10 College Prospects to Watch in the MLB Draft

With the college baseball season coming to a close and the draft approaching in a couple of weeks, it’s just about time to get excited for your team to draft an 18-21 year old who won’t even sniff the big leagues for a couple years (unless you’re drafting Paul Skenes). However, this year we saw a lot of really exciting, polished players in college baseball. So many historic offensive performances and triple digit fastball velocities, it’s hard to see a wrong pick anywhere on the board. So I put together 10 of my favorite guys that I could see being great pickups for your favorite team. Not necessarily my top 10 picks but players I am just very excited about following in the coming years.

Charlie Condon, 3B, Georgia

The clear #1 overall pick in my eyes, this 6 '6 tank of a man, Charlie Condon had quite possibly the best season we have seen in the BBCOR era of college baseball. Even more incredible doing it in the strongest conference in the league. In 60 games this season, Condon hit .433 with 37 home runs, and an OPS of 1.565. Yes you read all of that correctly. He SLUGGED 1.009. Good enough to win him the Golden Spikes award (baseball’s version of the Heisman). These are video game numbers. I’ve seen a few mock drafts that don’t have him at the #1 pick but when you consider the numbers and the competition he did it against, I don’t see a world where Condon doesn’t go 1-1. I could see him being a guy that moves up a system fast and quickly cements himself as one of the best hitters in baseball.

Travis Bazzana, MIF, Oregon St

The soon-to-be highest drafted Australian of all time is one of these contenders potentially swaying the Guardians looming pick away from Condon. He won the Cape Cod league MVP and had three great seasons for the Beavers. Bazzana was just a tick below Condon in most offensive stat categories this past season but he makes up for that with defensive value and athleticism. He’s a speedy contact type of hitter with 66 stolen bases in his 3 years at OSU. Oh and he also just tapped into his power this past season and casually hit 28 bombs in 60 games. I personally don’t have Bazzana as my 1-1 but it wouldn’t be a surprise either way. If I’m the Reds picking at 2 I’d feel completely content with either of these top 2.

JJ Weatherholt, MIF, West Virginia

Weatherholt is a very interesting case for me. I have seen a lot of the big baseball guys ranking him in their top 2 and a few have him potentially going 1-1 to the Guardians. For me, the injury this year would take him out of the #1 spot especially with the seasons that Condon and Bazzana had, but JJ Weatherholt is still going to be in a top spot come the draft. Weatherholt is said to have one of the best contact bats in the draft, a career .370 hitter at WVU with a .467 OBP (.517 in his highest volume season in ’23. He also put up 57 career stolen bases in his 3 years. Weatherholt is a prospect that will likely have success at the big league level, I just see him as a 3rd-5th pick where you draft him with best case scenario he looks like his healthy 2023 season.

Jac Caglianone, 1B/LHP, Florida

Caglianone is easily my favorite prospect in this year's draft (Gators bias) but the only reason I won’t put him in my top 3 is he will most likely have to give up the 2-way dream in pro ball. The MLB teams really like his bat above all else so it looks like he will have to follow up Pete Alonso as the next great power 1B out of UF. Cags has an incredible arm talent with the ability to sit upper 90s as a starter, but the inconsistencies on the mound (sitting 91 in the CWS) combined with his last two incredible power seasons at the plate have cemented him as the next big left handed bat on the draft board.

Chase Burns, RHP, Wake Forest

Chase Burns is my favorite pitcher in the draft by far. He has the energy of a Stroman with the stuff of a Glasnow. Just nasty stuff. Upper 90’s with the ability to touch 101,102 and a disgusting mid-upper 80’s slider. We got a glimpse of him last year in Tennessee’s playoff run, and then Burns transferred to Wake Forest and did not disappoint. He went 8-1 on the year with a 2.72 ERA, opponents hit only .169 off of him, and he had nine strikeouts while averaging 2 K’s per inning. He topped all of it off by winning ACC Pitcher of the Year and setting the Wake Forest season strikeout record (191 K’s). An absolute electric arm talent that I’d probably predict goes in the 3-5 pick in the first round.

Hagen Smith, LHP, Arkansas

Going into his third year at Arkansas, Smith was putting up pretty solid numbers, a good strikeout pitcher that could keep himself in the rotation. In 2024, he made a name for himself as the best left-handed pitcher in the draft. He sits around the mid-upper 90s with his fastball but can run it up to 100 with a disgusting upper 80’s splitter. As the ace of the Razorbacks, Smith put up a 2.04 ERA with 161 K’s in 84 innings. I have Hagen Smith as the #2 pitcher in the draft behind Burns, but it would not surprise me at all if Smith works his way into the top 5 picks with the crazy stuff he has and the dominant season he just had.

Brody Brecht, RHP, Iowa

Brecht is easily the project pick of this draft, the Josh Allen/Anthony Richardson kid of direction, but man does he have some talent. Brecht is a raw arm out of Iowa and has the ability to rack up triple digits on the radar gun as a starter. In 178 innings at Iowa in his career he put up 281 K’s in 178 innings with a rather modest 3.49 ERA. The concern is within the 135 walks in those 178 innings. The big watching point with Brecht this past season was limiting those walks while still maintaining the high velocity, and that was somewhat accomplished as he walked 12 less batters from last year in about the same amount of innings. He is likely still one of the first arms taken off the board in the draft, but his ideal spot will be an organization with good pitching development through the system.

Vance Honeycutt, OF, North Carolina

Honeycutt is already looking to be one of the sleeper picks of the first round. A lot of mocks have him going in the back half of the first round, but I think his talent is good enough to be a top 10 pick. He is an incredible athlete out there in center field (ACC Defensive Player of the Year) and the second he sets foot on a major league field, he will be a threat for the next 30 HR/30 SB season. He damn near accomplished that in 62 games of the college season this year (28/28). Possibly the craziest stat of them all, in 200+ games in 3 years of ACC baseball, Honeycutt grounded into ONE double play. He is a true 5 tool player that I could see making his way to a big league club quicker than normal if the bat translates into pro ball.

Jurrangelo Cijntje, BHP, Mississippi St

Nope, that’s not a typo. It says BHP. Jurrangelo Cijntje (good luck pronouncing that) is a switch pitcher. He is easily one of the most exciting available pitchers. And he’s not some interesting publicity pitcher like the switch pitcher Pat Venditte a while back. Cijntje is LEGIT. Ironically, he was born a lefty and decided to try both at a young age, and now he throws harder as a righty. Right-handed Cijntje sits 95-96 but can run it up to 98, left-handed he sits more in the low 90s. He didn’t quite put up the numbers of the other pitchers in this draft class (8-2, 3.67 ERA, 113 K’s) but he definitely holds a lot of upside and excitement. He is a projected late first/early second round pick and I am so damn excited because this is something that we have seen at the big league level just once before and it was not even close to this capacity of talent.

Lyle Miller-Green, OF, Austin Peay

To close it off, gotta give some love to a fellow mid-major and ASUN Conference guy. Miller-Green put up possibly one of the best seasons we have ever seen from a mid-major player. He’s a 5th year senior and may not even get drafted in the first 5 rounds due to his age and limited money demands, but I don’t care. The guy rakes. He had a solid 2023 season as well, but a .533 OBP, .900 slugging %, and 30 homers in 56 games is ridiculous stuff. It absolutely does not matter to me how old he is or what kind of competition he faced, Lyle Miller-Green could be an extremely sneaky pickup later in the draft.

Caleb Williams is a former D1 Pitcher, self professed baseball nerd and an obnoxious Boston sports fan and can be found on Chaotically Intolerant