AL Central 2018 Draft Summary

In conjunction with the MLB Draft Deep Dive series that I've been rolling out over the last few weeks (see links below), the following is a down and dirty summary of the early 2018 draft results for the AL Central.

AMERICAN LEAGUE CENTRAL 2018 DRAFT SUMMARY

PITCHING

Pitcher Breakdown
KCR: 20 Signed | 18 C | 2 JC/CC | 11 RHP | 9 LHP
CWS: 18 Signed | 18 C | 12 RHP | 6 LHP
CLE: 18 Signed | 16 C | 2 HS | 13 RHP | 5 LHP
DET: 16 Signed | 15 C | 1 JC/CC | 11 RHP | 5 LHP

MIN: 16 Signed | 14 C | 1 JC/CC | 1 HS | 11 RHP | 5 LHP

Cumulative Stats for 2018 Draft Class (Pitchers)
CLE: 2.41 ERA | 1.138 WHIP | 336.2 IP | 14 Active Pitchers

DET: 3.11 ERA | 1.219 WHIP | 498 IP | 15 Active Pitchers
MIN: 3.64 ERA | 1.333 WHIP | 396 IP | 14 Active Pitchers

KCR: 3.72 ERA | 1.348 WHIP | 549 IP | 18 Active Pitchers
CWS: 3.92 ERA | 1.317 WHIP | 527.2 IP | 15 Active Pitchers

Position Player Breakdown
DET: 22 Signed | 17 C | 2 JC/CC | 3 HS | 3 1B | 2 2B | 2 3B | 2 SS | 11 OF | 2 C
CWS: 16 Signed | 11 C | 5 HS | 1B | 2B | 2 3B | 2 SS | 7 OF | 3 C
MIN: 16 Signed | 12 C | 4 HS | 3 1B | 2 2B | 3B | SS | 6 OF | 3 C

CLE: 14 Signed | 8 C | 2 JC/CC | 4 HS | 3 2B | 2 SS | 6 OF | 3 C

KCR: 13 Signed | 10 C | 3 HS | 1B | 2B | 3B | SS | 7 OF | 2 C

Cumulative Stats for 2018 Draft Class (Position Players)

KCR: .282/.364/.412/.776 | 13 Active Players

MIN: .281/.366/.427/.793 | 16 Active Players

CLE: .276/.373/.409/.783 | 14 Active Players
CWS: .270/.351/.385/.736 | 16 Active Players
DET: .248/.331/.376/.707 | 22 Active Players

MLB Pipeline Top 30 Prospects
KCR: 7 total (2 C RHP*, C RHP, 2 C LHP*, C LHP, C OF)
CLE: 6 total (C RHP, 2 HS RHP*, C 2B, HS SS, HS C*)
CWS: 4 Total (C RHP, C LHP, C 2B*, C OF)
DET: 4 Total (C RHP*, C 2B, HS OF*, HS OF)
MIN: 1 Total (C OF*)

*Top 10

AL CENTRAL DRAFT CLASS NOTES: PITCHERS
This league went very college-heavy on their pitching draft picks in 2018. Only three high school and four juco pitchers were sprinkled among the pitchers signed by these five teams. Two of those high school picks were first round picks by Cleveland and both currently reside on that team's Top 10 prospect list. Neither saw a lot of playing time and, considering that four Cleveland draft picks didn't play at all and only three of their 2018 draft pitchers logged more than 30 innings, my enthusiasm for the good initial composite numbers for the group is somewhat tempered. Similarly, since the White Sox, Royals and Twins don't have Short Season A teams, one has to look at the numbers for those teams through a lens that reflects a heavy dose of rookie league performances. The Twins did promote a couple players, but their highest draft pitcher didn't play at all and none of their 2018 draft pitchers made their Top 30 prospect list. The White Sox do have a couple of Top 30 pitchers in their group (who had mixed initial results) and a couple of top 10 round pitchers who were promoted to Full Season A with good results, but the bulk of their pitchers did not face competition above that of rookie league ball. Of these three teams, Kansas City was the most aggressive in promoting players to full season teams and also has a very impressive total of four Top 10 pitching prospects (six Top 30) to come from this draft class. The Tigers only have one Top 10 prospect out of their 2018 pitching class, but they had 11 players play at Short Season A or above, most with good success and most seeing a lot of playing time. Based on initial results, I like the depth of the Tigers group, but I will keep an eye on the plethora of Royals prospects and the potential of Cleveland's high school prospects.

