 Draft a Year Later

[Trov]

Last year there was all the talk about the top 5 picks all being number 1 picks if they were alone in the draft.  For the most part people feel the draft broke down in the order expected.  I figured lets look at the top picks a year later and see how things shook out.  

Number 1 Pirates took Paul Skenes, the only pitcher in the top 5.  Pirates kept him in AAA to start season, but he quickly moved up and he has been all the Pirates could want.  Looks like they did not miss on this one.  

Number 2 National took Dylan Crews, the college teammate of Skenes.  Crews moved up to AA his draft year and struggled in in 20 games and National decided to start him back at AA.  He is doing better, but not tearing it up by any means 

Number 3 Detroit took the first high school bat in Max Clark.  He will be compared to what Walker Jenkins does being they were both the high school outfielders in the top 5.  So far, Clark has not impressed, but still plenty of time for a 19 year old to improve. His walk to strike out rate is very good and OBP, but his power is very limited so far.  Time will tell if he was a mistake or not. 

Number 4 Texas took Wyatt Langford, another college outfielder, so will be mostly compared to Crews.  He is at the major league level this year but far from being impressive.  He did great after being drafted but at MLB level this year his OPS is .565, and not sure if his defense has been good, but even platinum glove level will not make up for that poor of hitting. 

Number 5 the Twins took who was left, Walker Jenkins.  He tore up every level after the draft, but got injured after 1 game this year.  He has 9 games back and looking like he may hit the ground running again when done with his rehab.  Really, so far, of the 4 outfielders he looks like he might be the front runner for best in the draft, but still early for all. 

Then at number 6 is when people said the draft really started because no one knew who was next.  Oakland took college short stop Jacob Wilson.  He has been hitting like crazy.  Not a ton of power, but he is hitting ton of doubles and been getting on base at super high clip.  Again early, but if he can stay at SS he may be better than many of the highly touted outfielders taken.

It will be fun to track the four outfielder over the years because they were all expected to go 2 - 5 just in what order.  It will also be interesting to see how many outside the top 5 end up being better, because everyone was so sold on the 5.  

[Hawkeye Bean Counter]

Its amazing how a pick or two changed the draft.   There was talk Pirates wanted Clark on a discounted deal,  had that happened, wouldn't have been unreasonable if we got Skenes or Langford.  Texas at 4 was interesting because they were very high on Jenkins.  At this point there has been a clear top 3 so far,  Skenes, Langford and Jenkins.   Will be interesting to see how this progresses but this has still been an epic draft as a whole.