Welcome to another Opening Day for college baseball and the start of our weekly 2024 MLB Draft Reports on Sox Machine. For those new to Sox Machine, we'll gather weekly reports and video highlights of the top draft prospects to track their progress. The Chicago White Sox will have four picks in the top 100 come July (picks 5, 43, 69, and 79). Even though the MLB Draft Lottery did them no favors, the White Sox, with Chris Getz in charge, have a chance to add talent to an improving farm system.
The LSU Tigers are defending champions and look to be strong again in 2024. Gone are Dylan Crews and Paul Skenes, but third baseman Tommy White has captured people's attention since his first-year campaign with NC State in 2022 and hit the dramatic two-run homer in last year's College World Series to send LSU to the finals. White has a chance to put up monster power numbers and is a strong contender for the Golden Spikes award.
That home run White hit last year came against Wake Forest, and while the Tigers are the defending champions, the Demon Deacons enter 2024 with one of the most impressive rosters in recent memory. Returning from last year's College World Series team are first baseman Nick Kurtz and starting pitchers Josh Hartle and Michael Massey. Adding to their already dangerous roster, coach Tom Walter is adding to impact transfers: right-handed pitcher Chase Burns and outfielder Seaver King. All five players have a first-round ranking in our initial Sox Machine Top 100.
Then there are the middle infield bats in West Virginia's JJ Wetherholt and Oregon State's Travis Bazzana. While there's little question about either's ability to hit the baseball, there will be a lot of attention on how they play defensively. The Mountaineers will have Wetherholt start at shortstop after playing at third and second base in his first two seasons. Meanwhile, the Beavers will be keeping Bazzana at second base. It's not an ideal defensive profile for teams selecting in the top five picks, but Bazzana was this past summer's Cape Cod League MVP.
It's a college-heavy draft board with plenty of right-handed pitchers, fringe shortstops, and outfielders. As a National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association member, I'll share my All-American and awards voting during the season for our Patreon supporters.
Preseason Average Rankings Top 100 Prospects
| Rank | Player | Position(s) | School |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | JJ Wetherholt | SS | West Virginia |
| 2 | Nick Kurtz | 1B | Wake Forest |
| 3 | Travis Bazzana | 2B | Oregon State |
| 4 | Jac Caglianone | 1B/LHP | Florida |
| 5 | Charlie Condon | OF/1B | Georgia |
| 6 | Vance Honeycutt | OF | North Carolina |
| 7 | Mike Sirota | OF | Northeastern |
| 8 | Seaver King | OF | Wake Forest |
| 9 | Konnor Griffin | OF | Jackson Prep (MS) |
| 10 | Tommy White | 3B | Louisiana State |
| 11 | Braden Montgomery | OF/RHP | Texas A&M |
| 12 | PJ Morlando | OF | Summerville (SC) |
| 13 | Chase Burns | RHP | Wake Forest |
| 14 | Hagen Smith | LHP | Arkansas |
| 15 | Josh Hartle | LHP | Wake Forest |
| 16 | Cam Caminiti | LHP | Saguaro (AZ) |
| 17 | Brody Brecht | RHP | Iowa |
| 18 | Caleb Bonemer | SS/3B | Okemos (MI) |
| 19 | Malcolm Moore | C | Stanford |
| 20 | Drew Beam | RHP | Tennessee |
| 21 | Caleb Lomavita | C | California |
| 22 | Jonathan Santucci | LHP | Duke |
| 23 | Slade Caldwell | OF | Valley View (AR) |
| 24 | Noah Franco | OF/LHP | IMG Academy (FL) |
| 25 | Bryce Rainer | SS/RHP | Harvard-Westlake (CA) |
| 26 | Carter Johnson | SS | Oxford (AL) |
