2024 Mock Draft 1.0

The FanGraphs Newsletter, July 12, 2024 [READ IN BROWSER]( July 12, 2024 Clubs have begun their pre-draft meetings, with some teams already about a week into theirs, while the last team to start them (Milwaukee, as far as we know) started on Thursday. The number of people in draft meetings varies significantly from team to team. Some have more than 20 people in the room, others five or so. When any one person in the draft room learns something new, whether it’s from a scout buddy with another team or during a conversation with an agent or media person, the other folks in the room tend to also learn that thing. It is during this window that the dope starts to flow in a way that makes a more specific, full-round mock draft more feasible. Below are notes Eric Longenhagen compiled across the last couple of days from conversations with scouts, front office people, and agents. There isn’t intel on every single team or first round player out there in the ether right now. In spots where he's making an educated guess based on a player’s fit with past team or decision-maker behavior, he tries to make it obvious that’s what he's doing. He will let you know when rumors are coming from industry sources, while being vague enough to not burn a source. Eric also has some thoughts peppered in that aren’t specific to teams’ picks, but instead what the arc of the first round of this draft might look like based on the nature of this year’s class. For more info on the players below, head over to [The Board]( for scouting reports, tool grades, and rankings. 1. Cleveland Guardians Pick: Travis Bazzana, 2B, Oregon State There hasn’t been any industry buzz about the Guardians trying like hell to cut an under-slot deal up here as a way of maximizing what they can do at picks 36, 48, and beyond. The draft doesn’t have the depth to make that strategy very enticing. Instead, this seems to be about who Cleveland considers to be the best player. Since the Combine, word of mouth has surrounded Travis Bazzana, and either Charlie Condon, JJ Wetherholt, or both. There are folks who think the telegraphed interest in Wetherholt is a smokescreen, and those who believe that Condon’s more volatile hit tool isn’t a fit with Cleveland’s typical modus operandi, but nobody ever excludes Bazzana from their mix, which I think is telling. There are those who think that once Guardians people got around Bazzana, his makeup pushed the thing over the finish line. [2024 Mock Draft 1.0]( MLB Draft Week 2024 [A 2024 MLB Draft Rankings Update]( A top-to-bottom refresh and expansion of the 2024 draft prospect rankings. Plus, thoughts on the state of the draft class. | by Eric Longenhagen ["I Really Think This Is Just the Beginning": Brody Brecht and Trey Yesavage on Climbing Into the First Round]( Two of the best college arms in the draft class discuss what makes them tick and how they've grown into top prospects. | by Michael Baumann [The Secret Life of the American Teenage Draft Prospect]( “It’s all paying off. I can either go to LSU and play SEC ball, or go to professional ball. I have two great options ahead of me.” | by Michael Baumann Latest on FanGraphs [The 2024 Replacement-Level Killers: Introduction & First Base]( Ahead of the July 30 trade deadline, the annual roundup of contenders' vulnerabilities returns. | by Jay Jaffe [Five Things I Liked (Or Didn’t Like) This Week: All-Star Edition]( This week, I'm celebrating my favorite players and plays of the first half of the season. | by Ben Clemens [Retooling Shouldn’t Be a Dirty Word for the Texas Rangers]( The Rangers will be back, but 2024 is getting mathematically awkward. | by Dan Szymborski 🎧 [Effectively Wild Episode 2189: Don't Sell Umpires Short(s)]( [DOWNLOAD THE FANGRAPHS APP]( [FanGraphs & Effectively Wild Merch Is Now Available at BreakingT!]( [ORDER HERE]( [Six Polarizing Prospects In The 2024 MLB Draft Class]( by Carlos Collazo, Baseball America ($) [Where Paul Skenes' MLB career start ranks among the best ever]( by David Schoenfield, ESPN ($) [Ranking the likeliest sluggers to win Monday's HR Derby]( by Will Leitch, MLB [King of the eight-pitch club: Royals’ Seth Lugo rides vast arsenal to All-Star success]( by Rustin Dodd and Eno Sarris, The Athletic ($) [@fangraphs]( [FanGraphs]( [FanGraphs]( [RSS]( [FORWARD]( [SUBSCRIBE]( Copyright © 2024 FanGraphs Inc, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you subscribed to the FanGraphs Newsletter. Our mailing address is: FanGraphs Inc 3017 N Underwood StArlington, VA 22213 [Add us to your address book]( Want to change how you receive these emails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe from this list](