Innehållsförteckning för October 2023 från Baseball America

THE JACKSON FOUR HOLLIDAY’S RAPID RISE IN 2023 The draft is not a crapshoot. It’s not a random dice roll that determines success or failure. Teams devote thousands of hours from dozens of people to get draft decisions right. But there is always luck involved. Sometimes a team picks at the top of a draft with a franchise player available. Other times, no such player is available. Sometimes, teams get it wrong. Ken Griffey Jr., Chipper Jones, Joe Mauer and Bryce Harper proved to be the type of No. 1 picks that playoff teams are built around. Other times, Matt Bush, Tim Beckham or Luke Hochevar are drafted first overall. Just 16 months after being drafted first overall in 2022, Jackson Holliday looks like he belongs with the former group.…

Considering Orioles shortstop Jackson Holliday’s performance, rapid advancement and overall pedigree, it may appear that picking this year’s Minor League Player of the Year was an easy decision. Rays third baseman Junior Caminero made sure it was a close call. With just a month of full-season baseball under his belt coming into 2023, Caminero emerged as one of the top prospects in baseball thanks to his prodigious power, which he displayed with a rare 30-homer season by a minor league hitter in his age-19 season or younger. See the chart below. As with many Rays prospects, Caminero was originally signed by another organization. The Guardians, in this case. The Rays knew they had a potential future 30-homer slugger when they acquired Caminero after the 2021 season in a trade that…

After his first taste of the majors in 2022, Diamondbacks outfielder Corbin Carroll entered the offseason on a mission. Called up for a 32-game audition at the end of that season, Carroll had certainly justified the hype. He batted .260 with an .830 OPS. His sprint speed had immediately placed him in the 100th percentile of big leaguers. Yet, after zooming from Double-A Amarillo to the majors in just five months, there had also been weaknesses. Known for his plate discipline, Carroll struck out 27% of the time in 115 MLB plate appearances. The young lefthanded hitter struggled against lefthanders, leading D-backs manager Torey Lovullo to sit him or hit for him in those situations. After the season, Carroll made a promise to his manager—and to himself. “I’m going to…

Shohei Ohtani’s 2023 season was the capper on one of the greatest three-year stretches of all-time. He dominated major league competition to a degree seldom seen. Since 1900, just nine players have posted three or more consecutive seasons with at least 9.0 wins above replacement, as measured by Baseball-Reference. Seven are Hall of Famers and among the greatest to ever play. Another is Barry Bonds, the all-time home run leader who would be in the Hall of Fame if not for his connection to performance-enhancing drugs. Ohtani joined their company this year. The Angels’ two-way superstar accumulated a career-high 10.1 WAR this season, bringing his three-year total to 28.7. He became the first player to amass three consecutive 9 WAR seasons since Bonds, and just the fourth since integration, along…

A total of seven high school prospects ranked inside the top 100 for the 2023 draft made it to campus. The top two position players in that group—Arizona shortstop Roch Cholowsky and SoCal outfielder Grant Gray—will be UCLA freshmen in 2024. Add in SoCal righthander Justin Lee, who ranked among the second 100 draft prospects, and the Bruins have the No. 1 incoming class in our college recruiting rankings. UCLA previously ranked first in this exercise heading into 2022, giving it the top freshman class in two of the past three seasons as the Bruins look to return to Omaha for the first time since 2013. TOP 10 COLLEGE RECRUITING CLASSES #1 UCLA RECRUITING COORDINATOR: Bryant Ward TOP RECRUIT: Roch Cholowsky, SS (No. 42) OVERVIEW: On Signing Day, UCLA’s class ranked…

When Double-A Biloxi center fielder Jackson Chourio stole second base uncontested in the sixth inning of a Sept. 7 game against Birmingham, it seemed like just an everyday occurrence in the minor leagues. But in reality the 19-year-old had just joined an exclusive club. That stolen base marked Chourio’s 40th of the season, and he already had hit 21 home runs to that point. That made him just the fourth teenager since 1963 to amass at least 20 homers and steal at least 40 bases in the same season. Two of Chourio’s predecessors in the teenage 20-40 club are famous. Ronald Acuña Jr. went 21-44 in his Minor League Player of the Year season in 2017. He played that season at age 19 and spent 111 of his 139 games…

Pat Corrales had a nine-year big league career as a backup catcher, but that proved to be just the prelude to a life in the game. Corrales had been a promising football player in high school, but he opted to play baseball coming out of Fresno, Calif. It proved to be a wise choice. Corrales made it to the majors in 1964, largely sitting on the bench during the Phillies’ September collapse that saw them squander a 6.5-game lead in the final two weeks of the season. Corrales got his most consistent playing time in 1965 as a rookie, but even then it was just 207 plate appearances. He quickly was pegged as a backup. He was traded to the Cardinals to be Tim McCarver’s backup in 1965 and spent…

