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MLB Draft League: Data Darlings (July + MLB Draft)

August 2, 2024
Seth Fromowitz, JD Linhardt & Jackson Gormley

One aspect of the MLB Draft League that distinguishes it from other collegiate summer leagues is its technology and data integration. Through the league’s data coordinators, all Draft League players have readily available information to help evaluate, scout and develop their skill set while directly distributing that information to all 30 Major League teams. With the first half of the season nearing its conclusion, here are some of the interesting Data Darlings that have stood out all season or have used the first week of July to elevate their game.

Click here to read the first edition of the MLB Draft League’s Data Darlings series.

Frederick

RHP Valek Cisneros (Central Oklahoma) - Leading a Keys pitching staff that allowed the fewest first-half hits, Cisneros was the bullpen staple, dominating over 10 relief appearances. The Division II All-American did not allow a run over 13.1 innings, mixing sinkers and sliders to generate weak contact, as evidenced by his one extra-base hit allowed. In the first week of July, Cisneros painted his sinker (89.8 mph avg, T92.4) with 14” HB on the edge of the zone 42.1% of the time and 49.4% over the season. He backs up his sinker with a slider, using the pitch to limit hitters to a .077 batting average and slug and .068 wOBA with a 60% whiff rate. Overall, he showed a penchant for strikeouts (27.2%) and inducing ground balls (48.4%) while picking up plenty of swing-and-miss (39.1%) with his coast-to-coast attack.

C Owen Carapellotti (Georgetown) - Carrapelloti’s left-handed bat brings plenty of juice into a lineup. Expected to hit .323 with a slugging percentage of .515, Carrapelloti averaged a hard hit with every ball in play, posting an average exit velocity of 96.2 mph with a max exit velocity of 108.7 mph and 61.5% hard-hit rate. He stung the ball at 95+ mph at a 21.1% clip while running a 15.4% barrel-per-batted ball-event rate. Carapellotti’s 69.3% fly ball/line drive rate reflects his ability to tap into his power, and he did so this summer while recording a modest 15.8% whiff rate. 

Mahoning Valley

RHP Peyton Olejnik (Miami (OH)) - The Angels’ sixth-round pick (No. 172 overall) in this year’s Draft, Olejnick has lots of natural deception baked into his 6-foot-11 frame and pounds the zone with swing-and-miss stuff. He limited batters to a .143 slugging and .165 wOBA with his fastball, averaging 92.2 mph (T94.4) with 16.1” of run with the pitch during his time with the Scrappers. Olejnik’s fastball generated whiffs one-third of the time, and hitters mustered a 10% hard-hit rate against it. When throwing the changeup, Olejnik takes his 16+” of run and flips it horizontally for 16.4” of horizontal movement to induce a comparable whiff rate to his fastball, with a 23.5% chase rate. Olejnik’s slider, thrown with 11.7” of horizontal movement and 4.9” IVB, was one of Olejnik’s most effective pitches in the Draft League. Hitters slugged .067 against the pitch, whiffing 39.1% of the time with a 33.3% in-zone whiff rate. On top of posting a .182 BAA, .218 SLG, and .241 wOBA, Olejnik registered a 41% whiff rate, 25.8% strikeout rate and 7.5% walk rate to emerge as one of the league’s more impactful starters.

OF Joel Dragoo (Presbyterian) - Selected by the Phillies in the seventh round (No. 222 overall) in this year’s Draft, Dragoo entered the Draft League on the heels of his best collegiate season at Presbyterian College (.401/.508/.797/1.305, 18 HR, 67 RBI, 11 SB). The Big South Player of the Year struggled before finding his form. Dragoo was hitting and slugging .205 with a .260 wOBA through June, generating too much soft contact and uncharacteristically chasing out of the zone. After attending the MLB Draft Combine, where he flashed exit velocities that peaked over 107 mph, he turned his Draft League season around by hitting .333 with a .400 slugging and a wOBA of .464. His power was on display at Chase Field, as Dragoo averaged an exit velocity of 96.6 mph and a max of 100.7 mph, with a vastly improved 54.6% hard-hit rate, upon return to the Draft League.

State College

RHP Sam Swygert (Georgia Tech) - Swygert was a workhorse for the Spikes to start July, logging six scoreless innings over three appearances during which where he struck out eight. Through the same amount of games in June, he’d allowed three earned runs on 10 hits in 4.1 innings, albeit with 10 strikeouts. The difference was Swygert’s changeup usage, which jumped from 13% in June to 25% in July. More specifically, when assessing the effectiveness of The Citadel graduate’s changeup from July 2 to July 7, we see that opponents hit .200 with a .300 SLG and .216 wOBA against the offering. They swung at the pitch 65.2% of the time, whiffing at a 20% clip overall and 16.7% inside the strike zone. Swygert also registered a 52.9% chase rate with his changeup in that span and effectively threw it to the edges of the plate (39.1%).

