Mock draft roundup 1.0

The MLB draft is coming faster than you thought. After having it take place in June for so long, it’s taking place coming up in July for the second straight year during the All-Star break. It’s always fun to see what people are saying for the Phillies and who they plan on taking at pick number seventeen, so let’s take a run around some of the publicly available mock drafts that have been published out there.

Bleacher Report - Gabriel Hughes, RHP, Gonzaga

One of the few top-tier college pitchers who remained healthy this spring, Hughes went 8-3 with a 3.21 ERA, 1.15 WHIP and 138 strikeouts in 98 innings thanks to a mid-90s fastball and a wipeout slider. He slumped down the stretch, allowing 22 hits and 14 runs in 20.2 innings over his final three starts, but his 6’4”, 220-pound frame should be able to hold up to a starter’s workload.

ESPN - Hughes

Philly has long been predicted to take another prep arm here after Mick Abel and Andrew Painter have succeeded so much as the team’s past two first-round picks. In this scenario, Porter/Barriera/Lesko are off the board, and the Phillies still could pick Snelling, but getting to take the second college pitcher right before a lot of them will get picked makes more sense. You can always float some high school pitchers down the board.

MLB.com - Brandon Barriera, LHP, American Heritage High School

It’s mostly been arms mentioned here, with Snelling possibly landing in this spot if he doesn’t go above, while Jackson Ferris a possibility as well. Justin Campbell could be a safer college pick, with Young a bat option should they want to go in that direction.

Baseball America - Barriera

It’s hard to put a floor on high school pitchers in any draft class, but given how the pitching has broken down in 2022 and how scouts have been talking about Barriera’s electric left hand, maybe this range is the lower end for him. He’s certainly getting a lot of play before this pick, but could fit here if he’s available on the board. The Phillies were jammed in pretty hard to see Gonzaga righthander Gabriel Hughes late in the year, but that’s when he had some of his worst outings as well.

It’s interesting that pretty much every version of every mock draft has the Phillies taking a pitcher. Hell, there was even a mock draft from the Athletic a while back that had them taking Kumar Rocker which, I mean, I don’t even know what to think with that. But the fact that all of the chatter surrounding them is about how they’ll add another hitter, that’s something I find very interesting.

Multiple articles have been written about how the strength of this draft is in the bats and due to that belief, maybe that’s why pitchers are so often mocked to the Phillies. If the belief is that with so many quality bats at the top of the draft, some good arms are going to fall, so be it. In Andrew Painter and Mick Abel, the team has shown they have the ability to draft an arm high and actually begin to develop them. One does not want to write the book on drafts so early, but it looks like the Phillies have chosen some really good prospects the past two years. Let’s hope that trend continues in a few weeks.