Introduction to 2024 MLB Draft: Top college pitchers available

A look at some of the best college arms available in the 2024 draft.

After the second-ever lottery, the order for the 2024 MLB Draft was set in late December. Now that we are in January, we are close to the start of the College Baseball season.

The Pirates have gone the college route with their top pick in four of the five drafts under Ben Cherington, although they have all been position players.

This year is an interesting year for college pitching, there is no clear-cut player at the top like in 2023 with Paul Skenes. Depending on what you are looking for from a pitcher, you could go several directions regarding who might be the first pitcher off the board.

While we have the entire season to work out where each falls into place, here’s a rundown on some of the top college pitchers available this year.

Chase Burns

He struggled to start the season last year with Tenessee until a shift to the bullpen set things off for him. That could hint at the future, as there is some reliever risk when it comes to Burns.

The fastball is explosive, and he commands it well in the zone but doesn’t get the swing and miss that you would hope from a pitch that he can dial up to triple-digits, although that also shifted a bit out of the bullpen - but the games I watched were as a starter so far.

The slider is a wipeout pitch and is in the conversation for the best overall offering in the draft.

Brody Brecht

If there’s a guy who can come close to Skenes when it comes to pure stuff, it’s Brecht. The biggest difference is the control, as the Iowa righty was among the nation leaders in free passes last year.

He can dial the fastball to triple digits, and the slider can sometimes be unhittable. I watched a video from Skenes and Brecht made at Kansas State last year from the same camera angles, and the pure raw stuff is comparable, but it was hard. The latter struggled mightily with his command from start to finish.

The selling point for Brecht is that 2023 was the first year he entirely focused on baseball, with him playing football as well.

If he takes another step in his development, he will be the first pitcher off the board and be in the conversation for 1.1 with the Cleveland Guardians.

Josh Hartle

I wouldn’t say that Hartle has the best stuff in the draft, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he were the first in this class to make it to the majors as a starter.

In watching Hartle, nothing completely stood out; it was an overall solid repertoire of pitches and command.

With many questions about command and control with some of the other names, it’d be easy to see Hartle cruise through this season and end up as the first pitcher off the board based on his overall skillset.

Hagen Smith

The lefty out of Arkansas has a great fastball/slider combo but has struggled to command it. His fastball has a great run on it, created from a lower arm angle, and it plays well up in the zone.

There was an at-bat while he was pitching for Team USA that, while it was a walk, did a great job of changing the eye level of the hitter.

It will be interesting to see where he slides in as the season progresses; if the control improves, his stock could skyrocket.

Jonathan Santucci

In every draft, there is one guy I zero in on that will be just outside of range for the Pirates, primarily due to them constantly selecting high.

Santucci and Smith quickly worked their way up to that when it came to college pitchers early on. According to Baseball America, the Duke lefty had a 30% miss rate with his fastball and 51% with the slider.

He’s another that the control will have to improve on, but the few outings I’ve seen have really jumped out to me.

I don't know what his upside is, and he did miss the majority of the season due to an injury, so there may be the potential that he slips to the compensation round for the Pirates.

Thatcher Hurd

Hurd was fantastic as a freshman at UCLA before transferring to LSU last year. The overall numbers weren’t great, but he turned it on towards the end of the season and straight into the College World Series.

He factors in a fastball, slider, curveball, and change-up, but the first two are his best pitches. The slider has a lot of spin (scouting reports have it repeatedly at 3,000 rpm or more) with a hard downward and away break.

MLB Pipeline and Baseball America have him ranked as the 18th and 28th prospect overall, respectively, in their initial lists, but he has the kind of upside to move even further up the list.

He should be the Friday night starter for the defending National Champions, so there will be plenty of attention on him.

Drew Beam

Looking at the scouting report from Baseball America and Pipeline, they had something in common - that there was a perception about Beam that he was a ‘high-floor’ guy, but maybe there was more there.

He had a mid-30s miss rate with both his curveball and change-up and a fastball that reached as high as 98.

The curveball works well on both sides of the plate, and he induced a lot of weak contact with his fastball throwing it in on righties in the Team USA outing I saw from him.

Bonus: Jac Caglianone

Maybe one of the biggest wildcards in the draft, Caglianone has a high ceiling both hitting and pitching but also some red flags.

On the mound, he’s a lefty who can reach the upper 90s while striking out 25% of the batters he faced last year but also walked 16%.

Of course, the apparent comparisons head straight to Ohtani, but with more upside as a hitter mixed in with the control issues, I’m not sure Caglianone gets too far on the mound in the pro ranks - as of now.