South Carolina Baseball: MLB Draft Recap and Outlook on Next Season
By Jacob Elsey
The Major League Baseball draft wrapped up last night. How will the South Carolina baseball team be affected?
Major League Baseball wrapped up a shortened, five round draft late Wednesday night. Of the 160 total picks, only two had ties to the South Carolina baseball program. That’s good news for head coach Mark Kingston and for the outlook of the 2021 season.
THE PICKS
One Gamecock, right-handed pitcher Carmen Mlodzinski, was selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates with the 31st overall pick. He became the 15th player in program history to be taken in the first round. Mlodzinski went 2-1 with a 2.84 ERA in three appearances as the Friday night starter last year, which was unfortunately cut short by COVID-19.
A major reason for his rise to first-round status was the ability to control his pitches. After walking 33 batters over his first 55 innings as a freshman and sophomore, Mlodzinski was able to hone in on his pitch accuracy in 2019. It began in the Cape Cod League, where he had a K/BB ratio of 43-to-5 in seven starts, on his way to a 3-0 record and a 1.84 ERA. The Hilton Head native carried that momentum into the Spring, as he stuck out 22 hitters over 25.1 innings, while only allowing eight free passes in his junior season, an improvement of nearly three walks per nine innings from the two years prior.
Here’s what Pittsburgh’s senior director of amateur scouting, Joe DelliCarri, had to say about the righty.
"“The potential is, first and foremost, I would say is the way he’s made. Very strong competitor. And then, second, we really like the way he, just simply put, he can make the ball move. He throws different pitches. He’s worked on different pitches. He has a variety of pitches that can move in different directions. I would say that’s first and foremost. He’s worked on a little bit of cutter as well as slider, curveball, makes the fastball move to both sides of the plate.”"
The Pirates certainly think they’re getting a good one, and we’ll track Mlodzinski’s career progression in the coming years.
The second draftee was not a member of the current roster, but rather a signee. Left-handed pitcher Luke Little was taken by the Chicago Cubs in the fourth round (117th overall pick). The 19-year-old has been a part of South Carolina’s last two recruiting classes, but ultimately opted to take the JUCO route at San Jacinto College.
In his two seasons with San Jacinto, Little racked up 86 strikeouts in just over 44 innings of work, nearly two K’s per inning. The “not-so-little” lefty actually stands at 6’8” tall, and gained some social media notoriety after tossing a bullpen session where he touched 105-mph on the radar guns. He boasted the highest maximum velocity of any left-handed pitcher in the entire 2020 draft class.
This one hurts for the Gamecocks, as Little is expected to sign with the Cubs. He projects to be used as a power arm out of the bullpen as he climbs the ladder in the Chicago farm system.
THE OUTLOOK
All things considered, the Gamecocks will actually come out on top following the shortened draft. Only a single player was poached from a recruiting class that currently ranks seventh in the nation and had eight prospects ranked in Baseball America’s list of top 400 draft eligible players.
The jewel of the class, Brandon Fields, had already pulled his name out of the draft prior to the start of this week. He is the highest rated player in the class. Pitching prospects Will Sanders, Jackson Phipps, and Magdiel Cotto will boost a position group that’s been lacking quality depth over the last few years.
The team also only loses one player on the current roster, meaning draft-eligible veterans like Noah Campbell, Brannon Jordan, and Thomas Farr will be back for another season. Coach Kingston should have a variety of lineup options when the season rolls around.
Due to COVID-19 and the shortened draft, there will be more players returning to college nationwide, and a larger group of high school prospects attending universities as opposed to testing the minor leagues. In response, the NCAA recently announced that the 35-man roster limit will be eliminated for the upcoming year, and scholarship limits will be increased in order to help coaches handle having more players on campus.
The Gamecocks were 12-4 when last season came to an abrupt end, winning each of their last five games. They’ll look to improve upon those results in 2021.