| 27 | Thatcher Hurd | RHP | Louisiana State |
| 28 | Cam Smith | 3B | Florida State |
| 29 | Michael Massey | RHP | Wake Forest |
| 30 | Kaelen Culpepper | SS | Kansas State |
| 31 | Carson Benge | OF/RHP | Oklahoma State |
| 32 | Trey Yesavage | RHP | East Carolina |
| 33 | Levi Sterling | RHP | Notre Dame (CA) |
| 34 | Anthony Silva | SS | Texas Christian |
| 35 | Dakota Jordan | OF | Mississippi State |
| 36 | Ben Hess | RHP | Alabama |
| 37 | Joey Oakie | RHP | Ankeny Centennial (IA) |
| 38 | William Schmidt | RHP | Catholic (LA) |
| 39 | Matt Ager | RHP | UC Santa Barbara |
| 40 | Ethan Anderson | C/1B | Virginia |
| 41 | Luke Holman | RHP | Louisiana State |
| 42 | Jacob Cozart | C | North Carolina State |
| 43 | Griff O'Ferrall | SS | Virginia |
| 44 | Carson DeMartini | 3B | Virginia Tech |
| 45 | Tegan Kuhns | RHP | Gettysburg Area (PA) |
| 46 | Cade Arrambide | C | Tomball (TX) |
| 47 | Charlie Bates | SS | Palo Alto (CA) |
| 48 | Ryan Sloan | RHP | York (IL) |
| 49 | Owen Paino | SS | Ketcham (NY) |
| 50 | Carter Holton | LHP | Vanderbilt |
| 51 | Owen Hall | RHP | Edmond North (OK) |
| 52 | Will Taylor | OF | Clemson |
| 53 | Will Turner | OF | South Alabama |
| 54 | Billy Amick | 3B | Tennessee |
| 55 | Garrett Shull | OF | Enid (OK) |
| 56 | Kevin Bazzell | C | Texas Tech |
| 57 | Fran Oschell | RHP | Duke |
| 58 | Rodney Green | OF | California |
| 59 | Jared Thomas | OF | Texas |
| 60 | Marcus Morgan | RHP | Iowa |
| 61 | Tyson Neighbors | RHP | Kansas State |
| 62 | Derek Curiel | OF | Orange Lutheran (CA) |
| 63 | Anson Seibert | RHP | Blue Valley Southwest (KS) |
| 64 | Braylon Payne | OF | Elkins (TX) |
| 65 | Walker Janek | C | Sam Houston |
| 66 | Cole Mathis | 1B/RHP | College of Charleston |
| 67 | Ryan Forcucci | RHP | UC San Diego |
| 68 | Trey Gregory-Alford | RHP | Coronado (CO) |
| 69 | Derek Bender | 1B/C | Coastal Carolina |
| 70 | Gage Jump | LHP | Louisiana State |
| 71 | Ethan Schiefelbein | LHP | Corona (CA) |
| 72 | Chase Mobley | RHP | Durant (FL) |
| 73 | Ryan Johnson | RHP | Dallas Baptist |
| 74 | Austin Overn | OF | Southern California |
| 75 | David Shields | LHP | Mt. Lebanon (PA) |
| 76 | Kyle DeBarge | SS | Louisiana-Lafayette |
| 77 | Lazaro Collera | RHP | Westminster Christian (FL) |
| 78 | Colby Shelton | SS/3B | Florida |
| 79 | Dante Nori | OF | Northville (MI) |
| 80 | Christian Moore | SS | Tennessee |
| 81 | Zach Swanson | RHP | Toutle Lake (WA) |
| 82 | Braylon Doughty | RHP | Chaparral (CA) |
| 83 | Aiden Harris | 3B | PDG Academy (VA) |
| 84 | Duncan Marsten | RHP | Harvard-Westlake (CA) |
| 85 | Carson Wiggins | RHP | Roland (OK) |
| 86 | Dylan Dreiling | OF | Tennessee |
| 87 | James Tibbs | OF/1B | Florida State |
| 88 | Rustan Rigdon | SS | Metter (GA) |
| 89 | Ty Southisene | SS | Basic (NV) |
| 90 | JD Dix | SS | Whitefish Bay (WI) |
| 91 | Zander Darby | 3B | UC Santa Barbara |
| 92 | Blake Burke | 1B | Tennessee |
| 93 | Hunter Carns | C | First Coast (FL) |
| 94 | Kale Fountain | 3B | Norris (NE) |
| 95 | Boston Bateman | LHP | Camarillo (CA) |
| 96 | Travis Smith | RHP | Kentucky |
| 97 | Cody Schrier | SS | UCLA |
| 98 | Theodore Gillen | SS | Westlake (TX) |
| 99 | Cade Obermueller | LHP | Iowa |
| 100 | Brendan Lawson | SS | Lawrence Park (CAN) |
Lil Jimmy’s “Good Looking Kid” - Prep Player to Watch
In honor of our late friend, Jim "Lil Jimmy" Osborn, I would like to highlight a prep talent that could be on the White Sox radar. The 2024 draft class is not a deep prep talent pool, but Konnor Griffin stands out in a big way.
