Baseball America

Twice a month at BaseballAmerica.com, subscribers get exclusive access to BA writers to ask any question they want. Below is a BA Mailbag excerpt from February. Where would North Carolina sophomore Vance Honeycutt rank on the 2023 prospects list if he were draft-eligible? Rob from Silver Spring, Md. At this time, we have lukewarm feelings about the 2024 draft class. The high school side doesn’t seem as electric as it was in 2023—and it certainly isn’t as exciting as the 2022 group—and the college class seems to be stronger in arms than bats. Still, Honeycutt possesses the power-speed, up-the-middle profile and college production to fit at the top of a draft class. The one glaring issue I see in his profile is a strikeout rate bordering on 30%. That’s not only concerning, but…

While watching college softball one day in 2010, Ronnie Gajownik saw an interview with a USA Women’s National Baseball Team member and thought: “Wait, that’s a thing? I want to do that.” Gajownik submitted a tryout video and joined the 40-woman roster in 2011. Four years later, Gajownik and Team USA made it to the Pan American Games in Toronto, where they won gold. She called the experience absolutely amazing—not just playing the game she loves on a global stage but because of what it meant to her family. “My parents raised me (saying) that your last name and who you are as a person, it’s huge, it’s everything,” Gajownik said. “It’s a brand that my dad and mom have made with our name. It was really cool to have that moment of having ‘Team…

Twice a month at BaseballAmerica.com, subscribers get exclusive access to BA writers to ask any question they want. Below is a BA Mailbag excerpt from February. Where would North Carolina sophomore Vance Honeycutt rank on the 2023 prospects list if he were draft-eligible? Rob from Silver Spring, Md. At this time, we have lukewarm feelings about the 2024 draft class. The high school side doesn’t seem as electric as it was in 2023—and it certainly isn’t as exciting as the 2022 group—and the college class seems to be stronger in arms than bats. Still, Honeycutt possesses the power-speed, up-the-middle profile and college production to fit at the top of a draft class. The one glaring issue I see in his profile is a strikeout rate bordering on 30%. That’s not…

As a standout lefthander at Clemson, Daniel Moskos found success initially in the bullpen before he moved into the weekend rotation midway through his junior season. Moskos continued with stellar results as a starter, but he knew that for him, nothing beat coming into a tight game out of the pen in a crucial situation. “That’s how I knew what my role was,” Moskos said. “It’s more of what my personality was and what I thrived on—heart definitely pounding out of the chest—but I thrived on that … The bigger the moment, the better I usually was.” The opposite tended to be true, too. Moskos often struggled in games without much on the line. “If it was like a mop-up situation or something and I was just trying to get work in—I wasn’t very…

While watching college softball one day in 2010, Ronnie Gajownik saw an interview with a USA Women’s National Baseball Team member and thought: “Wait, that’s a thing? I want to do that.” Gajownik submitted a tryout video and joined the 40-woman roster in 2011. Four years later, Gajownik and Team USA made it to the Pan American Games in Toronto, where they won gold. She called the experience absolutely amazing—not just playing the game she loves on a global stage but because of what it meant to her family. “My parents raised me (saying) that your last name and who you are as a person, it’s huge, it’s everything,” Gajownik said. “It’s a brand that my dad and mom have made with our name. It was really cool to have…

If there’s one thing that three decades of ranking the Top 100 Prospects in baseball makes clear, it’s that there is safety in numbers. Prospects are volatile by nature. That’s why an organization with a high quantity of top minor league talent is more likely to produce high-quality big leaguers. And no organization has a higher quantity of quality prospects this year than the Orioles, who have eight of the Top 100 Prospects. Shortstop Gunnar Henderson tops the list. Righthander Grayson Rodriguez ranks No. 6 and is the second-best pitching prospect in baseball. Shortstop Jackson Holliday, the No. 1 overall pick in 2022, checks in at No. 15. That trio alone provides substantial future value to the Orioles, in addition to the contributions of franchise catcher Adley Rutschman, who was the No. 1…