Cameron Cannon

Let’s start a thread for our first (second round) pick in the 2019 MLB Draft, Mr. Cameron Cannon. Immediately after the pick, many including myself saw the pick as a 'safe' high floor, low upside pick that didn’t stir up a ton of excitement. For me personally, after the seeing how the signings played out, I grew to really like the pick in the context of the entire draft. Signing Cannon early in the 2nd round while generating over $400K in savings to allocate toward high ceiling/low floor types (e.g., Lugo, Bell, Loubier) I think made for a well rounded draft that balances safety and risk quite well. Also, I do wonder if Cannon’s upside might be greater than most think. I’ll get to that in a minute.

We’re only a handful of professional games into Cannon’s professional career and he started in the GCL for a brief rehab assignment where he clearly needed to regain his timing. That said, he had his best professional game yesterday going 3 for 4 with a 2B, a BB, and 5 RBIs. Here’s to hoping he rakes moving forward. If he didn’t miss a little time after signing, I’d be more confident in saying he should reach Greenville at some point this summer and should begin next year in Salem. I still think he has a chance to do that, but even if he doesn’t, I anticipate him spending most of next year in High-A (if not reaching AA like Duran did this year).

Ok, some people hate player comps. They’re rarely flawless and it’s easy to point out where things are different. This one isn’t flawless either but there are noticeable similarities and I’m put it out there. The following are stats from two players’ collegiate junior years playing as middle infielders in the Pac-10/Pac-12.

Player A: 218 AB, .390 BA, .419 BABIP, 13.0 BB%, 10.7 K%, .248 ISO (29 2B, 2 3B, 7 HR)
Player B: 244 AB, .393 BA, .392 BABIP, 15.9 BB%, 5.0 K%, .218 ISO (24 2B, 1 3B, 9 HR)

Many of you may have guessed the other player….Player A is Cameron Cannon and Player B is Dustin Pedroia. Before you jump on me, I’m NOT projecting Cameron Cannon to be Dustin Pedroia. Heck, I don’t even consider Pedey as a very reasonable ceiling for Cannon. One place where the comparison falls flat (and likely separates the two) is that Cannon’s approach numbers are very good to excellent, whereas Pedroia’s are truly elite/ridiculous. Throughout college, Cannon put up BB%s between 9%-14% with K%s between 8%-11%, whereas Pedroia put up BB%s between 9%-16% (similar to Cannon) but with absurd K%s between 4%-7%. For Pedey, we know that translated into K%s generally between 7%-12% in the majors with a lifetime BA at basically .300.

I do think if Cannon can reach the majors as someone with K% between 13%-17% he could generally be something like a .280 hitter with a solid BB% and sneaky power (Pedey I think is a good ISO comp for Cannon). Defensively, its hard to say what he may become, but I do anticipate him playing mostly 2B (with positional versatility to play SS and 3B in a pinch), and although he struggled at SS for Arizona, scouting reports typically note defensive actions to become an adequate or even above average 2B. His upside may not be that of a 5-7 WAR type of player but there probably is 3-4 WAR type upside which is pretty considerable for a guy with a floor as high as his.