1 hour ago, Y2Jimmy0 said:

I think that we start hearing Vahn Lackey more. From what I've heard, it's a potential discount option for the White Sox at 1.

Lackey is awesome. If I had the third pick, I'd be debating Lackey and Lombard pretty heavily. I'm just not a big fan of taking a catcher that high.

Scouts are all looking back wistfully at the potential both Lombard Sr. and then his brother with the Yankees have/had and wondering how that only ends up with just a 675-700 ops despite all the wonderful athletic tools.

To take him 1-1/2/3 would require incredible cojones because of the not insignificant bust potential there.

Same with that other kid who keeps getting picked 6-11 in mocks.

It's those kind of athletes who fall between the cracks you take your shots at with that massive pool money with the second and third rounders. High ceiling low floor preps...or even a Gasparino type.

But you absolutely can't mess up 1-1, because there won't be another shot for a long time in all likelihood.

Edited Saturday at 01:56 PM3 days by caulfield12

5 hours ago, Chicago White Sox said:

But what are his numbers against Big 10 starters on Friday nights!!

In all seriousness, the microanalysis is insane and oftentimes there is zero benchmarking done to put these random stats into perspective. Like of course a dude is going to perform worse against the best pitchers in college baseball and do better against the weaker ones. I also think there is an element of prospect fatigue at play here too. Reminds a bit of the Carlos Rodon draft where two teams got cute convinced themselves to go with HS pitchers instead of Carlos and almost immediately regretted it.

Drafting high school pitching early is just asking for disappointment (although I think the Astros knew what they were doing). But were these teams wrong in passing on Rodon? He didn't do much with the Sox until his last year; and that was after the Sox didn't pick up his option and signed him when anyone else in the league could have done the same.

As someone mentioned above, Roch has been excessively hyped. I had assumed he was a generational prospect. Don't want to overthink this, but his Cod stats, not returning to Cod, and lack of speed (athleticism? ) give me pause.
Roch and Vahn's stats are similar, but Vahn has a higher slug and more speed. And if he can play CF, that's even better.

3 minutes ago, GreenSox said:

Drafting high school pitching early is just asking for disappointment (although I think the Astros knew what they were doing). But were these teams wrong in passing on Rodon? He didn't do much with the Sox until his last year; and that was after the Sox didn't pick up his option and signed him when anyone else in the league could have done the same.

As someone mentioned above, Roch has been excessively hyped. I had assumed he was a generational prospect. Don't want to overthink this, but his Cod stats, not returning to Cod, and lack of speed (athleticism? ) give me pause.
Roch and Vahn's stats are similar, but Vahn has a higher slug and more speed. And if he can play CF, that's even better.

Rodon has put up 23 career fWAR whereas the Aiken & Kolek never made AA…not sure how that’s a serious question. Also, Rodon not doing much until his last year should at least be partly blamed on the Sox’s lacking PD program.

As for Lackey, I’m not sure his power is better than Roch’s…his SLG is simply better due to his batting average. What’s his experience playing CF? Seems like if you’re taking Lackey at 1.01, it’s because you believe he can be a plus defensive Catcher. I’m skeptical he’s an automatic plus CF due to athleticism.

8 minutes ago, Chicago White Sox said:

Rodon has put up 23 career fWAR whereas the Aiken & Kolek never made AA…not sure how that’s a serious question. Also, Rodon not doing much until his last year should at least be partly blamed on the Sox’s lacking PD program.

As for Lackey, I’m not sure his power is better than Roch’s…his SLG is simply better due to his batting average. What’s his experience playing CF? Seems like if you’re taking Lackey at 1.01, it’s because you believe he can be a plus defensive Catcher. I’m skeptical he’s an automatic plus CF due to athleticism.

Lackey has a higher ISO (369 vs 348) so it's not his average. 39 xbh vs 31.

Edited Saturday at 03:38 PM3 days by Look at Ray Ray Run

5 hours ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

Pal, where are you getting .5? It's like .2 at the most depending on what period youre looking at.... which has very little predictive value.

College K-rate on the other hand is between .51 and .59 over the last 25 years (using career rates vs avg college rates), so it's much more correlated than walk rate. I'd recheck your numbers as youre missing something somewhere.

I collected the data and calculated it. For players drafted from 2021-2024. Since you said you have something different, I collected back to 2013 draft year and it basically looks the same.

I threw in HBP rate since Cholowsky is of interest to all of us and he seems to get drilled a heck of a lot. And the minor league numbers are possibly helpful since you have more players to compare to.

I wonder whether we might be talking about the same thing with different metrics...if I square all these Rs, it's not qualitatively different than what you're saying. Just changes the interpretation of what constitutes a high number.

Edited Saturday at 04:38 PM3 days by Jake

1 hour ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

Lackey has a higher ISO (369 vs 348) so it's not his average. 39 xbh vs 31.

Their ISO’s are roughly the same (15 points different), whereas their SLG are 89 points different largely in part due to batting average was my point. I haven’t seen any scouting grades that suggest radically different power.

8 minutes ago, Jake said:

I collected the data and calculated it. For players drafted from 2021-2024. Since you said you have something different, I collected back to 2013 draft year and it basically looks the same.

I threw in HBP rate since Cholowsky is of interest to all of us and he seems to get drilled a heck of a lot. And the minor league numbers are possibly helpful since you have more players to compare to.

