The 2023 Major League Baseball Draft is almost here. This three-day event is very different from the other sports. It takes place in the middle of the pro season, picks can’t be traded, and the best players aren’t necessarily taken first. Money, a.k.a. ‘signability,’ plays a large role.
To help us make sense of it all, Awful Announcing recently caught up with MLB.com’s Jim Callis. He has been covering the draft since 1989.
Callis will be part of MLB Network’s draft coverage, which begins Sunday at 7 p.m. ET.
Awful Announcing: What is the big story of this draft?
Jim Callis: “Two things come to mind. One, we could make history with one school producing the top two picks. We’ve got Paul Skenes, the right-hander ranked ahead of Dylan Crews, the outfielder from LSU. They’ve been No. 1, No. 2 on our list for most of the spring. I think they’re the consensus top two picks for most teams. Of course, the bonus pool could come into play. So, it’s not just ability, it’s signability too…”
“The other thing that jumps out immediately is that this draft legitimately has five players who would probably be considered the No. 1 talent in many drafts. Besides the LSU guys, you have Florida outfielder Wyatt Langford, who scored off LSU in the College World Series. Then you have a couple of high school outfielders in Walker Jenkins and Max Clark.”
Does LSU winning the College World Series make the draft more interesting to the casual sports fan?
“I think it does. Coming into the year, Dylan Crews was just about everyone’s No. 1 overall prospect. He came in with a lot of attention. He was the reigning SEC Player of the Year, and he lived up to it. All season you heard ‘Dylan Crews, Dylan Crews, Dylan Crews.’ And then Paul Skenes, I don’t think the casual fan knew much about him. At fall practice, he was just blowing scouts away. He transferred from Air Force, so he wasn’t as famous. But very early, you could look at the stuff and he’s throwing 100 mph several times a game and has a wicked slider. For a while, he had the highest strikeout rate in NCAA Division I history. If you’re a casual baseball fan, you couldn’t help but hear about Dylan Crews and Paul Skenes.”
Who should the Pittsburgh Pirates take with the No.1 overall pick?
“The Pirates are doing what they should do. There are these five guys who are worthy of No. 1 picks. We’ve ranked them Skenes, Crews, Langford, Jenkins, Clark. But because of the bonus pools, signability and ability both matter. I think you should take whoever you think the best player is and sign him. Even if he costs more than someone else. The Pirates already have a huge bonus pool, and they’re going to be able to spend a bunch of money on the draft anyway. If it were me, I would take Paul Skenes No. 1. I think he’s the best pitching prospect the draft has seen since Stephen Strasburg (in 2009), who was the best ever.”
How is drafting and development in baseball different from football and basketball?
“There is physical talent. And there’s skill in those sports. If you have sheer physical talent, that’s going to carry you further in those sports than it does in baseball. You could be the best athlete in baseball, but if you can’t hit a curveball, it doesn’t matter. You can be a guy who throws 98 mph and has an unbelievable breaking ball, but if you can’t command those pitches, you’re not going to dominate. There’s a higher skill level involved. And you’re drafting high school kids and college kids. By nature, it’s always going to be difficult. You’re never going to be able to crack the code and say, ‘This is what works.'”
What teams do the best job in drafting?
“That’s a little bit hard to answer because I haven’t broken it down. But one of the teams that comes to mind is the Dodgers. But part of what makes them successful is that they’re also good at developing players. It’s kind of the chicken and the egg. Is he a good big leaguer because he was a talented guy that you drafted, or is it because your development team helped him get better when he was in the minor leagues? Honestly, it’s both.”
“A team you have to look at recently is the Orioles. Sure, it helps to pick No. 1 (overall) and you get Adley Rutschman, Jackson Holliday. Four years in a row, they didn’t pick lower than fifth. That helps. But they have also hit on guys like Joey Ortiz, Jordan Westburg, and Gunnar Henderson. So, it’s not just the Orioles taking advantage of picking at the top of the draft.”
How has draft coverage changed over the years?
“The first draft that I covered was in 1989 for Baseball America. It was nothing like it is today. There was no MLB Network. ESPN didn’t televise the draft, and MLB didn’t even really publicize the draft. Back then, they would release the first round in order to the (Associated Press). Other than that, it was nothing. You could also draft until you wanted to stop. One year, the Astros drafted 100 players, so it was a long affair. MLB would release a list of the players drafted, but they wouldn’t separate the second-rounders from the 90th-rounders. Back then, they did not want college coaches to know what rounds guys got drafted in because they felt the college coaches would use it as a recruiting tool.”
What else was different?
“For a few years, MLB let us (listen to) the first round. I can’t tell you how exciting it was. It sounds so goofy. In the early 90s, hearing the picks live on the conference call was ‘Wow!’ There was no internet then. Hearing the first round as it was happening was the height of excitement of the draft.”
“You went from no coverage and nothing live to today where you have a lot more places covering the draft. You have the internet. You have video of all these guys. It’s on two networks (MLB Network and ESPN). There’s a streaming broadcast. If you would have (told) 21-year-old Jim Callis in 1989 what we would have today, I wouldn’t have believed it.”
