He initially played SS but was moved to the OF sometime as a junior I think (not clear when from what I read). Supposedly he played only at RF but the Astros want to try him at CF. Would definitely like to see if they give him a chance at SS just to see if he could stick there, but many HS SS are eventually forced to move elsewhere. Still plenty of pretty good prospects still available tomorrow. As I said, the depth in this draft is in the middle rounds. Not as familiar with the pitching prospects, but I like Kavalas (how is he still available?), Dom Keegan (Vandy 1B), and Cam Thompson (Kansas State SS and native Houstonian) the most.
https://www.mlb.com/astros/news/astros-2021-draft-day-2-coverage Round 3, 87th overall: Tyler Whitaker, OF, Bishop Gorman HS (Nev.) Quotable: “We think he’s got potential five tools written all over him. He runs, he hits and we’re enamored by his power. We think he can impact the baseball on both sides -- defensively, offensively -- and we’re really excited to get him where we got him.” -- Gross Lots of other good tidbits in the article.
He's been timed at 94mph across the diamond, so I'd like for them to have the opportunity to play SS until he can't anymore. He's not an overly quick or fast guy, so his range may be a bit limited at the upper levels, but his arm should play.
Jeter made a career out of "not an overly quick or fast guy." He just made routine plays look far more difficult than they needed to be. And the fawning New York media bought it. Modern metrics would NOT be kind to him.
No real reason to assume he'll have to move off of short. For reference, Bregman's IF throw was 84 and Correa's was 97 coming out of HS. There are very few SS's that were slam dunks to stay at short the day they are drafted, especially high schoolers whose bodies will change more.
Love this pick. Rare to get a guy with a legit 55 grade hit tool in the 13th. He will need to maximize his defensive and power ceilings to be an everyday player and probably doesn’t fit as a bench guy with his average to below average speed and lack of defensive prowess. I could see him having similar value to Tony Kemp (Kato being a better hitter, but with less speed and similar defensive limitations).
he was a horrific defender (maybe because of position the single most damaging defender in the history of baseball) and all the metrics at the time showed it (as well as just watching)
Whitaker is very much a Luhnow type choice. Gross was a Luhnow hire from the Cards, and has been in the Astros organization since Luhnow came over. He also has been heavily involved in the Astros scouting for at least the last few years. He and Goldstein got along well. Gross also specializes on prospects on the West Coast, so he should be very familiar with Whitaker.
Astros 2021 pitcher draftees velocity peaks: 4. McDermott 96 6. Arrighetti 95 8. Gordon 92 9. Brown 96 12. Kouba 96 14. Salgado 98