Tag: Jud Fabian

Here’s why the Gators were iced out of The Athletic’s latest MLB mock draft

Tommy Mace and Jud Fabian had underwhelming 2021 seasons, and that seems to have left the pair on the fringe of the Day 1 discussion.

The 2021 MLB draft has been pushed back from its normal early June date to mid-July, giving the opinions of both the league and draft-adjacent media plenty of time to simmer. For players on the edge of first-round consideration, that means seeing their name bobbed endlessly in and out of mock drafts leading up to the event.

Florida stars Tommy Mace and Jud Fabian are in exactly that situation. Both are talented enough to have secured likely positions in the top 30 with better performances during the college 2021 season. However, the Gators’ infuriating inconsistency stemmed largely from that of their cornerstone players, a demographic that squarely includes both Fabian and Mace.

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Both were excluded from the most recent mock draft produced by The Athletic.

Between the two, Fabian is the more likely to creep his way back into the top group. He’s a good athlete, and as a center fielder with a power stroke, he presents an interesting package of tools. Unfortunately, there’s almost no track record for players who strike out as much as he did in college having success in pro ball.

It’s such an alarming red flag that it will literally cost him millions of dollars – he was projected as a top-five pick entering the season, but there’s virtually no chance of that happening now. However, he’s too good at too many other things that some team will scoop him up before he falls too far.

Mace has the potential for a much further slide. The appeal for a player like Mace is his quick path to the MLB as an accomplished and straightforward pitcher. With the effectiveness of his fastball and quality of his breaking balls in question, though, teams could get very skittish.

The more likely route for the Gators to be part of the Day 1 discussion is for one of their recruits to find a home in the first round. The Athletic projects two players committed to play in Gainesville to be drafted – outfielder Jay Allen and pitcher Andrew Painter.

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Inconsistent play held Jud Fabian back as a sophomore

Jud Fabian entered the 2021 season with high expectations, and though he didn’t live up to them all, he accounted for some major moments.

Name: Jud Fabian

Number: 4

Position: Outfield

Class: Sophomore (third-year)

Height: 6’2″

Weight: 195 lbs

Hometown: Ocala, Florida

High School: Trinity Catholic

Twitter: @judfabe

2020 statistics:

G PA R H HR RBI BB K BA OBP SLG
59 269 51 56 20 46 40 79 .249 .364 .560

Overview:

One of the top players in the country coming out of high school, Fabian ranked 13th nationally and No. 6 among players in the state of Florida, according to Perfect Game. He was also the No. 4 outfielder in the country.

Fabian skipped his senior season of high school to enroll early at the nearby University of Florida ahead of the team’s 2019 season. He started 54 of the 56 games he appeared in at center field and though he batted just .232, he hit seven home runs with 26 RBI and tied for the team lead in walks.

He entered his sophomore year in 2020 as a Preseason Second Team All-SEC selection, and he looked the part before the season was canceled, batting .294 in the first 17 games. He had also already almost matched his season total in home runs from the prior year with five.

Naturally, Fabian entered his “COVID sophomore” season in 2021 with high expectations. In fact, some projected that he would be the first overall pick in the MLB draft. That didn’t exactly come to fruition, as Fabian’s inconsistency held him back. He had 20 home runs and 46 RBI, impressive numbers, but his .249 average left a lot to be desired. He also struck out 79 times, the most on the team, by far.

The latest mock draft from MLB.com still has Fabian in the first round, largely due to the upside with his hitting and his tremendous fielding, which was a strong point for a Florida defense that led the SEC in errors in 2021. But he was far from impressive enough to be a legitimate first-overall pick candidate.

Video:

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Jud Fabian, two Gators commits picked in Baseball America first-round mock

Florida is set to lose serious talent in the 2021 MLB draft, starting in the first round with the team’s slugger and a pair of recruits.

The draft-eligible Gators on the 2021 squad largely didn’t have the seasons they needed to vault into consideration for the first few picks. There a handful of players with connections to Florida who could find a way into the first round, though. Exactly that happened in the scenario presented in Baseball America’s latest first-round mock draft.

The most well-known player to Gators fans who was selected in the exercise was the last one selected – outfielder Jud Fabian. The Gators’ best hitter during the 2021 season, Fabian was selected for the All-SEC first team. He’s a power hitter who draws walks and is athletic enough to at least get a shot in center. Pervasive issues with strikeouts drove Fabian, once considered a top prospect in this class, down to the 26th pick, where the Twins stopped his fall.

