Red Sox prioritize college strike-throwers in 2023 Draft selections
A closer look at the control capabilities of new Red Sox draftees.
In 2022, many things went wrong for the Boston Red Sox, but one painfully-clear one was issuing walks. They ranked 21st among the 30 MLB teams for walks per 9 innings at 3.3. The club emphasized strike-throwing in how they put the 2023 team together.
Heading into the second half 2023, the Red Sox have improved substantially in this area. Their staff BB/9 is 2.9, ranking 8th in MLB.
With how the Red Sox went about selecting pitchers in the 2023 MLB Draft, the trend of acquiring strike-throwers has continued.
The Red Sox used 12 of their 22 picks in the draft on pitchers, 11 from the college ranks. While those pitchers faced varying levels of competition, one thing is consistent: they’re good at keeping walks down and throwing strikes.
Every college pitcher the Red Sox drafted had a lower BB/9 in 2023 than their conference average. Additionally, all but one of the college hurlers the Red Sox drafted had a higher K/9 than their conference average.
This is to be somewhat expected: college pitchers getting drafted into MLB ought to be better than the average pitcher in their conference. But not every drafted pitcher sports plus command. Atlanta drafted Florida starter Hurston Waldrep 24th overall and while his stuff is undeniably special, his 2023 BB/9 of 5 was higher than the SEC average of 4.4.
Let’s look at the statistics of BB/9, K/9, H/9 and K/BB for all of the Red Sox college pitching draftees compared to their conference average. Player stats highlighted in red indicate better than conference average and blue indicates worse. The pitchers are also listed with their draft round.
Some of the more notable stats here includes the excellent control of 5th-round pick Connelly Early, a left-hander out of Virginia who was caught by Red Sox 1st-round selection Kyle Teel. Early struck out 100 batters and walked just 23 in 87.1 IP for the Cavaliers in 2023.
From a relief perspective, 6th-round pick CJ Weins from Western Kentucky gave up just 8 BBs and struck out 42 in 31 innings.
Cade Feeney, a 13th-round pick out of North Dakota State, walked just 12 and struck out 78 in 80.2 in the Summit League this year. Yet, he’s an example of a pitcher who will need to work on commanding the strike zone as a pro–he allowed 10 HRs to the tune of a 4.57 ERA in 2023.
As these pitchers progress into their pro careers, they’ll need to fine-tune their control into actual command. It’s one thing to not throw balls, but it’s another to put strikes in locations where they won’t get rocked. The hitters they face now will inevitably be better than any they’ve faced in the past, and they’ll have to make the right adjustments.Â
But these new Red Sox pitchers have a solid foundation for strike-throwing on which to build as the franchise looks to continue their strike-throwing ways.
If you’re interested in more on the Red Sox minor league system, I’m joined each week on The Pesky Report by Derrik Maguire and Hunter Noll to talk all things Red Sox prospects. Listen and subscribe to The Pesky Report here.
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Pretty good Jake. Happy to see someone wrote about this. Bb/9 and BB% are a huge part of the game today with a large percentage of pitchers selling out for Velo over command. Every pitch is the right pitch if you have the ability to locate it and you believe in it with conviction. I have seen several of these kids throw several times each. Red Sox Analytical and scouting team definitely set out to draft command over Velo to a degree. One of the biggest adjustments for kids like this when they drafted is to learn what works best for them in what pitch sequence. So it will be interesting in a few years to see where these kids are at progression wise and what levels they have conquered. Good stuff