Iowa Baseball MLB Draft Recap

The MLB Draft is a always the bittersweet portion of the year for a college baseball program. It is a time, where the success of your program is shown with how many players are selected and signed, but it also means officially saying goodbye to players that helped win many games. Coming into this years draft, Rick Heller had seen 27 Iowa players get drafted since his arrival in 2013, with several other players signing undrafted free agent contracts. That list grew this year with a pair of Hawkeyes getting drafted, as well as another two players getting signed as undrafted free agents.

LHP Jared Simpson – Washington Nationals

Over the last few years, rounds 7-10 in the draft have been a cost saving spot for teams. They draft some projected late round players and sign them for below the pick value in attempt to save pool money for day three.

Last year it was Dylan Nedved who got drafted in round nine by the San Diego Padres. This year it was Jared Simpson going to the Nationals in the eighth round with the 225th pick. Simpson is the tenth player under Rick Heller to be drafted inside the top ten rounds. He also is now the seventh highest Hawkeye drafted since 2000.

As a senior this past season, Jared appeared in 22 games with a 6.54 ERA over 42.2 innings. He struck out 64 and owned a 31.5% strikeout rate. The whiff rate on his fastball stands out to scouts and he struck out 7+ batters in three of his first six appearances this season. Luck may not have been on his side, as 52.4% of balls in play against him were on the ground, but it still led to a .380 opponent average on balls in play. It will be interesting to see what Jared does in the Nationals organization.

Nationals Minor League: Rochester (AAA), Harrisburg (AA), Wilmington (High-A), Fredericksburg (A)

RHP Ty Langenberg – Minnesota Twins

When Ty fell to day three it gave Hawkeyes fans a brief moment of hope that he could be back for one more season in the black & gold. Those hopes were quickly dashed when the Minnesota Twins drafted him with pick #327 in the 11th Round. He signed with the Twins for $150,000.

Langenberg appeared in just eight games as a true freshman, but broke out with a 7-2 record and a 3.71 ERA over 12 starts as a sophomore. He was named preseason Big Ten Pitcher of the Year, but opponents were able to hit him hard early in the year and that led to an up and down first half. Still, he finished the year with five of his last six starts going 5.0+ innings, including three starts going 7.0 innings.

Ty has all the pieces to be a successful pitcher in the Twins organization. He racked up 168 strikeouts to 60 walks over 151.1 innings during his Iowa career. The only concern is that opponents hit .361 on balls in play, while his .425 slugging percentage allowed was highest on the team.

If Ty can work on his fastball and get it to miss a few more barrels, he has a really high ceiling. Also, keep an eye on where he is in the Twins organization, as their High-A affiliate is the Cedar Rapids Kernels.

Twins Minor League: St Paul (AAA), Wichita (AA), Cedar Rapids (High-A), For Meyers (A)

1B/OF/DH Keaton Anthony – Philadelphia Phillies

The most shocking development in the entire draft was watching one of the best hitters in college baseball fall all the way to undrafted free agency. Keaton Anthony was offered in the 7th round of the draft last year, but opted to return to Iowa where he had a better statistical season. He missed the last 18 games of the season due to a gambling situation and then was released after four games in the Cape Cod League. Maybe that is why he fell, but it’s not hard to make the argument that the Phillies got the biggest steal of the entire draft weekend.

Over 96 games the last two seasons, Anthony combined 44 doubles, 23 home runs and 93 RBI’s. He did play a few less games this season, but there were improvements in several categories. His slugging percentage (+0.23), on-base percentage (+0.50), batting average (+0.28), BABIP (+0.18) and strikeout rate (-5.3%) all saw positive jumps.

There is no doubt that Keaton will join the Phillies organization with a massive chip on his shoulder.

Phillies Minor League: Lehigh Valley (AAA), Reading (AA), Jersey Shore (High-A), Clearwater (A)

RHP Will Christophersen – Los Angeles Angels

There was a chance that Christophersen could have went on late day two, but instead he went undrafted and signed with the Los Angeles Angels minutes after the draft was complete. He signed with them for $25,000 and is expected to join their minor league system before the end of the season.

As a senior for the Hawkeyes, Will was a dominate arm out of the bullpen. He appeared in 29 games and struck out 59 batters over 33.0 innings. His 3.55 ERA was a little misleading, as he put together 23 scoreless outings and 11 of his 13 earned runs came over four appearances.

He was seven innings short of the requirement to be ranked on the D1Baseball advanced stats list, but his strikeout rate (41.5%) and K-BB% difference (30.2) would have ranked 2nd and 4th respectively amongst pitchers with 40+ innings. He was also second on the team with a .212 slugging percentage allowed.

Christophersen will be able to compete against minor league hitters right away with his already pro graded slider, but he pitches at his best when he can consistently find the zone with his fastball (90-92).

Angels Minor League: Salt Lake (AAA), Rocket City (AA), Tri-City (High-A), Inland Empire (A)

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