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The fit between the Twins and Fabian couldn’t be more natural. Minnesota has a knack for developing slugging outfielders and enjoys the relative security of drafting high-profile college hitters. It’s hard to point to a player who overcame such severe strikeout issues in recent drafts, but Fabian has everything else and he’d be landing in a great organization for what he needs.

The other two players drafted in this hypothetical first round who should interest Gators fans were both premium Florida commits. Right-handed pitchers Chase Petty and Andrew Painter have both agreed to play in Gainesville, but they need to get through the draft first.

Painter is described by Baseball America as having “perhaps the best command in the high school class.” He’s not strictly (a) touch-and-feel pitcher, though. His fastball and changeup are both out pitches and he can mix in a pair of respectable breaking balls. The Yankees selected him 20th overall in this mock draft.

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Petty has some of the most electrifying stuff of any high schooler we’ve seen in a while, but teams are becoming more and more skittish when it comes to hard-throwing prep players. Nonetheless, it’s hard to ignore a starter whose fastball velocity kisses triple digits and dishes a plus breaking ball. He’s mocked to the White Sox at 22nd overall.

Should either Petty or Painter get to campus, it would be a huge win for the Gators baseball program. They’d immediately be considered contenders for the top pick in 2024. Florida has a good track record with developing pitching and the washout rate of college pitchers dwarfs that of their younger counterparts.

Current Gators ace Tommy Mace and Gators commit outfielder Jay Allen, both considered fringy first-round prospects, were left in the cold in this mock. The odds are that both are drafted and turn pro this summer, but in this scenario, they’re left to the supplemental first and second round.

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Florida outfielder Jud Fabian named to 2021 All-SEC first team

Florida’s slugging outfielder Jud Fabian had a standout year for the Gators, earning a place among the best the SEC has to offer.

Jud Fabian hasn’t had the year many expected for the Florida Gators in what will likely be his final run with the program, but his contributions to the team couldn’t be ignored. The 20-year-old’s season-long stats stand out on the page, he hit a lofty .262/.376/.621 and clubbed 20 home runs.

His achievements were enough to catch the eye of voters during the selection of All-SEC awards. Fabian was placed on the All-SEC first team, joined by fellow outfielders Enrique Bradfield Jr. of Vanderbilt and Tanner Allen of Mississippi State. Fabian was the only Gator to crack the first or second-team roster.

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Some of the more impressive college performances are hand-waved for being small sample, but his performance wasn’t driven by luck. One indication as to whether a player was more or less fortunate in any given frame of time is his batting average on balls in play. The expected figure over a representative sample of at-bats is .300.

Deviation from that mark indicates that a player may have been playing above or below his true talent level. Fabian’s batting average on balls in play during the 2021 season was .284, which suggests he completely earned his impressive slash line.

It wasn’t all sunshine for the Orange and Blue slugger during the 2021 season. He carried a strikeout rate north of 30% through most of the season and saw his national perception as a draft prospect nosedive as a result. There’s virtually no track record of success in the pros for players with that kind of swing and miss at the college level.

One high-profile example is Jeren Kendall. He was an athletically gifted power/speed prospect with center field instincts from Vanderbilt drafted by the Dodgers. If there was ever a situation to bet on an outlier, it was this. Now he’s 25 years old unable to find his footing in pro ball due in part to his astounding strikeout rate.

Nonetheless, Fabian draft-eligible is likely done with his Florida career. He’ll leave a legacy of success and a highlight reel of impressive catches and electrifying at-bats. His stock as a first-year pro player will be questionable, but for now, he’s one of the brightest stars of the SEC and he deserves every bit of it.

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WATCH: All 20 of Jud Fabian’s home run swings in 2021 so far

The Gators’ official baseball Twitter account posted a video of all 20 of Fabians dingers on Tuesday. Here they are in all of their glory. 

It has been an up-and-down season for Florida baseball in 2021. The team started the schedule ranked first in the nation but quickly tumbled from the top after some shaky play in the early going. However, the squad has pulled together and made a strong push as the postseason grows near.

