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Angels get weird and pick College World Series champ with 2024 first-round pick

The Angels first pick in the 2024 MLB Draft is in, and they had a bit of a surprise in store for fans in the first round.
Eric Cole
Eric Cole

Halo Hangout

2024 NCAA Division I Baseball Championship / Peter Aiken/GettyImages

While the top of the first round of the 2024 MLB Draft was a little chaotic, most of the players that we expected to be gone when the Los Angeles Angels picked at No. 8 overall were off the board.

With the Angels having a lengthy track record of targeting college players that can get to the major leagues quickly, they continued that trend when they selected Tennessee third baseman Christian Moore.

In terms of the draft rankings, this isn't exactly where Moore was expected to go, as he was more of an early teens guy. However, the talent drop-off at the end of the top 10 was real, and with the big names gone, the Angels went with the college bat they liked.

LA Angels News: Angels select Christian Moore at No. 8 overall

While the "draft expert" rankings may not line up with this pick, Moore is right there when it comes to actual talent in production. Coming off a 2024 season that saw him be a part of a national championship team at Tennessee, where he posted a 1.248 OPS in 72 games, Moore is one of the best bats in this draft class without question. Moore has a plus hit tool and has real power from the right side.

Moore's pick was announced with him as a second baseman, which does highlight an issue: his future defensive home is a real question. Moore doesn't have a ton of quickness, which means that he will be tied to either second base or left field in all likelihood.

However, the Angels don't care about any of that if they made this pick. They are buying into his bat here and, given his production in the SEC, it is hard to argue with the logic.

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Eric Cole

Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.