Detroit Tigers select high school pitcher Owen Hall with No. 49 pick in 2024 MLB draft
The Detroit Tigers selected right-handed pitcher Owen Hall from Edmond North High School in Edmond, Oklahoma, with the No. 49 overall pick in the 2024 MLB draft.
Hall, 18, was the second pick by the Tigers in this year's draft, following Harvard-Westlake School (Los Angeles) shortstop Bryce Rainer with the No. 11 overall pick.
He is committed to Vanderbilt.
"His arm strength but arm life and ability to spin the ball and use a changeup were very advanced for his class," assistant general manager Rob Metzler said. "We feel like he was in a really good position to develop as a starting pitcher because of all the things he could do with the ball, along with the power, the body type, the athleticism, the arm action, the delivery. All of those ingredients, we thought, summed up to a really good starting pitching prospect, and the makeup supported that. We were able to spend a really good amount of time with him and felt strong about the person."
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Hall — at 6 feet 3, 185 pounds — posted a 1.67 ERA with 13 walks and 75 strikeouts across nine starts as a senior in the 2024 season at Edmond North High School. He participated in the 2023 Area Code Games, striking out 10 of the 18 batters he faced, with nine of those strikeouts from his fastball.
He fires a fastball that tops out at 98 mph.
Typically, though, his fastball sits around 94 mph with elite ride at the top of the strike zone. He also throws a slider, curveball and changeup. His fastball, slider and curveball grade as his best three pitches, in part because those are what he threw the most in high school while developing a splitter. The slider is the best offering among the two breaking balls.
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Hall, who throws from a high arm slot, needs to refine the command of his pitches — especially the command of his non-fastball pitches — as he advances in professional baseball. The projected development of his secondary pitches is the biggest unknown.
The No. 49 overall pick, used on Hall, comes with an MLB-determined bonus slot value of $1,893,700. The slot values of the Tigers' first two picks add up to approximately $7.6 million of their $11.9 million bonus pool.
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers select Owen Hall with No. 49 pick in 2024 MLB draft