The story arc of UF’s star center fielder Jud Fabian has followed a similar trajectory this season. After a slow start and a few rough patches, the third-year sophomore has dialed it up over the past couple of months and now leads the Southeastern Conference in home runs while raising his batting average from the sub-Mendoza depths to a respectable .267 as of Wednesday.

The Florida Gators official baseball Twitter account posted a video of all 20 of Fabian’s home run swings on Tuesday. Here they are in all of their glory — how sweet is that stroke?

While Florida’s immensely talented outfielder lost a bit of draft stock this season — coming into the year he was projected as a top-10 pick, if not top-5 — he has generated some inertia as the schedule wanes and a strong postseason showing could put him back into the first round. After all, he came to Gainesville early out of high school and is still only 20 years old.

Regardless of where he lands when he leaves, he is a big part of what makes this current baseball roster so special.

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These two Florida baseball players projected as first round picks in MLB mock draft

Here is a look at where the two land, both in the draft and their projected professional franchise according to MLB.com.

The college baseball season is in high gear but that does not mean it is too soon to start looking ahead to the 2021 MLB draft this July. Now that an appreciable sample size of player performances has accrued in the collegiate ranks, mock drafts are beginning to appear among the sports media.

Coming into the season, Florida baseball had one player who was projected as a sure-shot in the top 10 of the draft — if not the top five. The team also returned a few players who did not find their fortune in last year’s professional selection process, one of whom apparently has improved his stock in 2021.

MLB.com published its latest mock draft on Wednesday, which included two current Gators sneaking into the top-30 picks this summer. Right-handed pitcher Tommy Mace, who has hit some rough spots this year but has also shown a good deal of growth, as well as slugging centerfielder Jud Fabian made the cut in these prognostications and both are expected to be selected in the final third of the draft.

Here is a look at where the two land, both in the draft and their projected professional franchise according to MLB.com.

This Florida baseball player earned Co-SEC Player of the Week honors

Jud Fabian not only swung the bat well but also provided a highlight-reel catch to rob a home run on Friday, earning him this week’s award.

The fifth-ranked Florida Gators baseball team got back on the winning track in sweeping fashion this weekend taking all three games at home from the visiting Texas A&M Aggies. UF managed to win the first trio of games on its Southeastern Conference schedule thanks to some superb pitching as well as some offensive outbursts.

One of the biggest reasons for Florida’s success against TAMU was sophomore centerfielder Jud Fabian, who not only swung the bat well but also provided a highlight-reel catch to rob the Aggies of a home run on Friday, hilariously losing his shoe in the process.

For his efforts, the conference named the potential MLB first-round draft pick its Co-Player of the Week, sharing the honor with the Arkansas Razorbacks’ Casey Opitz. Here is what the press release had to say about Fabian’s accolade.

Co-Player of the Week: Jud Fabian, Florida
Florida’s Jud Fabian recorded two more home runs during Florida’s homestand against Texas A&M. He scored four runs and had four RBI to help lead the Gators to a sweep. Fabian also made a key defensive play in the series to rob the Aggies of a home run. He had three hits in the series finale.

Florida is off until this weekend when they open up a three-game series at the South Carolina Gamecocks. Friday night’s first pitch is slated for 7 p.m. EDT and all three games will be broadcast on the SEC Network.

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Baseball America: UF has unanimous All-America First Team selection, also Third Team

UF got some good news from Baseball American, which published its preseason All-America teams ahead of the start of the season on Monday.

The Florida Gators baseball program, which enters 2021 a consensus No. 1 team according to at least three major publications, got some good news from one of those esteemed outlets on Monday when Baseball American published its preseason All-America teams ahead of the start of the season.

Sophomore outfielder Jud Fabian, who recently earned D1Baseball’s SEC Player of the Year honor, was a unanimous choice for the First Team along with the Vanderbilt Commodores’ starting pitcher Kumar Rocker; they were the only two to earn the unanimous distinction.

Last season, Fabian led off the batting order for UF while starting all 17 games in center field, collecting 20 hits and 19 runs — second-best and most on the team, respectively — for a .294 batting average while also drawing 13 walks to post a .407 on-base percentage.

Here is what Baseball America had to say about Florida’s talented sophomore outfielder.

Jud Fabian, OF, Florida

As his contemporaries were playing their senior seasons in high school, Fabian was starting every day as Florida’s center fielder as a true freshman in 2019. While Fabian still has some pure hit tool and swing-and-miss questions to answer (.250 career average, 22% strikeout rate), he has a high-upside blend of athleticism, power that has been proven with wood, speed and defense and will still be 20 on draft day.

