MLB Draft 2022: Tennessee coach Tony Vitiello on wild card Ben Joyce, other potentia atlanta braves button up jersey l Vols picks

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Tennessee baseball coach Tony Vitello is joining the MLB Network crew for its broadcast of the 2022 MLB Draft. He was a natural choice; his Volunteers have three potential first-round picks, plus the most intriguing — and polarizing — player on teams’ draft boards. 

“It’s just an honor,” Vitello told The Sporting News in a phone conversation this week. “Obviously, you watch on TV and you're envious of the people that are there, so it'll be a cool opportunity to be involved, especially with Harold Reynolds. I grew up watching him as a player, have his baseball card then he segued into being on television and does the job at such a high level. I’ve got a different level of admiration for him than I had when he was a player.”

MORE: MLB Draft date, start time, TV channel, pick order

Vitello isn’t Mike Trout Angels Jerseys the only college coach involved with MLB Network’s draft coverage this weekend. UCLA coach John Savage will be on-set, too, and Danny Hall (Georgia Tech), Kirk Saarloos (TCU) and Dan McDonnell (Louisville) have contributed taped segments that will air during the broadcast, too. 

Here's all the info about how to watch. 

Vitello probably hoped to join MLB Network for the dr atlanta braves jersey dog aft show as the head coach of the College World Series-winning team, but his Vols — who finished with a 57-9 record — were upended in the Super Regionals by Notre Dame. Vitello has earned a reputation as an elite college baseball recruiter, signing great players and classes at Mizzou, TCU and Arkansas before he was hired as Tennessee’s head coach before the 2018 season. Draft scouting and recruiting aren’t exactly the same thing, but they’re similar. 

“You’re trying to see into the future when you’re doing this whole thing,” he said. “And the bottom line is, it’s all a guess. But I think the more organized you are in your thoughts and the more it is in sync with what you are as a program, then the more likely it is to work out.”

We’re actually going to start with one of the Volunteers who might not hear his name called in the first round, flamethrower Ben Joyce. He’s the biggest wild card of the whole draft.

If you follow Pitching Ninja on Twitter — or anyone who follows and RT’s Rob Friedman’s immensely popular account dedicated to pitchers with nasty stuff — you’re already very familiar with Joyce, even if you might not know his name. Joyce is the right-handed Tennessee pitcher who regularly works above 100 mph and has hit 105 mph on more than one occasion.

He’s draft-eligible as a junior this season. Seems logical that a tall, strapping power pitcher who just might throw the fastest pitch in MLB history when he gets to the big leagues would be in the conversation for the No. 1 overall pick, right? At least the first half of the first round.

Well, no. Most draft experts/evaluators have Joyce going in the third round or later. He’s not even in most mock drafts, because those typically only cover the first round and supplemental picks. So here’s the question on everybody’s mind about Joyce: How in the world is he not a consensus first-rounder? 

That’s exactly what I asked his college coach.

MORE: The Sporting News’ atlanta braves jersey mens medium 2022 MLB mock draft

His answer started with the lack of innings. Joyce threw only 32 1/3 frames this season for the Vols, mostly because he was coming off Tommy John surgery and protecting pitchers is a priority. Vitello and his staff were careful with Joyce, not just putting a limit on his appearances but also a limit on pitches during his appearances. In those 32 1/3 innings, Joyce was electric, striking out 53 — Pitching Ninja especially loved showing Joyce clips because he so often made opposing college hitters look silly at the plate — allowing just 18 hits and posting a atlanta braves button up jersey 2.23 ERA. 

But Joyce just doesn’t have the same history as most of the players in the draft, and teams are often a bit risk-averse with those early picks. 

“If you’re gonna invest in a company and you’re gonna buy all kinds of stock in this company, you want to ma atlanta braves jersey 5t ke sure theyGeorge Springer ’ve got a track record that you can rely on,” Vitello said. “Now, if they just happen to have one successful quarter in the stock market, that doesn’t mean that you want to dump your life savings into it. And so I think it’s a fair deal that … we would never judge an MLB team for maybe waiting a little bit atlanta braves jersey 3t longer Marcus Semien Rangers Jerseys because we did that.”