AL CENTRAL DRAFT CLASS NOTES: POSITION PLAYERS

There was a much larger influx of high school and juco players among the position players than pitchers in this league and, since those younger players should be starting out in rookie leagues for the most part, I am less skeptical of their initial results. With that said, several of these teams were pretty aggressive in promoting top prospects with mostly good results. In particular, Detroit was not shy in promoting top high school picks to Short Season A. They also promoted nine players to full season teams (including one juco player), making their composite numbers much more impressive than at first glance since these players were exposed to a higher level of competition. Cleveland's top prospects performed well in their inaugural season, but the results were very mixed further down the pecking order. All four of the Twins college players who were promoted to Full Season A had excellent seasons, including their top two picks. Kansas City's high school picks underperformed somewhat, but the seven college players who did not graduate beyond rookie league brought up their overall numbers. The story for the White Sox was somewhat similar although their high school picks fared better. All in all, I like the depth of the Tigers group of players and the early promise of Cleveland's top high school prospects. I will be interested in seeing how some of the college players from these organizations will fare in 2019, particularly those who may have excelled in rookie leagues but weren't really challenged to a higher level of competition, in comparison to others (such as the promoted players for the Twins) who received some advanced experience early in their careers.

Chicago White Sox Draft Review
Cleveland Indians Draft Review
Detroit Tigers Draft Review
Kansas City Royals Draft Review
Minnesota Twins Draft Review

MLB Draft Deep Dive: Detroit Tigers

In order to satisfy my innate curiosity as it pertains to the MLB Draft, I have taken a comprehensive look at the 2018 draft for each of the 30 MLB organizations. But I also wanted to get an idea of what each of the teams had done for the 20 years prior so that is included as a prelude to the 2018 information. I'll be looking first at each team in each division, starting with the National League East, and then I'll follow up with a an overall look at both the historical draft results to date and the early 2018 results.

My goal is to get a better idea of the big picture as to how the systems compare in terms of draft results, as well as how a good or bad draft class affects a system, the overall impact of the draft on the baseball talent pool and the circuitous ways in which draft picks are used to bolster a system for which they may never even play. This project is just a first step. I intend to expand on this information over time (including a later revisit of the 2018 class and the addition of the 2019 class next offseason) and I will share my findings as I do so.

AMERICAN LEAGUE CENTRAL

DETROIT TIGERS

Historical Draft Results from 1998 through 2017 (TO DATE)
Drafted 912 | Signed 623 | Pitchers Signed 320 | Position Players Signed 303
Total WAR 303.4
Total Players to MLB 92

Note: The following players are listed at the position at which they were originally drafted.

1998 | 5 to MLB | WAR 41.4 | High WAR 19.2, C Brandon Inge, 2nd rd
1999 | 4 to MLB | WAR 22.0 | High WAR 13.6, OF Cody Ross, 4th rd
2000 | 2 to MLB | WAR 3.2 | High WAR 3.0, SS Nook Logan, 3rd rd
2001 | 5 to MLB | WAR 9.4 | High WAR 6.5, 3B Jack Hannahan, 3rd rd
2002 | 6 to MLB | WAR 53.4 | High WAR 47.7, OF Curtis Granderson, 3rd rd
2003 | 6 to MLB | WAR (2.3) | High WAR 0.1, C Dusty Ryan, 48th rd
2004 | 4 to MLB | WAR 63.4 | High WAR 63.4, RHP Justin Verlander, 1st rd
2005 | 11 to MLB | WAR 35.1 | High WAR 14.0, OF Matthew Joyce, 12th rd
2006 | 6 to MLB | WAR 11.6 | High WAR 8.5, LHP Andrew Miller, 1st rd
2007 | 5 to MLB | WAR 19.6 | High WAR 18.8, RHP Rick Porcello, 1st rd
2008 | 5 to MLB | WAR 17.5 | High WAR 14.5, C Alex Avila, 5th rd
2009 | 5 to MLB | WAR (4.2) | High WAR 0.2, LHP Giovanni Soto, 21st rd
2010 | 7 to MLB | WAR 13.4 | High WAR 9.6, LHP Drew Smyly, 2nd rd
2011 | 6 to MLB | WAR 5.4 | High WAR 2.9, C Curt Casali, 10th rd
2012 | 3 to MLB | WAR 7.7 | High WAR 6.5, 2B Devon Travis, 13th rd
2013 | 5 to MLB | WAR 7.9 | High WAR 5.1, RHP Chad Green, 11th rd
2014 | 4 to MLB | WAR (0.9) | High WAR 0.0, C Grayson Greiner, 3rd rd
2015 | 3 to MLB | WAR (0.2) | High WAR 0.5, RHP Drew Smith, 3rd rd
2016 | 0 to MLB | WAR 0.0 | High WAR N/A
2017 | 0 to MLB | WAR 0.0 | High WAR N/A

The highest WAR to date, both total and individual, is from 2004. Although there were three other players from this Tigers draft class who made it to the big leagues, those three combined for 0.0 WAR so RHP Justin Verlander (1st round, 63.4 WAR) is pretty much the whole story when it comes to this group. In his 13 seasons with the Tigers (55.3 WAR), he was American League Rookie of the Year in 2006, AL MVP and Cy Young winner in 2011 and a six time All-Star. Since being traded to the Astros in August 2017, Verlander has one additional All-Star appearance and a World Series ring to add to his collection.

