Several Vols should hear their name called in the first 2-3 rounds
The 2024 MLB Draft is upon us, and soon enough the most talented college and high school prospects across the country will live their dreams of hearing their name called by a major league team in the draft.
Several Tennessee Vols should hear their names called early on in the process.
When: Sunday night at 7:00 pm ET.
Where: Cowtown Coliseum; Fort Worth, Texas
TV coverage: MLB Network
Baseball’s premiere amateur event will kick off on Sunday night, and Tony Vitello will be part of the coverage on MLB Network. Vitello will be on the broadcast for picks in the first and second rounds that will take place on Sunday night.
That could be fortuitous, because the Vols just might have a couple of prospects end up hearing their names called in the first round.
INF Christian Moore should be the first Vol taken. Projections have him mostly in the middle of the first round. However, a common projection among pundits has been to the Red Sox with pick #12.
INF Billy Amick appears to have a back-of-the-first-round type of range. However, MLB.com’s Jim Callis projects Amick as high as 21 to the Minnesota Twins. That’s probably his ceiling, if you believe where the projections have him going. Callis also has another Vol going before the second round, with pitcher Drew Beam going to the Pittsburgh Pirates at pick #37 among the first round supplemental picks.
After the first round is where it gets interesting. MLB.com ranks a number of Vols in the 64-66 range as far as prospects, which includes Beam at 64, followed by 1B Blake Burke at 65, and OF Kavares Tears at 66. Not far behind them is Dylan Dreiling at 72. Any of those could go in the second round or perhaps slip into the early third, including Beam.
However, a good thing that hitting group has is each supplies significant power, a great asset to sell to big league teams, so perhaps we’ll see if all or some end up going in round 2. It would certainly be a nice cherry on top of a championship year for some key Vols.