That said …

“I think ultimately somebody is probably going to say the heck with it, we think what’s coming is even better than what we’ve seen. And maybe he goes a little bit higher than some of the people that project him going a little later,” Vitello said. “Now that he’s been to a combine and interviewed with people and people know who he is, they realize he’s genetically gifted, but also a maniac worker and incredibly disciplined. Now, just because you work hard, doesn’t mean you’re gonna throw 105, but there’s a reason everything has happened the way that it has, and part of that is a fresh arm too.”

Also, he’s seen mostly as a reliever, and relievers aren’t often first-round picks. But still, the idea of 105 has to be intoxicating. 

“There’s a lot of development left to be done. He’s a puppy as it relates to pitching. I love his character because he was respectful to me, but he was pissed when I’d take him out. He wanted the ball. And I think we would have been more prone to give him the ball if we had a better history to fall back on, or he had more reps under his belt of being in certain situations on the road in the SEC or whatever it might might have been. 

“Someone is gonna get rewarded for their investment, at the very worst because of the type of kid and the worker they’re gonna have around the other pitchers. When they see what this guy does day in and day out … look, I’m up here all the time and it’s hard to beat him here and it’s very hard to leave after he leaves.”

Jordan Beck is seen as a first-round lock, but with a wide range. Some have him as high as No. 10 and others see him going in the 20s. The junior outfielder had 18 homers and 61 RBIs this year for the Volunteers. 

“Jordan is a guy who looks like a big leaguer. When you see him in the uniform, it’s the old cliche, that’s what it’s supposed to look like. He’s kind of an easy comp to Hunter Renfroe.” 

Beck played high school basketball with Kira Lewis, the one-and-done Alabama hoopster who is with the Pelicans in the NBA now. 

“(Beck) was that type of springy athlete, long body and he comes here and just turns into a maniac in the weight room and now it’s a very physical body,” Vitello said. “He became a plus runner. He was a poor defender who worked hard at it, became a plus defender, had a bunch of assists in the outfield for us in his career. Maybe more than anyone I’ve ever coached. 

“At any moment, he can give you a massive explosion. It may not just be a hard contact or a home run,Bryce Harper but it could be one that gets our whole dugout into the game or kind of demoralizes the confidence of the other pitcher. In a basketball game, if a guy Mookie Betts dunks one, yeah, it’s two points. But if a guy really dunks one and it gets the whole crowd into it, it kind of changes the complexion. Our league has a lot of those guys, and he’s definitely one of them.”

Outfielder Drew Gilbert is seen as another first-round lock. He batted .362 with a .455 on-base percentage, 11 homers and 70 RBIs. He was loved by Volunteers fans and hated by many other fan bases; one mock draft compared him with Brett Gardner in that way. 

“It’s just the kind of warrior mentality he has, the fight to win. People may think it, but it’s not to appease his ego. He really doesn’t have one,” Vitello said. “It’s not to celebrate, which he’s obviously done in the past, but it’s just fight to win. And that’s why the kid found himself in so many key moments of games and having success, he’s just fighting to win. I mean, Pete Rose is a dramatic example and that’s going old school, but one of the reasons he had more hits than anybody is because he didn’t give up any at bats. Drew may ruin an at-bat because he’s so intense or so into it, but there’s never gonna be one where he goes up there and isn’t competing.”

Pitcher Blade Tidwell was working his way back from injury issues this season, so he didn’t throw as much — 39 innings covering nine starts and four relief appearances — as Vols fans might have expected.  

So, like Joyce, there’s a bit of an unknown element. 

“In a weird way, I think he might be in as good of a position as anyone in the draft to jump right into throwing for whatever organization drafts him, and do so with a relatively fresh arm,” Vitello said. “I think because he attacked his rehab and his exercises, so psychotically, to be honest with you, I think he’s in a great position to go out and throw right away for a team and start making progress in the organization.”

And he’ll get that chance soon enough.