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DirtySox

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    2024 - MLB Draft Thread

    in FutureSox Board

    Posted · Edited by DirtySox

    Law really likes Condon. I actually had no idea he had been playing CF this year. Though it sounds like corner OF or 3B will be his home eventually.

    https://theathletic.com/5382181/2024/04/01/charlie-condon-2024-mlb-draft-scouting/

    Quote

    I had Charlie Condon as the No. 1 prospect for this year’s MLB Draft in my rankings last month. I’m starting to think that was too low.

    Condon went off in the two games I caught at Tennessee this weekend, going 6-for-10 with two doubles, two homers, a walk, and a strikeout, while playing perfectly competent defense in center field. He did go 0-for-4 on Sunday in the rubber match, with two strikeouts, but that doesn’t count because I had already gone home. (I had eggs to hide.)

    Condon may be the only college player in this draft who offers the combination of production and athleticism that teams selecting at the very top typically look for. In the last 20 drafts, 10 college players have gone first overall, and first baseman Spencer Torkelson is the only clear exception to that production/athleticism combo — that was the 2020 draft, which we can all agree now was cursed. The last three college hitters to go first overall were two catchers and a shortstop. Last year’s top pick, LSU pitcher Paul Skenes, was athletic enough to be a two-way player at Air Force before transferring.

    This year’s draft may not see a college shortstop, catcher, or — depending on how you view Condon — center fielder taken in the top-10 picks. Two second basemen, Travis Bazzana and JJ Wetherholt (who has been “day to day” for a month now, an ontological impossibility), are it for up-the-middle players right now. While Condon is more likely to start his major-league career in a corner — either third base or right field — than in center, the fact that he’s even in center right now, and playing it capably, is another reason beyond his performance to consider him at 1-1.

    Condon could do almost no wrong against the Volunteers, even launching a laser off the batter’s eye in his last at-bat in Saturday’s slugfest, bringing the Dawgs to within five at 16-11 in a game that was otherwise over. He’s changed his hand position from last summer, starting them a little bit higher, and it’s loosened him up entirely at the plate. Condon has explosive bat speed and the loft in his finish to hit hard line drives all over the field, like the one he hit in the ninth on Saturday, which was a more impressive homer than the hard-hit popup that went out earlier in the same game. (You don’t get extra points if your homers are impressive, but the first one was a little wind-aided, and a little Lindsey Field-aided.)

    He’s also shown outstanding plate discipline across the board this year, with a low chase rate and strong contact rates on all pitch types. He’s whiffed on fastballs less than 10 percent of the time he’s swung this spring, and his overall whiff rate sat at 13 percent after Friday’s game, according to data from Synergy Sports. He homered off 95 and 98 mph on Saturday, and one of his doubles was off a slider from a lefty. Condon ran a tick above average out of the box, probably a solid 50 runner overall but able to post 55 times now and then, and he was fine in center.

    He’s got power, he’s got feel to hit, he’s got plate discipline. He hits the ball plenty hard, with his two homers leaving the bat at 108 and 111 mph. He runs well enough to expect no worse than above-average defense in an outfield corner, and he should at least start his career at either center field or, depending on who you ask, maybe third base, which I didn’t get to see in person. None of this makes Condon a lock to go first overall, but I think he’s going to be at the top of a lot of teams’ boards.

     

    3/31 GT - Sox vs. Tigers (1:10pm)

    in 2024 Season in Review

    Posted · Edited by DirtySox

    2 minutes ago, baseball_gal_aly said:

    How much longer before we b**** about trading Mena for the bum Fletcher 

    I mean, lot of us folks thought it was a questionable trade from the start. Especially those of us who have actually watched Mena pitch. That being said it's been 3 freaking games. Let it breathe.

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