The top 12 Draft prospects to watch in the Super Regionals
The NCAA regionals promised wall-to-wall baseball filled with eye-catching Draft prospect performances and they didn’t disappoint.
In the 100 college baseball games that took place from Friday to Sunday, a number of players on the Top 200 Draft list proved their mettle on big stages. The Draft’s top two prospects -- Oregon State’s Travis Bazzana and Georgia’s Charlie Condon -- both left the yard in their first game of postseason play. Bazzana added another jack in his second game for good measure.
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There was a cycle in the Fayetteville Regional courtesy of Kansas State’s Kaelen Culpepper, and perhaps the most notable regional performance of all was Dakota Jordan’s game against St. John’s. The No. 29 Draft prospect, whose Mississippi State squad has since been eliminated, followed up a walk-off homer on Friday night by swatting a big fly in a 5-for-5 game on Sunday. Jordan finished the weekend with three homers in four games.
Bazzana, Condon and Culpepper are among the 34 prospects on the Top 200 Draft Prospects list who will be advancing to Super Regionals. That group includes 24 of the top 100 prospects, eight of the top 20, five of the top 10 and each of the top three. The top pitching prospect in that group – not including Florida’s two-way star Jac Caglianone -- is No. 59 prospect Ryan Prager.
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On the latest Pipeline Podcast, Jim Callis and Sam Dykstra (filling in for Jonathan Mayo) dove into the weekend action and discussed the top 12 players advancing to the Super Regional stage.
Here’s their list:
1. Travis Bazzana, 2B, Oregon State (No. 1) -- Corvallis Regional MVP
Dykstra: "He went 4-for-11, homered twice, including the first two games against Tulane and UC Irvine. The Beavers won all three games they played, he was walked three times, twice intentionally, finishing with a .909 slugging percentage."
Callis: "A guy who you know can hit .300 with 25 home runs a year and [play] average second base."
2. Charlie Condon, OF/3B, Georgia (No. 2)
Callis: "He homered in his first at-bat of the regional against Army. ... I think he had a 42 degree launch angle, and it went out. There aren't too many balls with that kind of launch angle that go out and it went way out of the stadium.
"He kind of looked like Charlie Condon at the beginning of the tournament and then the other teams were like, 'Enough of this, we'll just walk you. We're not going to give you a chance to hit another home run.'"
3. Jac Caglianone, 1B/LHP, Florida (No. 3)
Dykstra: "Five of his six hits went for extra bases. He slugged .882, but had a .414 average. I mean, it was very much the 'guy makes a lot of contact' and makes a lot of hard contact at that.
"In his one start against Oklahoma State on June 1, he allowed four runs in five innings. All four runs came on homers, he did strike out eight. ... I'm sure a lot of teams were like, 'OK, listen, you're a hitter. We're gonna draft you at your best position, let you fly through the system in that way.'"
4. JJ Wetherholt, SS/2B, West Virginia (No. 7)
Callis: "I don't think that anybody's opinion of his tools or skills has fundamentally changed [because of his hamstring injury] ... in terms of the offense, he's hit when he's been in the lineup.
"I think the highlight actually for JJ Wetherholt was he made a great play in the hole to get to a ball and make a really strong throw. You're not going to judge a guy based on one play, but if that was the only time you ever saw JJ Wetherholt play shortstop, you'd be like, 'Oh, that guy's a no-doubt shortstop.' It was a pretty spectacular play."
5. Braden Montgomery, OF, Texas A&M (No. 8) -- Bryan-College Station MVP
Dykstra: "Pretty steady performance for Montgomery. Got hits in all three games, started 3-for-5 in that first game against Grambling. Just kind of took care of business.
"He was a steady performer on a team that had a relatively easy path to the super regionals and that's all you can ask for."
6. Cam Smith, 3B, Florida State (No. 14)
"He went 0-for-5 against Stetson, but he rallied, hit homers in each of the next two games, drew three walks, [went] 4-for-11."
7. James Tibbs, OF, Florida State (No. 16)
Callis: "James Tibbs is a guy who could sneak into the top 10, probably goes in the 11-20 range of the draft. He went 0-for-9. He did draw six walks, including four in their opening round win against Stetson, [he] scored three runs in that game."
8. Vance Honeycutt, OF, North Carolina (No. 20)
Dykstra: "You look at his first game against LSU, he went 2-for-4 with two homers and that's like, 'OK, that's coming up in a big spot against the defending national champs,' and then he finishes 3-for-17 with eight strikeouts.
"The potential is still there for Vance Honeycutt to impact any game that he plays, but it's going to be tough for the Tar Heels to advance if they're going to still get a lot of strikeouts from [him]."
9. Christian Moore, 2B, Tennessee (No. 25)
Callis: "Christian Moore started off the weekend with two big games. ... He continues to have helium. I think he's climbing into the teens somewhere, maybe as high as No. 12 to the Red Sox."
10. Billy Amick, 3B, Tennessee (No. 26)
Callis: "Billy Amick homered in each of the first two games, drove in seven runs between them. ... Amick's only two hits of the weekend were the two home runs."
11. Kaelen Culpepper, SS, Kansas State (No. 32) – Fayetteville Regional MVP
Dykstra: "He finished 7-for-12. Started out 4-for-5 hitting for the cycle against Louisiana Tech. I mean, that's a great way to get going.
"The more impressive performance for me, at least in terms of impact, was his game against Arkansas. Culpepper homered off Hagen Smith in that game. That's a big matchup, you're playing on the road."
12. Ryan Waldschmidt, OF, Kentucky (No. 39)
Callis: "He has some of the best underlying data in college baseball in terms of combining swing decisions, contact and hard-hit balls.
"He went 5-for-13, double, homer, walk, only struck out twice over the weekend."
Here's a look at the rest of the Top 200 Draft prospects participating in Super Regionals:
Griff O'Ferrall, SS, Virginia (No. 41)
Jacob Cozart, C, NC State (No. 42)
Ryan Prager, LHP, Texas A&M (No. 59)
Drew Beam, RHP, Tennessee (No. 63)
Blake Burke, 1B, Tennessee (No. 64)
Kavares Tears, OF, Tennessee (No. 65)
Tristan Smith, LHP, Clemson (No. 68)
Dylan Dreiling, OF, Tennessee (No. 72)
Ethan Anderson, C/1B, Virginia (No. 75)
Tyson Neighbors, RHP, Kansas State (No. 78)
Aiden May, RHP, Oregon State (No. 82)
Chris Cortez, RHP, Texas A&M (No. 100)
Harrison Didawick, OF, Virginia (No. 127)
Casey Saucke, OF, Virginia (No. 129)
Colby Shelton, SS, Florida (No. 135)
Jackson Wentworth, RHP, Kansas State (No. 163)
Corey Collins, 1B, Georgia (No. 171)
Casey Cook, OF, North Carolina (No. 172)
Travis Smith, RHP, Kentucky (No. 178)
Émilien Pitre, 2B, Kentucky (No. 185)
Bridger Holmes, RHP, Oregon State (No. 192)
Brandon Neely, RHP, Florida (No. 193)