Colorado Rockies news and links for Thursday, April 25, 2024
The 2023 MLB draft is already shaping up to be a historic class. Top overall selection Paul Skenes is wrecking the Triple-A ranks for the Pittsburgh Pirates to start his professional career and fourth selection Wyatt Langford cracked the Opening Day roster of the defending champion Texas Rangers after just 200 minor league plate appearances. There are multiple players from the class residing in the top-25 prospects on most lists and the Colorado Rockies initially appear to have fared quite well with RHP Chase Dollander, who holds a 2.93 ERA with 27 strikeouts over 15 ⅓ innings in his first three professional starts.
It was a loaded draft class in-part because of the pandemic season directing many high school players towards the college route due to the shortened five round draft in 2020. That led to numerous players being available that would have been worthy of the top pick in other classes. The 2024 class doesn’t stand out in that way so far and no player has emerged as being a consensus top pick – but that doesn’t mean there isn’t high-level talent available.
Holding the third pick, Colorado is in a tremendous position to claim one of these prizes. However, one of the class’ top talents that could be on the board offers a unique developmental challenge – Jac Caglianone.
Jac Caglianone hit this baseball 516 feet pic.twitter.com/iXMf7I0v9k
— Stephen Schoch (@bigdonkey47) April 17, 2024
On the surface, it’s easy to see why the University of Florida product is worthy of top-three consideration. After a 33 home run campaign in 2023, the left-handed Caglianone has already erupted for 25 in just 40 games so far in 2024. He has grabbed headlines recently with his nine-game HR streak and just bopped his third multi-homer performance one game after that streak ended.
Oozing with elite in-game power, the first baseman holds a 1.160 career OPS against NCAA Division-1 competition, plays highly-graded defense and has flipped the narrative on his swing-and-miss issues from last season. Holding a BB-to-K of 24/14 in 2024 compared to 17/58 in 2023.
This is all before you get to Caglianone’s other keystone skill set – his pitching.
Headlined by a sling-shot upper-90s fastball from a broad 6’5” frame, Caglianone’s four pitch mix scores highly on scouting reports and has produced 141 strikeouts in 119 D-1 innings. There are genuine concerns about his control – 87 walks in those 119 IP – but he has proven to be hard to hit when he’s in the zone (6.5 H/9) and even harder to take deep (0.8 HR/9).
2. Jac Caglinone – 1B/LHP (Florida)
The two way star is known more for his bat than his arm, but he’s no one to sleep on when on the mound. Like Brecht, his heater has the ability to reach 100. The rest of his arsenal consists of a cutter, slider, and change. pic.twitter.com/t0dyNEg6j0
— Playing Catch Podcast (@playingcatchpod) March 1, 2024
The trademark ability is clearly the bat, but there is more than enough there on the mound to justify a genuine two-way profile for the large lefty. The name that easily comes to mind when considering this profile is the best player in the world Shohei Ohtani, a lofty comparison that any prospect would be lucky to even come close to.
However, the track record for two-way players through the draft is limited and not entirely inspiring. There were eight two-way players taken in the 2023 draft, headlined by 6’7” high schooler Bryce Eldridge (16th overall by the San Francisco Giants).
The Giants have already seemingly moved Eldrige to a full-time position player, though. The conversion to one side or the other of the profile full-time is extremely common for prospects of this pedigree with relatively recent high-picks Hunter Greene of the Cincinnati Reds (second overall 2017) and Tampa Bay’s Brendan McKay (fourth in 2017) moving to the mound full-time quickly after joining the professional ranks.
In hindsight, the success of these prospects has been limited and generally reserved to one side of their profile, making this an especially risky demographic. However, the game is changing and the high-reward that comes with an impact player on both sides of the ball is being sought out by organizations around the league since the Ohtani revolution.
But are the Rockies one of them?
There’s no indication that the team has dipped their toes in that water. Colorado has never selected a player with the intention of utilizing them as a two-way player and the closest the team has gotten to the profile was employing Brooks Kieschnick for a season before he grandfathered the profile for the modern generation for two years with the Milwaukee Brewers in 2003-2004. That and the time Brent Mayne became the first position player to record a win on the mound since the Lyndon B. Johnson administration.
So for a team that has virtually no history of dabbling in the profile and is generally behind the times of modern front office values, it’s questionable at best that Colorado is eager to give it a shot. After all, this is a team that already seems allergic to drafting high school pitchers.
But Caglianone’s ability and production may just be too great to pass up if he is available when the Rockies are on the clock. If the Rockies brass is willing to take on the challenge, he would make for a very interesting – and possibly franchise altering – addition to the organization.
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Rockies’ Michael Toglia, in deep slump, demoted to Triple-A | The Denver Post ($)
Patrick Saunders covers the recent transactions of Michael Toglia and Hunter Goodman riding the I-25 exchange between Denver and Triple-A Albuquerque. Saunders also provides an update on Kris Bryant, who is still not cleared for baseball activities.
New Draft Top 150 list: BIG changes at the top | mlb.com
Jim Callis of MLB Pipeline forewords an updated top 150 prospect list. Coincidentally, Caglianone is ranked third behind Charlie Condon of Georgia and Oregon State’s Travis Bazzana.
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On the farm
Triple-A: Oklahoma City Baseball Club 11, Albuquerque Isotopes 9
The tough times for the Isotopes’ rotation continued as starter Thomas Poticelli surrendered six runs on seven hits — three leaving the park — in 2 2⁄3 IP. Riley Pint recorded a strike out for all six outs he recorded in two innings, however he also issued three walks along the way. Jordan Beck went 3-for-5 at the plate with four RBI.
Double-A: Portland Sea Dogs 7, Hartford Yard Goats 4
Connor Van Scoyoc labored through four innings, surrendering two home runs and eight hits overall on the way to six Sea Dogs’ runs in four innings. Evan Shawver, Juan Mejia and Seth Halverson picked up the slack in the bullpen, though, combining to allow one run on four hits in five innings. Hartford scored all of their runs in the third inning, highlighted by a three-run dinger from Yanquiel Fernandez (2).
High-A: Spokane Indians 5, Vancouver Canadians 4
Kyle Karros, Robby Martin Jr. and Braiden Ward each collected two hits in a Spokane victory while Cole Carrigg swiped his tenth bag of the season. Blake Adams was superb on the mound, allowing one unearned run on just two hits over six innings pitched.
Low-A: Fresno Grizzlies 5, San Jose Giants 0
The Grizzlies blanked San Jose for the second night in a row behind 5 2⁄3 IP from Bryan Perez, who struck out six. Colin Baumgartner and Bryson Hammer combined for 3 1⁄3 hittless innings to seal the victory. Andy Perez was the big stick at the plate, collecting three hits — including a triple — and two runs scored.
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