3B Robert Hipwell (Santa Clara) - A post-MLB Draft addition to the Spikes roster, Hipwell made the most of his opportunity in the Draft League en route to a sixth-round selection (No. 178 overall) by the Giants. He opened July on a tear, hitting .333 with a .524 slugging and .423 wOBA over his first five games. Hipwell recorded a max exit velocity of 103.3 mph during that stretch, with a hard-hit rate of 28.6%. He barrelled 21.4% of his contact while generating a fly ball or line drive at a 59.1% clip.

Trenton

LHP Ethan Bradford (Kansas) - Bradford is another of the sinker/slider pitchers who consistently induced soft contact and ground balls with swing-and-miss stuff. The lefty generates one foot of arm-side horizontal movement and 9.8” IVB with his sinker, throwing it at 91.8 mph (T93.4). He posted a 42.9% whiff rate with the pitch during the first week in July and enjoyed similar results with his slider, posting a 25% whiff rate with zero hits allowed. Bradford punched out a quarter of the batters he faced in that stretch, registering a 26.3% whiff rate, and induced groundballs at a 50% clip while limiting the opposition to an 84.5 mph average EV. Overall, hitters posted a paltry .071 average with a 40% whiff rate against Bradford’s slider during the Draft League’s first half. He is currently pitching for the Thunder in the Draft League as a professional player.  

INF John Taylor (Louisiana-Lafayette) - Entering the Draft League towards the end of June, Taylor showcased some pop and a knack for handling velocity during the first week of July. Posting average and max exit velocities of 89.9 and 103.2 mph, Taylor hit eight balls over 95 mph (40%) with a hard-hit-per-swing rate of 17.4%. He also demonstrated advanced plate discipline, chasing 12.7% of the time with a 13% whiff rate. Taylor did most of his damage against four-seamers and sinkers, hitting a combined .465 with a .536 slugging and a wOBA of .472. Against sinkers, Taylor posted a whiff rate of 5.6% and a hard-hit rate of 14.3%, while against fastballs, he did not whiff and registered a 60% hard-hit rate.

West Virginia

RHP Blake Shepardson (San Francisco) - The Black Bears have had their fair share of pitching talent that stands out from the rest of the league, and Shepardson is one of those grouped at the top of the list. The Chicago White Sox 11th-round pick (No. 319 overall) impressed the moment he stepped on the mound for the Black Bears in relief on June 19, when he struck out three batters in one inning, topping at 97.9 mph. With three pitches, Shepardson attacks batters with high velocity, ride and arm-side movement in his fastball and sinker before causing right-handed hitters to swing and miss on the slider with over a foot of horizontal movement the other way. Featuring a heater that averaged 97.3 mph in the Draft League (T99.2), Shepardson painted the edge of the zone for a strike 48.4% of the time. He induced chases at a 48.3% clip with his sinker (96 mph avg. T98.6) while posting a 37.5% whiff rate. When slowing batters down with his slider, which averaged 85.6 mph, batters whiffed two-thirds of the time with a 57.1% whiff rate inside the zone.

INF Jack O’Dowd (Texas) - O’Dowd made his mark on the Draft League with a big start to July, hitting and slugging .400, respectively, to outperform his expected numbers. When putting the ball in play, the Texas product hit the launch angle sweet spot at 38.5% while hitting the ball in the air with a combined line drive and flyball rate of 61.6%. O’Dowd’s plate presence was a key factor in his overall success, as he chased only 18.4% of pitches outside the zone with a 15.6% whiff rate. O'Dowd did not whiff once against fastballs, sliders and curveballs in the zone.

Williamsport

RHP Luke Johnson (Maryland-Baltimore County) - Drafted in the 10th round (No. 290 overall) by the Nationals, Johnson caused opponents to chase at a high rate without issuing any walks during his time with Mahoning Valley. With an arsenal that features a fastball, changeup, slider and cutter, Johnson recorded a 36.4% chase rate across his two July starts. He walked just one of 44 batters during the first half. And while Johnson didn’t light up the radar gun compared to some of the Draft League’s other hurlers, he showed that he could generate upwards of 20” IVB on the pitch. 

1B/OF Eric Rataczak (Niagara) - Rataczak’s data is nearly as fascinating as the collegiate baseball journey that led him to be drafted by the Miami Marlins in the 16th round (No. 484 overall). Rataczak played club baseball at the University of San Diego before transferring to two junior colleges and returning to San Diego to play for the club baseball team. He then played in a summer league in Canada and was recruited by Niagara University in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference at the Division I level for the 2024 season. Rataczak made program history with the Purple Eagles, becoming the team’s single-season home run leader (17) en route to MAAC Player of the Year honors. Making a stop in the Draft League during a journey that led him from club to professional baseball, Rataczak demonstrated a top-tier approach at the plate. Over the week beginning July 2, he had an average exit velocity of 91.9 mph, a hard-hit rate of 40% and a 30% barrel rate. Additionally, 70% of Rataczak’s batted balls were hit at the sweet spot of launch angle (between eight and 32 degrees off the bat), resulting in a .545 slugging. He has plate discipline to pair with the power, as he struck out at a 7.1% clip with a 10% chase rate in the Draft League.