I wonder whether we might be talking about the same thing with different metrics...if I square all these Rs, it's not qualitatively different than what you're saying. Just changes the interpretation of what constitutes a high number.

On my tablet so I'm going to steal someone else's work and link it from rpubs.

https://api.rpubs.com/Carter42903/1356814

His results are actually slightly higher than mine at .21, but I don't restrict plate appearances to > 400. He's also using draft eligible season and I'm using a composite weighting the final year more than the prior and so on.

6 minutes ago, Chicago White Sox said:

Their ISO’s are roughly the same (15 points different), whereas their SLG are 89 points different largely in part due to batting average was my point. I haven’t seen any scouting grades that suggest radically different power.

I think roch has better in game power today, for what it's worth, but lackey has been a xbh machine.

1 hour ago, Chicago White Sox said:

Rodon has put up 23 career fWAR whereas the Aiken & Kolek never made AA…not sure how that’s a serious question. Also, Rodon not doing much until his last year should at least be partly blamed on the Sox’s lacking PD program.

As for Lackey, I’m not sure his power is better than Roch’s…his SLG is simply better due to his batting average. What’s his experience playing CF? Seems like if you’re taking Lackey at 1.01, it’s because you believe he can be a plus defensive Catcher. I’m skeptical he’s an automatic plus CF due to athleticism.

You wouldn't put him in CF, but you'd think about moving Teel...eventually....via trade or position change.

It all depends on the physical toll that catching is taking.

Not sure it really matters all that much if you lived with Braden in CF and Lackey in RF if the exertion physically and mentally from catching was taking too much away from his offensive game.

20 minutes ago, caulfield12 said:

You wouldn't put him in CF, but you'd think about moving Teel...eventually....via trade or position change.

It all depends on the physical toll that catching is taking.

Not sure it really matters all that much if you lived with Braden in CF and Lackey in RF if the exertion physically and mentally from catching was taking too much away from his offensive game.

The benefit of having positional flexibility from a catcher is that catcher is really hard, and also very hard to project from amateur baseball to pro-baseball. Pitcher handling is an art, not a science. Knowing that he still has a strong defensive ceiling to fall back on at another premium position helps limit the risk.

I am on board with Lackey if they decided to pivot.

And I should say I’m fine with Cholosky too. But those are the 2 I would choose from. Lackey has some serious swag to him. I think I would have him play CF though if I drafted him.

https://www.facebook.com/BaseballAmericaMag/posts/one-scouting-director-told-us-that-vahn-lackey-would-be-a-compelling-prospect-ev/1510589030431082/

5’6” 156 coming out of high school? That can’t be right

6.3 60 yard dash time for SD

Most elite arm/pop speed…among all catchers

0-4 again for Roch. I really hate his swing mechanics.

I'm still team Emerson. Have been for months, but I would also pick Lackey over Roch.

Lackey at like 9.5 to 9.75 million would be very fun for further picks.

3 minutes ago, DirtySox said:

Lackey at like 9.5 to 9.75 million would be very fun for further picks.

I’m just a strong believer in going after guys who continue to progress. If Roch improved on his numbers from last year, it would have been an easy decision.

20 minutes ago, DirtySox said:

Lackey at like 9.5 to 9.75 million would be very fun for further picks.

I don’t think he’s a Wasserman guy either, so you might actually be able to do it.

0-5, but bailed out by Naylor Jr

LinkedIn

Player Spotlight: Projected No. 3 overall MLB Draft pick...

Player Spotlight: Projected No. 3 overall MLB Draft pick and Georgia Tech catcher Vahn Lackey teams up with CVS Pharmacy in a new NIL campaign powered by Postgame, LLC - Read more... https://lnkd.in/e

Edited Saturday at 11:01 PM3 days by caulfield12

Go to collegebaseball

r/collegebaseball2mo ago

a-helluva-engineer

[Discussion] Vaughn Lackey of Georgia Tech has played every position but pitcher today

Thought I'd share as Rammer said this would happen tongue in cheek earlier this year. Didn't know he actually meant it.

Lackey is incredibly versatile, not sure if I feel like we are douchebags for it though.

Old post...btw, happened against Geo State.

1 hour ago, caulfield12 said:

https://www.facebook.com/BaseballAmericaMag/posts/one-scouting-director-told-us-that-vahn-lackey-would-be-a-compelling-prospect-ev/1510589030431082/

5’6” 156 coming out of high school? That can’t be right

6.3 60 yard dash time for SD

Most elite arm/pop speed…among all catchers

Yes, a small pudgy kid at that. His growth has been incredible. Seems like there's a lot more to tap into too

47 minutes ago, fathom said:

I’m just a strong believer in going after guys who continue to progress. If Roch improved on his numbers from last year, it would have been an easy decision.

Stalling is the scariest thing an amateur prospect can do in my opinion.

• GA Tech’s offense is currently on pace to set program records in batting average (.358 – record is .347), on-base percentage (.469 – record is .434), slugging percentage (.636 – record is .575) and runs-per-game (10.8 – record is 10.3).

• Tech drove in five two-out runs today, giving them 224 two-out RBI this season, 40.4% of all RBI for the year. Two of the two-run home runs were hit with two outs.

• Tech has now won each of its last 12 games against ACC opponents and the last seven by a combined score of 94-19.

• https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10164114541052200&id=726747199

Edited Sunday at 12:39 AM3 days by caulfield12