Breaking Down All Things White Sox 1st Overall Pick Andrew Vaughn

So I’ve talked about Andrew Vaughn a LOT over the last few months because all signs pointed him being the player the White Sox eventually took with the 3rd overall pick, which obviously came to fruition.  Quite simply the dude hits, hits and hits some more.  He has an EXTREMELY high floor because of this.

In 2018 Vaughn won the Golden Spikes award, baseball’s equivalent of the Heisman Trophy.  

and is a finalist once again this year.  I think Rutschman will win it this year, but that’s whatever.  Here is the list of the most recent Golden Spikes Award winners:

2006: Tim Lincecum
2007: David Price
2008: Buster Posey
2009: Stephen Strasburg
2010: Bryce Harper
2011: Trevor Bauer
2012: Mike Zunino
2013: Kris Bryant
2014: AJ Reed
2015: Andrew Benintendi
2016: Kyle Lewis (in AA, doing decent)
2017: Brendan McCay (DOMINATING MiLB as a 2 way player)
2018: Andrew Vaughn

That list is flat out loaded with star power.  Players on a HoF path.  World Series champions, all stars, MVPs, batting title winners, etc.

It’s not a direct correlation, but typically those who win the award go on to have at least somewhat dominant big league careers.  AJ Reed is the one outlier as he’s still toiling in AAA with Houston.  The point is is if you want to draft a sure fire talent, gun for the Golden Spikes winners.  Easy enough, right?

There have been numerous scouts and national writers who have compared his offensive output to that of Kris Bryant’s:

Bryant obviously has a ton of defensive versatility and Vaughn doesn’t, but if the Sox just drafted a player who scouts think can consistently put up Kris Bryant-like offensive numbers, they did just fine.

Strengths:

– Plus bat speed
– Plus barrel control
– Light tower power
– Plus-plus plate discipline and approach

Weaknesses:

– Defensive versatility
– Speed

Over the course of his Cal career, Vaughn put up this slash line:

Simple math shows he’s struck out just 75 times over the course of 715 at bats while drawing 122 walks.  That’s good for a ~10% walk rate and 17% walk rate.  It’s obviously against PAC12 pitching and he will strike out more while walking less, but those rates are so good my head is about to explode.  Oh, and he did it while hitting for about a 1.300 OPS.  He is going to be an offensive force for a long time.

But WSD, how does he get to those numbers?  How is it that he’s such a good fucking hitter?

I intentionally copy and pasted his strengths/weaknesses above from a scouting website to kinda prove a point.  I wanted people to think it was just me jerking off his offensive game.  It wasn’t.  That comes from one of the many scouting reports that say he’s a freak of nature offensively.

But this part is me jerking him off.  His swing is spooge-worthy.  The oft-made comparison is Josh Donaldson, which is easy to see:

I’ll even take it a step further and say it reminds me of Javy Baez a little bit too:

Javy has a crazy exaggerated bat hammer, but the three players all possess one none the less.  But WSD, what’s a bat hammer?  I kind of made up the phrase on my own, but other people use it here and there.  It’s when a hitter creates a ton of torque in his wrists by almost swinging backwards; they start their swing by throwing the barrel of the bat towards the pitcher behind their heads and as the hitter’s hips/legs start to engage and drive towards the pitcher, the barrel of the bat whips through the zone all the harder.  It’s kinda hard to explain, so here’s another example in GIF form:

The torque and tension in the wrists create that much more bat speed and while while the barrel is traveling through the zone.  More bat speed/whip = harder hit baseballs.

But his core and legs keep him grounded as a hitter.  Javy Baez is an exceptional athlete, and Donaldson a very good one in his own right.  Vaughn doesn’t have the fast twitch athleticism of those two players, but he’s got crazy good core strength and good hips.  He’s not so much swinging with his hands as he is with his core and lower half.  All his hands are doing are cocking into place while his core, hips and legs allow his hands/barrel to explode through the zone.  But he complements his beautiful swing with a better brain, based off his absurd K:BB numbers.

Where will he start?

Cal’s season is done and the faster the Sox sign him, the better.  I’m assuming he’ll get slot value of about $7.2MM, hopefully a little less so they can allocate more money to depth picks.  He’ll go to AZ for a week or so, dominate there, then I’m guessing head to Low A Kannapolis.  His bat is WAY too advanced for that league.  If it were up to me I’d challenge him right off the bat and send him to HiA Winston Salem after his AZ stint, but I’m guessing that won’t be the case.  Assuming he dominates Low A pitching, he’ll end this season in Hi A, maybe head to the AFL, and then back to Winston Salem for the start of the 2020 season.  If all goes well, he ends next year in Charlotte and is ready at some point early in 2021.  If all goes exceptionally, he “forces the issue” and is ready for Chicago next year.  That’s a long shot, but there’s a shot none the less.  He will fly through the system.

I said it yesterday – we’re really happy with this pick.  I would have loved Rutchman to fall, but Vaughn is the perfect consolation prize.  The White Sox have a ton of high end organizational depth now and are so, so close to being contenders.  Sooner than later they will be packaging their org depth to trade for already established Big League (hopefully) superstars too.

The White Sox are really, really cooking with gas right now.  Super fun times.