As I wrote in December after the MLB Draft Lottery, Griffin put up eye-opening showcase numbers for a teenager. Let's start with this throwing arm as Griffin is pitching his senior season. During the Perfect Game showcase, Griffin's max velocity off the mound was 94 mph, which for a right-handed pitcher is 50-grade (MLB average of four-seam from RHP is 94 MPH). However, Griffin could pop a 96 MPH throw from the outfield during fielding drills. Consider that in 2023, according to Baseball Savant, the average velocity from right fielders was 90.9 MPH. Ronald Acuna Jr., the 2023 National League MVP, had an average of 95.7 MPH on his throws with a max velocity of 104.1 MPH.
Right fielders who had a max velocity of 96 MPH in 2023:
- Aaron Judge
- George Springer
- Joey Gallo
- Lourdes Gurriel Jr.
- Teoscar Hernandez
Griffin turns 18 years old on April 24.
Pairing up his monster arm is a 6.36 60-yard dash, which is 70-grade, and offensively, Griffin had a max exit velocity of 98 MPH, which was good to be in Perfect Game's 99th percentile. If the Perfect Game showcase were like the NFL Draft Combine, the hype for Griffin would be through the roof. There's a chance that Griffin possesses at least three 60+ grades of his five tools.
So why is Griffin not the #1 prospect? Griffin didn't perform at his best during showcase games, but those in the industry discovered he was dealing with a shoulder injury. Now that the injury has healed, Griffin is tormenting high school pitching.
OF Konnor Griffin (Jackson Prep, Florence, MS.) is off to a roaring start this season. Here’s HR no. 2 on the year after just 3 games.
— Joe Doyle (@JoeDoyleMiLB) February 10, 2024
Slashing a casual .667/.818/1.833 across 11 PA. The swing is locked in. pic.twitter.com/ncxzd6OjqA
But when you have excellent college bats with multiple seasons under their belts against a high level of pitching, it will push Griffin down in the initial rankings. However, Griffin is the best prep player in this class and has exciting skills that teams can dream of.
Watch Board 1.0
The Watch Board aims to identify who I think could be good draft targets for the White Sox. It’s a little tricky to start because I do not fully understand how Chris Getz will let the draft team operate compared to Rick Hahn and Kenny Williams. There are many rumors about how the White Sox seemed to have a particular player(s) in mind for the first round, and suddenly, someone within the front office demanded to go in another direction.
The cliche saying is that major decisions like a first-round pick are made with everyone on board. The general manager convinces the owner why they are spending millions of dollars on a particular prospect. It takes the scouting director to convince the general manager it should be that player. It takes the national cross-checkers to convince the scouting director why Player X should be the pick. You get the idea.
For the 2024 Draft, I would prefer the White Sox; as the cool kids say, let Mike Shirley cook. As someone who runs a prep development facility in Indiana, Shirley was able to identify Colson Montgomery and help the White Sox buy Noah Schultz out of his Vanderbilt commitment. I’d like to understand better what kind of players he likes to target in a draft without Kenny Williams looking over his shoulder.
Assuming that the top four players are off the board, here are my early preferences:
- Charlie Condon, outfielder, Georgia
- Konnor Griffin, outfielder, Jackson Prep (MS)
- Vance Honeycutt, outfielder, North Carolina
- Seaver King, outfielder, Wake Forest
- Chase Burns, right-handed pitcher, Wake Forest
The Georgia Bulldogs are not an SEC favorite coming into 2024, but that doesn’t mean people will overlook redshirt sophomore Charlie Condon. Playing first base last year, Condon exploded onto the scene, bashing 25 home runs with a crazy .386/.484/.800 slash line thanks to hitting 10% more fly balls than grounders (44.3% FB vs. 34.7% GB). When you have a 33.8% HR/FB rate, it pays off dividends for Condon to generate lift.
In 2024, the Bulldogs are moving Condon to the outfield. It’ll be worth tracking to see how Condon makes the defensive transition, but his value is his offensive skill set. If Condon batted left-handed, he would challenge Nick Kurtz for preseason top college bat, but he’s one of the best right-handed bats in this draft, along with Tommy White.