Junior starting pitcher Tommy Mace made the magazine’s Third Team after a successful 2020 campaign that was abruptly ended by the coronavirus pandemic. He appeared in four games, recording quality starts in all of them for a 3-0 record while putting up a 1.67 ERA — which ranked second among starters — and a team-leading 27 innings pitched.

Baseball America received votes from 16 major league organizations that comprised these rankings, which you can find in their entirety below.

FIRST TEAM
Pos. Name, School AVG OBP SLG AB HR RBI
C Adrian Del Castillo, Miami .358 ,478 .547 53 2 15
1B Alex Toral, Miami .296 .435 .593 54 5 16
2B Max Ferguson, Tennessee .333 .462 .524 42 2 6
3B Alex Binelas, Louisville .143 .143 .143 7 0 1
SS Matt McLain, UCLA .397 .422 .621 58 3 19
OF Colton Cowser, Sam Houston State .255 .379 .364 55 1 6
OF Jud Fabian, Florida .294 .407 .603 68 5 13
OF Ethan Wilson, South Alabama .282 .329 .465 71 3 12
UT Grant Holman, California .250 .324 .333 60 1 10
Pos. Name, School W L ERA IP SO SV
SP Jaden Hill, LSU 0 0 0.00 11.2 17 2
SP Jack Leiter, Vanderbilt 2 0 1.72 15.2 22 0
SP Ty Madden, Texas 3 0 1.80 25 26 0
SP Kumar Rocker, Vanderbilt 2 1 1.80 15 28 0
RP Ryan Webb, Georgia 2 0 1.20 15 26 1
UT Grant Holman, California 1 3 3.28 24.2 20 0

SECOND TEAM

C — Henry Davis, Louisville
1B — Bobby Seymour, Wake Forest
2B — Robert Moore, Arkansas
3B — Zack Gelof, Virginia
SS — Cody Morissette, Boston College
OF — Christian Franklin, Arkansas
OF — Sal Frelick, Boston College
OF — Levi Usher, Louisville

SP — Ryan Cusick, Wake Forest
SP — Steve Hajjar, Michigan
SP — Gunnar Hoglund, Mississippi
SP — Jordan Wicks, Kansas State
RP — Jackson Leath, Tennessee
UT — Spencer Jones, Vanderbilt

THIRD TEAM

C — Hunter Goodman, Memphis
1B — Niko Kavadas, Notre Dame
2B — Darren Baker, California
3B — Jake Rucker, Tennessee
SS — Ryan Bliss, Auburn
OF — Robby Martin, Florida State
OF — John Rhodes, Kentucky
OF — Isaiah Thomas, Vanderbilt

SP — Mason Black, Lehigh
SP — Richard Fitts, Auburn
SP — Tommy Mace, Florida
SP — Mason Pelio, Boston College
RP — Jack Perkins, Louisville
UT — Spencer Schwellenbach, Nebraska

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This Florida Gator is D1Baseball’s Preseason SEC Player of the Year

The Gators begin their 2021 schedule the consensus No. 1 team in the country and also have a Preseason SEC Player of the Year. 

The upcoming season for Florida baseball is a big one as the Gators begin their schedule the consensus No. 1 team in the country per D1Baseball, Perfect Game and Collegiate Baseball. According to the first aforementioned publication, UF also has its Preseason SEC Player of the Year.

Junior centerfielder Jud Fabian earned the honor, which was announced on Wednesday on D1Baseball’s official Twitter account. Last season, he batted .294 with 20 hits — second-most on the team — and scored a team-high 19 runs as Florida’s leadoff hitter while starting all 17 games in center field. Fabian also had seven multi-hit games and drew 13 walks to post a .407 on-base percentage.

The outfielder from Ocala, Florida, had a decorated high school career at Trinity Catholic under former Gator Tommy Bond, hitting .453 with a school record-tying 11 home runs during his junior year. He elected to skip his senior season and enroll at Florida early, playing in 56 games as a freshman in 2019 while managing a .232/.353/.411 slash line with seven home runs and 26 runs batted in.

The Florida Gators will throw their first pitch of the 2021 season on Feb. 19 when they unveil their brand new Florida Ballpark against the Miami Hurricanes.

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