once he does, he’s bound to impress quite a few fans. Royals 2024 Draft Class Kocsis Jr.
After that, Kansas City looked at a lot of college arms. The next six picks from Kansas City were college pitchers who had played four seasons collegiately. Kansas City snagged two pitchers from Tennessee’s College World Series rotation, including A.J. Clausey who led the NCAA with 13 wins this year. A Jacksonville State transfer, Clausey worked as the Vols Friday night starter for much of the year. They also grabbed Drew Beam. Beam throws a mid-90s fastball, cutter and change-up in his arsenal. They picked up L.P Langevin in that list, who had one of the best strikeout rates in college baseball. He lived and died with a 97 MPH fastball, but he also mixed in a slider and changeup for about 20% of his pitches while at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette. The first sole-position player Kansas City drafted was catcher Canyon Brown out of North Carolina A&T. The Florida-native hit .322 with 13 double and six homers in 54 games for the Aggies this season. That started a trend where the Royals were looking for high-contact position players. The next position player they selected was first baseman Sam Kulasigam from Air Force. He hit .323 with 16 doubles and six homers in 55 games on the way to his second Tony Gwynn Award in college. This year was the first year he didn’t hit over .400 since his freshman season. The final college position player that Kansas City drafted was Carter Frederick out of the University of Oklahoma. Frederick only played 13 games for the Sooners in 2024. He hit .343 and smacked a pair of homers, but he also played in the draft league this summer and impressed a lot of scouts. Frederick hit .462 for Portland while drawing eight walks compared to three strikeouts and drove in seven RBI. The sample size is small, but Frederick is a high-upside 20th round selection like likely would not have been available had the Royals waited to try to sign him as an undrafted free agent like they’ve had success with each of the last two years with Brett Squires and Chris Brito who are in Northwest Arkansas and Quad Cities, respectively. While there’s no guarantee that any of these players make an impact with the Columbia Fireflies before the end of the 2024 season because they all played in college or high school baseball this year, the draftees who made their way to Columbia in 2023 started their arrival when the team visited the Augusta GreenJackets August 3-6 last season. There’s a decent chance that at least one of these names will find their way to Columbia’s roster in 2024, and maybe they’ll make it here before the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers leave town August 11. Regardless, it’s safe to say that the Royals have acquired a ton of talent that will be making its way up the ladder the next few years before you see them in a Major League uniform.
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