On Sunday night the Cincinnati Reds selected right-handed pitcher Rhett Lowder from Wake Forest with the 7th overall pick in the 2023 Major League Baseball Draft. We wrote about his selection here. Later in the night they would make two more picks.
In the competitive balance round A (this is considered a part of the 1st round) the Reds used the 38th overall pick in the draft to select right-handed pitcher Ty Floyd out of LSU. There’s some good and some not-quite-so-good when it comes to Floyd. When he’s on, he can be dominant. In the College World Series title game last month he struck out 17 Florida Gators as he helped lead LSU to a National Championship. But after his season was complete he had a 4.35 ERA. That’s not bad – the average ERA for teams in the SEC was 5.09 – but it wasn’t exactly dominant, either.
Ty Floyd missed a ton of bats this past year. He struck out 120 of the 387 hitters he faced – that’s 31% for those who didn’t want to do the math. But he also walked 37 batters (9.5%). That’s not a bad walk rate, but it’s not a good one, either. He also hit 12 batters, which makes the control numbers move a bit closer to the not-so-good direction. Where Floyd did struggle, though, was keeping the ball in the ballpark. He gave up 16 home runs in his 91.0 innings pitched.
When it comes to stuff, Floyd’s got it. His velocity got a bump this year and he was sitting in the mid-90’s and touched 98 MPH. And his fastball showed good movement on top of that velocity, too. Floyd also throws a slider, curveball, and a change up. All have a chance to be above-average big league offerings with more consistency. You can see his career stats at LSU here.
With their 2nd round pick and the 43rd overall pick the Reds selected shortstop Sammy Stafura from Walter Panas High School in Cortlandt Manor, New York. Given that he was a high school player, talking about his stats would be pretty useless. What we can do, though, is talk about his athleticism and what scouts who saw him play thought.
When it comes to his athleticism, he’s among the best athletes in the draft. He’s a quick-twitch kind of guy with explosive speed. Keith Law of The Athletic had Stafura rated as the 25th best player in the draft. Other reliable outlets had him between 32 and 43.
A potential 5-tool player, the hit-tool is probably the lowest graded tool he has. Most scouts seem to project it as an average big league hit tool in the future, though some are a little bit lower than that. He’s got the power potential to hit 25 home runs in the future. Mix that with his speed and you’re looking at a guy who could put up some big power/speed numbers. Defensively there isn’t much concern about him remaining at shortstop where he’s got range, good actions, and a strong enough arm to play there long term.
