All three of Mississippi State’s opening weekend starting pitchers are headed to Phoenix for the MLB Draft Combine, as are sluggers Dakota Jordan and Hunter Hines. Jordan, Hines, Khal Stephen, Jurrangelo Cijntje and Nate Dohm are all projected top-200 picks in next month’s draft.
The fourth annual MLB Draft Combine started Tuesday and runs through Sunday at Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Jordan, ranked No. 29 in MLB Pipeline’s Draft Top 200, followed up an excellent freshman year with an even better sophomore campaign. He finished with a .354/.459/.671 triple slash, 20 home runs and 72 runs batted in, closing the season in style with a 10-for-19 showing that included three homers in four games at the Charlottesville Regional.
Cijntje is two spots behind Jordan at No. 31, and the ambidextrous pitcher lowered his ERA from 8.10 as a freshman to 3.67 as a sophomore to go along with an 8-2 record and 113 strikeouts against just 30 walks in 90 2/3 innings. He also held opponents to a .211 batting average and allowed fewer hit batters and home runs than he did in 2023 even with a much bigger workload.
Stephen, in his lone year with the Bulldogs after transferring from Purdue, pitched 96 innings with a 3.28 ERA. In his final start with MSU, he tossed eight innings of two-run ball with no walks and 10 strikeouts against St. John’s in the opening round of the NCAA regionals. He was named a Third-Team All-American last week by the American Baseball Coaches Association, the Bulldogs’ only selection, and is No. 87 on the MLB Pipeline draft prospects list.
Dohm missed most of the season with arm injuries but was excellent when healthy, going 4-0 with a 1.23 ERA in 29 1/3 innings while striking out 37 batters against just four walks and no home runs allowed. He is MLB Pipeline’s No. 164 draft prospect, 10 spots ahead of Hines.
Hines did not quite repeat his 2023 power numbers, but he still hit 16 home runs with 56 RBI and broke out of a late-season slump with six hits in his last three games, including a homer.
Three MSU commits from the high school class of 2024 — outfielder Dante Nori (No. 47), and pitchers Conrad Cason (No. 99) and Cade O’Leary (No. 191) — are also on the MLB Pipeline Draft Top 200, so it remains to be seen whether they will sign with the teams that draft them or play for the Bulldogs.
Stevens entering hot stretch for Newport Gulls
Rising sophomore two-way player Nolan Stevens did not take long to adjust to hitting with wood bats in the New England Collegiate Baseball League. Playing for the Newport (Rhode Island) Gulls, Stevens started the summer just 2-for-14 but hit a double and a triple in a win over the Upper Valley Nighthawks on Friday, then had three hits Monday against the North Shore Navigators.
Brady House, who did not see any game action as a freshman for the Bulldogs, hit three homers in his first five games with the NECBL’s Keene (New Hampshire) Swamp Bats but has just one other hit so far through nine games.
Over in the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League, outfielder Michael O’Brien is batting .286 with a .412 on-base percentage for the Amsterdam (New York) Mohawks, driving in a pair of runs in his last game on Sunday. Catcher Steven Spalitta has reached base in half of his plate appearances for the Mohawks, and pitcher Gage Haley is 2-0 with a 4.15 ERA in 13 innings so far. He tossed five shutout frames on June 6 against the Glens Falls Dragons.
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