With the White Sox emphasizing defense and athleticism, I think Griffin would be a great target. How much scouts can take away from Griffin obliterating Mississippi high school pitching is essential as time passes.
North Carolina’s Vance Honeycutt might be the best defensive player in college baseball. He has no fear of the outfield wall and has quite the highlight reel of robbing extra-base hits away. Like Griffin, its 70-grade defense and speed are attributes the White Sox seem to be aiming for in helping improve team defense. I’ve got serious questions about Honeycutt’s offensive ability. During his freshman season, Honeycutt grabbed headlines, hitting 25 home runs but struck out 90 times in 64 games (29.7% K).
Last year, Honeycutt was able to cut his strikeout rate by 9%, but it took a toll on his overall slash line, where his OPS dropped to .171 (.257/.418/.492). Maybe Honeycutt has below-average contact skills, but if he’s going to be a Top 5 pick, I need to see a more complete hitter. Or at least heading down the bat where Honeycutt could be graded as a 50-grade contact.
There’s a lot of hype surrounding Seaver King coming into this Wake Forest season. Rave reviews from Winston-Salem from the fall got me curious about King. He played for Division II Wingate last year but was good enough to join Team USA and hit over .400 during the Cape Cod league. King was a second baseman at Wingate, but Wake Forest is moving him to center field to start 2024.
The other significant Wake Forest transfer is Chase Burns. He was inconsistent last year at Tennessee after a remarkable freshman campaign. Transferring to Wake will allow Burns to take advantage of one of the best college pitching labs. Early bullpens have Burns hitting 102 MPH with his four-seamer. If Burns can display better command with the heat and slider, he’s got a chance to be the first pitcher drafted.
| 2024 NCBWA DIVISION I PRESEASON POLL (FEB. 1) | ||||
| Rk. | School | Conference | 2023 Record | 2023 Final Rank |
| 1 | Wake Forest | ACC | 54-12 | 3 |
| 2 | LSU | SEC | 54-17 | 1 |
| 3 | Florida | SEC | 54-17 | 2 |
| 4 | Arkansas | SEC | 43-18 | 17 |
| 5 | Tennessee | SEC | 44-22 | 5 |
| 6 | TCU | Big 12 | 44-24 | 4 |
| 7 | Vanderbilt | SEC | 42-20 | 19 |
| 8 | Oregon State | Pac-12 | 41-20 | 26 |
| 9 | Texas | Big 12 | 42-22 | 11 |
| 10 | Texas A&M | SEC | 38-27 | 25 |
| 11 | Virginia | ACC | 50-15 | 7 |
| 12 | Clemson | ACC | 44-19 | 18 |
| 13 | East Carolina | American Athletic | 47-19 | 22 |
| 14 | Duke | ACC | 39-24 | 15 |
| 15 | South Carolina | SEC | 42-21 | 13 |
| 16 | North Carolina | ACC | 36-24 | NR |
| 17 | Stanford | Pac-12 | 44-20 | 8 |
| 18 | NC State | ACC | 36-21 | NR |
| 19 | Coastal Carolina | Sun Belt | 42-21 | 24 |
| 20 | Texas Tech | Big 12 | 41-23 | 28 |
| 21 | Iowa | Big Ten | 40-16 | NR |
| 22 | UCLA | Pac-12 | 28-24-1 | NR |
| 23 | Alabama | SEC | 43-21 | 16 |
| 24 | UC Santa Barbara | Big West | 35-20 | NR |
| 25 | Auburn | SEC | 34-23-1 | NR |
Games I’m Watching This Weekend
Wake Forest
Vs. Fordham, 4:00 PM CT, Friday on ACCNX
Vs. Illinois, 11:00 AM CT, Saturday on ACCNX
Vs. Akron, 1:00 PM CT, Sunday on ACCNX
I’m going to be watching a lot of Wake Forest baseball this year.
UNC Asheville vs. Georgia - 2:00 PM CT, Friday on SECN+
Watching Charlie Condon hoping to see how he handles the outfield early.
New Mexico vs. Oregon State - 1:00 PM CT, Friday on FloBaseball
Looking forward to seeing Travis Bazzana. His work at Driveline to improve his overall bat speed is great insight on how hitters are adopting new swing mechanics to counter what pitchers are doing.