SCOUTS IN THEIR OWN WORDS. THE PLAYERS. THE JOURNEY. THE STATE OF THE GAME. Tripp Faulk grew up in a baseball family. His father Paul was a scout for more than 30 years and is a member of the North Carolina Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame. By the time he was 5 years old, Tripp was holding the radar gun on scouting trips with his dad. By the time he was a teenager, he was taking batting practice with Marcus Giles and other future Braves big leaguers at Low-A Myrtle Beach. Those experiences molded Faulk and set the foundation for him to become a successful scout, just like his father. Today, Faulk is the Athletics’ mid-Atlantic area scout. He signed second baseman Zack Gelof, who won American League rookie of…

FORMER BALLPLAYERS REFLECT ON PRO SUCCESS AND FAILURE Colby Halter always had the desire and talent to play pro baseball. The only problem seemed to be his timing. Early during his tenure at Bishop Kenny High in Jacksonville, Halter put himself on the map as a two-way talent. As a freshman he entertained offers from two of the top programs in the state: his beloved Florida Gators and their rivals, Florida State. In retrospect, the Seminoles were wasting their time. “When I visited FSU, I kinda felt like a traitor, because I’d been a huge Gator fan my whole life,” Halter said. “I sat down and tried to write out a pros and cons list. Florida had been my dream school my whole life, and whatever that list said, the…

1 WE HAD THREE WORTHY CANDIDATES FOR MLB PLAYER OF THE YEAR. This year we couldn’t go wrong with any of our three finalists for Major League Player of the Year: Angels two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani, Braves right fielder Ronald Acuña Jr. and Dodgers right fielder-turned-second baseman Mookie Betts. Ohtani’s sustained dominance as the best two-way player in MLB history won the day. At the plate he led the majors with a 1.066 OPS. On the mound he limited opponents to a .184 average. Over the past three seasons, Ohtani has outproduced the American League average by 60% at the plate and by 50% on the mound. 2 THIS YEAR’S TOP TWO ROOKIES FORM ONE OF THE STRONGER FIRST-YEAR DUOS IN HISTORY. We went with D-backs outfielder Corbin Carroll as…

C SAMUEL BASALLO, ORIOLES DOUBLE-A BOWIE Basallo flew up to Double-A in his age-18 season while showing an advanced feel to hit, huge lefthanded power and a cannon for an arm behind the plate. The touted Dominican signee finished the year batting .313/.402/.551 with 20 home runs, 86 RBIs and 12 stolen bases and threw out 33% of basestealers. He led all qualified full-season catchers in batting average, hits and RBIs and finished second with a .953 OPS. 1B LUKEN BAKER, CARDINALS TRIPLE-A MEMPHIS Baker smashed 33 home runs in just 84 games with Memphis and finished tied for fourth in the minors in homers despite the fact he spent the final six weeks of the season in the majors. The 2018 second-round pick hit .334/.440/.720 and had the highest…

“He’s a full-throttle type of guy.” That’s how Double-A San Antonio pitching coach Jeff Andrews introduced 19-year-old lefthander Robby Snelling. Drafted out of high school in the supplemental first round in 2022, Snelling pitched at three levels in 2023 pro debut, concluding his season with a Game 1 start in the Texas League semifinals against Amarillo. “He’s unique, always with eyes wide open and enthusiasm,” Andrews said. “He’s just different. You always want your players to meet you halfway. You know, ‘Here’s what we’re thinking. Here’s what we’re trying to do. Now we need you to put the effort in behind it.’ This guy goes 75% or 100% of the way. His openness to instruction, his openness to video, the analysts, the movement guys. He finds value everywhere.” Snelling’s season…

No matter what happens next, Shohei Ohtani has redefined what is possible in Major League Baseball. Ohtani put the capper on one of the greatest three-year stretches in baseball history in 2023. The Angels’ two-way star didn’t pitch after Aug. 23 due to a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow and discontinued batting after straining his right oblique on Sept. 4. Despite that, he still hit a career best .304/.412/.654, led the American League with 44 home runs and led the majors with a 1.066 OPS. On the mound, he went 10-5 with a 3.14 ERA with 167 strikeouts in 132 innings. Opponents hit just .184, lowest in the AL among pitchers with at least 100 innings. Already baseball’s preeminent talent, Ohtani found a way to raise his…