Inbox: Whose Draft stock rose most after College WS?

To put it mildly, there’s a lot going on right now.

In just over a week, the MLB Pipeline crew will be headed to Seattle for the start of All-Star festivities. We get to kick things off early, on Friday, with the High School All-American Game. Saturday brings the High School Home Run Derby and, of course, the SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game. Then we have the start of the 2023 Draft on Sunday … all before most of the baseball world arrives in the Pacific Northwest.

The Futures Game rosters were just announced, we just expanded our Draft list to a Top 250 (and shook things up at the top) and we recently updated our Top 100 list. To paraphrase Crash Davis, we’re dealing with a lot of stuff.

And you asked about a lot of stuff this week, so let’s get right to it.

Which Draft prospects' stock has risen the most since the College World Series Tourney? -- @dchendrix

We answered this one on this week’s jam-packed MLB Pipeline Podcast, so be sure to check that out. The first guy that came to mind has to be Ty Floyd, who is now up to No. 58 on our Top 250, up from No. 87. The LSU right-hander tied a College World Series record by striking out 17 in the finals against Florida, putting an exclamation point on what had been an up-and-down season. You don’t want to put too much weight on one start, but that’s a pretty good last impression for a guy scouts already liked some as a potential No. 4 type starter.

If you expand beyond the time in Omaha to include regional and super regional play, Florida right-hander Hurston Waldrep comes to mind. He’s at No. 19 now, which doesn’t represent much movement on the rankings because stuff-wise, he’s long belonged in the first round. But inconsistencies in his performance, particularly command, held him back. While his final CWS start wasn’t great, Waldrep had a string of three starts – regional, super regional and his first College World Series start – where he went 21 innings and gave up just two runs on 15 hits and only seven walks while striking out 37.

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We also thought his teammate, shortstop Josh Rivera, helped himself. We moved him from No. 111 to No. 87 and he looks like one of the best seniors in the class, one who could go in the second round. He finished the year with an OPS over 1.000, 19 homers and 18 steals, all while showing he’s a very capable infield defender up the middle.

Outside of outfield, what is the most stacked position in this year's class? -- @Evanobrien5250

Let’s start with a straight numbers breakdown of the Top 250, shall we? Using the primary position listed for each player, that looks like this:

RHP: 90
OF: 41
SS: 37
LHP: 34
3B: 18
C: 17
1B: 10
2B: 3

Now that’s not exactly what you mean by “stacked,” right? Outfielders come to mind because four the top five on our Top 250 all play the outfield: Dylan Crews, Wyatt Langford, Walker Jenkins and Max Clark. And all are still in contention to go No. 1 overall.

If I were to pick one position after that, I’d have to go with shortstops, and not because they have the most representation. (We all know that several of these shortstops will end up at second or third in the future anyway.) There are six shortstops in our top 20 and 12 in our top 40. The high school crop is really interesting, with Arjun Nimmala and Colin Houck at the top, and the college group is led by Jacob Wilson but includes Matt Shaw, Tommy Troy and Jacob Gonzalez in the top 20.

Connor Phillips is leading MiLB in Ks this season and just earned a AAA promotion; could we see him in the top 100 on the next update? -- @Gadzooksssss

Man, Reds fans are getting greedy! Six players in the Top 100 now, two of them doing great things in the big leagues and one knocking on the door by dominating Triple-A. And that doesn’t even include the recently graduated Matt McLain.

But I get it. Phillips does indeed warrant a closer look. He’s currently No. 10 on the Reds’ Top 30 and pure stuff-wise, he has the chance to be a very good starting pitcher. He’s always missed a ton of bats, with a career 13.4 K/9 rate to date (up to 15.4/9 in 2023). But the command has been the one thing holding him back, with a career 5.0 BB/9 rate to show for it. That’s been one of the most encouraging things for the right-hander who came to the Reds via the Jesse Winker trade last year: He’s walked just 3.8/9.

The stuff has been good, with a fastball up to 97, averaging 95, that’s missed bats at a 37 percent rate. Both his slider and curve have been effective, though he could throw it in the zone more effectively. The only other thing of any concern is that he’s getting hit (8.1 per nine) and has given up a bunch of homers, but I’m willing to chalk that up to a small sample size. Let’s see what he does in Triple-A, but all signs are pointing in the right direction and I could see him being in the mix to be added in the future.

I noticed Carson Whisenhunt is now the #4 Giants prospect & all 3 above him are in the top 100. Is Whisenhunt close to joining the top 100 as well? -- @KyleWeatherly6

I wanted to end quickly with a gimme. Kyle sent this in before it happened, but Whisenhunt is now actually on the Top 100, going in when Eury Pérez officially graduated. So congrats, you nailed it!