The 2022 NCAA Men’s World College Series begins on Friday after eight teams bought tickets to Omaha, Nebraska, in recent weeks. These are: Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Texas, Notre Dame, Stanford, Arkansas, Auburn and Ole Miss. The state champion will be crowned no later than Monday, June 27.
With that in mind, this week’s Prospect Watch aims to highlight one player from each team who could be named next month in the amateur draft of the Major League Baseball. Keep in mind that the teams were presented in alphabetical order and that most teams had multiple candidates to choose from.
Arkansas: Kayden Wallace, 3B / OF
Wallace played the full list at third base in 2022 after previously sharing time, both in his first season with the Razorbacks and in the Cape Cod League, between the hot corner and the outside corner. He scored .299 / .393 / .554 with 15 home runs and 17 doubles as a 20-year-old in the SEC game, and he did so while improving his ejection and gait rates. Wallace is a second-year student who qualifies for the draft, but his performance and increased chances of staying at third base should lead him to get off the board in the first two rounds. Injured right-handed starter Peyton Pallette and infielder Robert Moore, the son of Royal CEO Dayton Moore, should also be relatively high in the draft.
Auburn: Sonny DiChiara, 1B
DiChiara, a transfer from Samford, hit the SEC pitching at .320 / .460 / .665 slash line with 22 home runs and 17 more strokes than strikeout. As good as his season has been, he is facing a tough fight for drafting in the first few rounds. It is common for him to be older (he will turn 23 before the end of July) and to be a right-hander who offers limited defensive value.
Notre Dame: Jack Brannigan, 3B / RHP
Brenigan is a two-way player who has appeared in more than 50 games as a third player and who has also stood on the hill 11 times during the season. It remains to be seen which role professional teams will prefer for him, because he has advantages and disadvantages every time. He is a talented defender who has hit .296 / .361 / .557 this season with 12 home runs, although he did so while announcing an ugly 2.55 strike-to-walk ratio. On the hill, Branigan has good arm strength and hit 28 of the 68 hitters he faced, although he issued walks for eight more.
Oklahoma: Peyton Graham, SS
Graham jumped around the diamond during his stay in the Cape Cod League last summer. He has played almost exclusively shortstop this season, hitting .336 / .416 / .660 with 20 home runs and 32 stolen bases (in 34 attempts) along the way. Graham hit more than 2.5 times more often while walking, and it is reasonable to ask how this will translate against professional pitchers. Still, some team will probably be thrilled with his projected 6-foot 4,171-pound frame, his collection of physical gifts and the belief that the best is yet to come. Graham could step down from the board within the top 50 selections.
Ole Miss: Haiden Dunhurst, C
Dunhurst has little juice in his mouth, but he will not be chosen based on his offensive talents. (His .802 TSO is ranked eighth out of 11 rebels with at least 100 board appearances.) Instead, his catching and throwing abilities - with an emphasis on the throwing part - should give him a choice over the first few rounds.
Texas A&M: Trevor Werner, 3B
Werner played 11 appearances in the first two seasons at Texas A&M, but focused only on playing third base this season. Perhaps predictably, he had his best offensive so far, hitting .252 / .362 / .487 with six hom wounds. Werner has a big frame (6-3, 220) and obvious strength. Whoever draws it will have to work on their approach, as he has achieved more than 21 percent of his performances.
Texas: Ivan Melendez, 1B
Melendez was selected by the Marlins in the 16th round last summer, but was chosen to return to Texas. The big 12 pitchers would certainly like it not. He scored .396 / .516 / .888 with 32 home runs (the most since the return of the bat-ball odds in 2011) and four moves more (52) than the strikeout (48) in 65 games. Melendez has great raw power, to the extent that he should overcome the biases against the right right player of the first base and be selected somewhere in the first 100 spades. The Longhorns have several other people who could also go in that range, including catcher Silas Ardoin, Trey Faltin and left-hander Pete Hansen.
Stanford: Brock Jones, OF
Jones is a former football player who offers strength and speed in the lumps. He hit .327 / .455 / .665 with 20 home runs and 15 stolen balls (in 20 attempts) this season. The catch is that Jones is prone to evictions, having a K rate north of 24 percent. A team that believes their player development staff can help maximize Jones ’abundant athleticism could knock him out sometime later in the first round.