2018 DRAFT
40 Drafted | 38 Signed | 16 Pitchers | 22 Position Players
32 College | 32 Signed | 15 Pitchers | 17 Position Players
3 JC/CC | 3 Signed | 1 Pitcher | 2 Position Players
5 HS/NS | 3 Signed | 0 Pitchers | 3 Position Players

Notable: The Tigers signed ALL of their top 37 picks and 38 of 40 with the lone holdouts being 38th round HS RHP Cole Henry (AL) and 39th round HS 2B Cory Acton (FL).

PITCHERS
All but one of the 16 pitchers signed (11 RHP, 5 LHP) logged at least some playing time. Four of these pitchers were promoted beyond the Short Season A* level, two to Full Season A and two to Advanced A. One of them debuted on MLB Pipeline's Top 30 Prospect list for the Tigers as a Top 10 prospect.

Top Prospects

🔟 RHP Casey Mize, 1st round, Auburn University, A+
13.2 IP | 5 G / 5 GS | 3.95 ERA | 1.171 WHIP | 3 BB : 14 K

🔟 Top 10 Prospect

Noteworthy Debut

RHP Ethan DeCaster, 18th round, Duke University, A+
32 IP | 18 G / 0 GS | 0.84 ERA | 0.781 WHIP | 6 BB : 39 K

In total, the Detroit 2018 Draft pitchers combined for a 3.11 ERA and a 1.219 WHIP over 498 innings as compared to the 3.67 ERA and 1.299 WHIP (average of 376.2 innings per affiliate) compiled by the total 2018 Draft class in 2018.

POSITION PLAYERS
All of the 22 position players signed (3 1B, 2 2B, 2 3B, 2 SS, 11 OF, 2 C) logged at least some playing time. Nine players were promoted beyond the Short Season A* level, four to Full Season A and five to Advanced A. Three players debuted on MLB Pipeline's Top 30 Prospect list for the Tigers, one as a Top 10 prospect.

Top Prospects

🔟 OF Parker Meadows (L/R), 2nd round, Grayson HS (GA), SSA
28 G | .290/.377/.473/.850 | 10 BB : 31 K

2B Kody Clemens (L/R), 3rd round, University of Texas at Austin, A+
52 G | .288/.365/.450/.816 | 23 BB : 39 K

OF Kingston Liniak (R/R), 4th round, Mission Hills HS (CA), SSA
48 G | .235/.272/.290/.562 | 8 BB : 63 K

🔟 Top 10 Prospect

Noteworthy Debut

OF Brock Deatherage (L/L), 10th round, North Carolina State University, A+
60 G | .326/.385/.504/.890 | 21 BB : 64 K

In total, the Tigers 2018 Draft position players combined to hit .248/.331/.376/.707 as compared to .261/.349/.386/.735 batting line compiled by the total 2018 Draft class in 2018.

*Notes on players include the highest level achieved for the 2018 season using the following abbreviations:
Rk = Rookie
SSA = Short Season A
A = Full Season A
A+ = Full Season A Advanced

GENERAL NOTES: Information was obtained from Baseball-Reference and the MLB Draft History site. The occasional discrepancy in historical information was resolved to the best of my ability by delving into the player information available on B-R. On the historical information, the player position in the totals reflects the position at which the player was drafted (and not any subsequent change of position). On the 2018 information, the player position reflects the primary position played in 2018 for all players who were signed and the position at which the player was drafted for those who did not sign. Prospect listings on MLB Pipeline were as of early January and may not reflect any subsequent changes to that site.

PREVIOUSLY

NL EAST
Atlanta Braves
Miami Marlins
New York Mets
Philadelphia Phillies
Washington Nationals
NL East 2018 Draft Summary

NL CENTRAL
Chicago Cubs
Cincinnati Reds
Milwaukee Brewers
Pittsburgh Pirates
St. Louis Cardinals
NL Central 2018 Draft Summary

NL WEST
Arizona Diamondbacks
Colorado Rockies
Los Angeles Dodgers
San Diego Padres
San Francisco Giants
NL West 2018 Draft Summary

AL EAST
Baltimore Orioles
Boston Red Sox
New York Yankees
Tampa Bay Rays
Toronto Blue Jays
AL East 2018 Draft Summary

AL CENTRAL
Chicago White Sox
Cleveland Indians

COMING NEXT
Kansas City Royals