Why KC Royals MLB Draft strategy isn't tunnel vision

Kansas City grabbed 2 from MCWS champion Tennessee

It's hard to go wrong when you get key players from a Men's College World Series title winner, and that's just what the Royals did Monday when they drafted Drew Beam in the third round and A.J. Causey in the fifth.

Beam, a right-hander MLB Pipeline ranked as the 64th-best draft-eligible player and says is "one of the safest bets in this Draft to make it as a big league starter", was 9-2 with a 4.22 ERA in 19 starts for the Vols this season; he also won nine games last year, was 8-1 in 2022, and posted ERAs of 2.72 that season and 3.63 in 2023.

Causey, also a righty, is a sidearmer who pitched at Tennessee this year after spending his first two collegiate seasons at Jackson State. For 2024, he was 13-3, 4.43 in six starts and 13 relief appearances.

The Royals twice dipped into Louisiana Monday

They're not from the same school, but Kansas City's picked two Louisiana collegians — L.P. Langevin and Nate Ackenhausen — on Day 2.

Right-hander Langevin pitched for Louisiana-Lafayette this season and went 6-1 with a 3.73 ERA in 23 games, only three of which came in relief. The 33 walks he issued in 62.2 innings suggest the Royals need to work on his control; on the other hand, he struck out 106 batters. He was this season's Sunbelt Conference Pitcher of the Year. KC chose him in Round 4.

LSU lefty Ackenhausen, who the Royals selected in Round 10 to close out their Day 2 picks, pitched primarily out of the bullpen in two Tiger seasons. Not a Pipeline Top 250 prospect, the 5.65 ERA he posted this season is concerning and, like Langevin, his control requires attention, but he fanned 95 in 72.2 innings in his two-season LSU stint.

Moving on...