re: Jonah Williams - Bayou Splash Attendee, Two Sport Athlete

Exactly what I thought you would say. But you sure like a good debate.

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You forget that Kyler Murray was 1st rd NFL draft pick and 1st rd MLB draft pick?

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Yeah but he also wasn't very good at Oklahoma. He was basically Brady Neal. He wasn't bad, but he had no business being the 9th overall pick. It was moronic of Oakland.

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[Kyler Murray] also wasn't very good at Oklahoma ... [and] had no business being the 9th overall pick

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My friend, hitting .296/.398/.556 with double-digit HR as a centerfielder, in your first extended action since HS, while not even focusing on the sport full time is, believe it or not, actually very good.


Per fangraphs, Kyler had above-average raw power - if you pair that with plus-plus wheels, a good arm, and good centerfield defense, you've got a guy who barely needs to be able to hit at all in order to be an average every-day player. Any org that expected kyler to make progress with his hit tool (i.e. hitting for contact) once he started focusing on baseball full-time would've been WELL justified in spending a top-10 pick on him - and elite multi-sport athletes are about as good a bet to improve/develop as anyone. As a prospect, the centerfield defense gave him a fantastic baseline, and the power and perceived projection (since he hadn't spent nearly as much time on baseball as his peers) made his upside enormous. Wasn't unreasonable at all for OAK to take him where they took him.


Here's the scouting report from FG (written by a guy who now works for the Atlanta Braves):

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Murray was a nationally-known superstar quarterback in high school and, though he played shortstop as well, it was assumed that Murray would be the heir apparent to Johnny Manziel at Texas A&M. A shoulder injury limited Murray to DH'ing as a senior in high school and Murray formally opted out of the draft by refusing to submit to MLB's pre-draft medical disclosure. He went to A&M but split time with Kyle Allen as a freshman. Each of them transferred, Murray to Oklahoma, where he backed up Heisman winner and #1 overall pick, Baker Mayfield. For much of this time, Murray wasn't playing baseball.

Football at A&M and the time missed due to NCAA transerring rules limited Murray to 64 college plate appearances before this season. Despite it, he has been electric, showing even more physical ability than he had in high school and performing, slashing .290/.390/.550. He shows everything scouts could want to see after this kind of layoff and his only clear weakness is swing-and-miss against good off-speed stuff, both somewhat allowed with his power-based approach. And even more forgiveable when you consider he hasn't seen good pitching on a regular basis at any point in his baseball career. Given these factors, there's a reasonable chance he may be able to close that hole in his game with reps.

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