The slugging infielder is a departure from the Tigers’ usual strategy, but could allow them to invest in youth later in the draft.
Wednesday morning, Kiley McDaniel of ESPN released his MLB Mock Draft 2.0, wherein he predicted the first 40 selections of the upcoming event. The Detroit Tigers , who hold two picks in the top 40, were projected to snag corner infielder Andrew Fischer from Tennessee and righty pitcher Aaron Watson from the Florida prep ranks.
In this scenario, the Tigers are projected to pick up a college player with their first round pick despite never having done so under current President of Baseball Operations Scott Harris. Fischer, the player in question, is a lefty slugger who has spent his three year of college at three different universities. Somewhat lightly esteemed as a high schooler, he played for Duke and set their freshman home run record with 11. Transferring to Ole Miss as a sophomore, he continued to rake and bumped up his power production noticeably despite facing tougher competition.
The big break came this year, as he lit up the SEC to the tune of .341/.497/.760 alongside 25 home runs as a member of the Vols. Also encouraging is the fact that he struck out far less often than he walked, taking a free pass in a fifth of his plate appearances.
Though Fischer has spent time at second and third base at times, he largely played first base during his junior season. As a non-premium defender, he and his Goliath offensive numbers may be available to the Tigers at the end of the first round. The chances are that whichever professional team drafts Fischer will ask him to play third base, at least for a time, to extract as much value from his as possible. He has the arm strength to survive at the hot corner, but his quickness falls short and he won’t be vying for defensive accolades at the position.
MLB Pipeline, who ranked Fischer 29th among top draft prospects , accredited his offensive breakout to an improved presence at the plate, though they mentioned a continuing struggle with sliders. Baseball America is even higher on Fischer, and they expressed skepticism that he would even reach the area where the Tigers are picking based on the high quality of contact he produces on a consistent basis.
“Fischer is rising due to his strong performance in the SEC this year,” writes McDaniel. “I think Detroit is looking to pair a college player with a high school player between this pick and its next and will be looking mostly at left-handed hitters.”
This would be a pretty surprising pick to us based on the profiles Scott Harris and his scouting department, led by Rob Metzler and Mark Conner, have preferred in their first two drafts. We’re not saying the Tigers would never take a college player in the first round, they just seem much more attracted to athletic up-the-middle type players than a slugging corner infielder whose best fit may well be at first base. Still, we’ve only seen two drafts from this group, so we can’t say there’s been a huge sample of draft classes by which to judge them either.
McDaniel also mentioned that the Tigers have been tied to a variety of players including Slater de Brun and Cam Cannarella, both of whom we outlined in a recent article . Speculatively, other lefties who may capture their interest include Sean Gamble, Xavier Neyens, Ethan Conrad, and Kayson Cunningham. It’s too early to imagine that the Tigers have fallen in love with any particular players, and with so many teams ahead of them in the draft order, odds are that even they won’t exactly know who they want to pick until they’re on the clock.
By pairing a college and high school player, as McDaniel suggests, the Tigers will be allowed to continue investing highly in young players despite having a lower draft bonus pool to pay out from. The theory goes that getting good value in Fischer on an underslot deal would set them up for the rest of their draft despite a much smaller bonus pool than they’ve had to work with in Scott Harris’ first two drafts running the Tigers.
In line with that thought, prep righty Aaron Watson is the second player paired with Detroit in this mock. He has a long frame with room to grow and utilizes a steady three pitch mix. The Tigers love moldable young pitchers, which is exactly the bucket Watson fits into.
Watson’s best pitch is his fastball — a low 90s sinker that already presents a bat-missing movement profile and has been clocked at 96 mph at its max. The dream is obviously to add consistent velocity to the pitch as he gets bigger and stronger, perhaps making it a weapon in all parts of the strike zone. His breaking ball is a slider featuring considerable horizontal movement that elicited 12 whiffs during the National High School Invitational.
Finally, he’ll break out a split change against lefties, for which he shows surprising feel as a teenager. As a matter of fact, Watson shows surprise feel for all elements of pitching as a teenager. Though most 6-foot-5 kids have difficulty managing their limbs, he demonstrates a simple, repeatable delivery.
It’s tough to know exactly what McDaniel’s specific reasoning for this pick was without any explicit commentary in the mock draft, and there are tons of players who could slot into this general mold with a month left before the draft. At this point it’s still too early for teams to be very set on anyone, and of course much depends on how other teams drafting in the same general range as the Tigers feel about the same players.