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2018 Draft Prospect Profile: Tristan Beck

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Tristan Beck | RHP

Background
The 21-year-old Beck grew up in Southern California and, two years ago, he joined Mike Mussina and Cal Quantrill (Paul’s kid) as the only true freshmen to start Opening Day for Stanford. He had a stellar freshman year (2.48 ERA and 76/26 K/BB in 83 innings) and was a top 2017 draft prospect as a draft-eligible sophomore, but a stress fracture in his back sidelined him all year. The Yankees selected him with their 28th round pick in last year’s draft but didn’t sign him. Beck returned to the mound this spring and has a 2.92 ERA with a 46/16 K/BB in 52 innings so far.

Scouting Report
Even before the injury, Beck was a command over stuff guy, and his stuff has mostly returned following the back injury. He’ll sit 90-92 mph with his fastball, and because he’s a long and lanky at 6-foot-4 and 165 lbs., there’s plenty of room to dream on him adding velocity under pro instruction. Beck’s best pitch is a knockout changeup, probably the best in the draft class, and he also spins both a slider and curveball. There have been times this spring when his fastball was more 89-90 mph and his breaking stuff flattened out, however. Beck really knows how to pitch and set hitters up — that’s not something he’ll lose to the back injury — and he commands the ball well to both sides of the plate. The back injury ensures Beck will under the microscope each time out from now to the draft.

Miscellany
MLB.com ranked Beck as the 27th best prospect in the draft class while Baseball America ranked him 30th. Keith Law (subs. req’d) did not include him in his top 50 draft prospects. The Yankees hold the 23rd overall pick. The fact the Yankees drafted Beck last year tells you there is some level of interest here, even though they drafted him knowing full well they wouldn’t have the draft pool space to meet his reported bonus demands. Beck’s stuff is good and his pitching know-how is top notch. If the Yankees are comfortable with the medicals, they could trust their player development folks to get Beck to add some velocity, which would really send his prospect stock soaring. That would be quite a risk to take in the first round though.

2017 Draft: Beck, Mangum, Williams, Abbott, Burns, Brown

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Burns. (@MLBDraft)
Burns. (@MLBDraft)

Now that the Yankees have made their selections and the 2017 draft is over, it’s time to see who they actually sign. The signing deadline is Friday, July 7th this year, so three weeks from tomorrow. That’s really close! Anyway, here are my Day One, Day Two, and Day Three recaps. Here are all of the Yankees’ picks, and here’s some draft news and links:

  • In his AL recap, Keith Law notes he doesn’t like the deliveries of South Carolina RHP Clarke Schmidt (1st round) and California HS RHP Matt Sauer (2nd), though he does say, “some teams were fine with the way (Sauer’s) arm works despite all of that and saw a mid-rotation starter.”
  • In their AL East draft recap, Baseball America wrote “college RHPs Trevor Stephan (3), Glenn Otto (5) and Dalton Higgins (7) and LHP Dalton Lehnen (6) all have at least one swing-and-miss offering.” The Yankees always use those middle rounds on Day Two to hoard power arms.
  • Catawba College RHP Bryan Blanton (21st) has a deal in place and is traveling to Tampa today, reports Mike London. Blanton, a reliever, had a 2.70 ERA with 50 strikeouts and 15 walks in 33.1 innings for the Indians.
  • Stanford RHP Tristan Beck (29th) is not going to sign, reports John Manuel. Bummer, but not surprising. Beck was a consensus first round talent before a back issue caused him to miss the season. He was reportedly seeking upwards of $4M to sign.
  • Missouri State OF Jake Mangum (30th), a draft-eligible sophomore, is going to return to school for his junior year, he announced on Twitter. Mangum was a top five rounds pick based on talent, though he slipped due to signability concerns.
  • If you’re into such things, Chris Mitchell’s KATOH system projects Duke OF Jimmy Herron (31st) as one of the best college picks on Day Three at +1.5 WAR. “A draft-eligible sophomore, Herron smacked 17 doubles, stole 17 bases, and struck out in just 12% of his plate appearances this year … Herron doesn’t turn 21 until late July, so he’s a few months younger than most of his draft-eligible college peers, making his performance all the more impressive,” said the write-up.
  • Georgia HS C Steven Williams (35th) will not sign and instead follow through on his commitment to Auburn, he wrote on Twitter. Williams was considered a possible top five rounds pick as an offense-first catcher, though his strong commitment to Auburn caused him to slide to Day Three.
  • Virginia HS LHP Andrew Abbott (36th) is not planning to sign, based on his Twitter feed. That’s not really a surprise. He was considered unsignable from the start. Abbott throws three pitches, including an excellent curveball, though he sits mostly in the upper-80s right now with his fastball.
  • Alabama HS RHP Tanner Burns (37th) will not sign, according to his Twitter feed. Jim Callis mentioned him as one of the most notable picks on Day Three. “Burns drew comparisons to recent first-rounders due to his big arm and advanced command, but his commitment to Auburn must have been too strong for teams to take a chance on him early,” wrote Callis.
  • The Yankees have signed Missouri State OF Cody Brown as an undrafted free agent, according to MSU. He’s heading to Tampa to sign tomorrow. Brown, a lefty swinger, hit .323/.433/.539 with nine homers and ten steals in 64 games this spring.

By the way, our annual Draft Pool Tracker page is now up and running. You can keep tabs on the Yankees’ bonus pool situation there between now and the signing deadline. It is available at all times under the Resources pull down menu in the nav bar at the top of the site.