Would you say that pitching is overdrafted? Like at any given moment, if you are going for the best athlete, unless you have a top three pick you're going to keep picking position players?
Right now the Anthony pick looks like genius, a teenager mashing at AA who you got in the second round in part by picking a below-slot guy first. But if you're going to keep making these cool upside plays, and those upside guys keep being hitters, then I guess you're going to have to consider trading some of the hitters for pitching.
The idea is the more players you hit on, the more cost-controlled talent you have, & the more guys you have in your arsenal to trade for pitching. If you spend more resources on less pitching prospects, chances are pretty high that it won't work out. It's not like they're not investing in pitchers...I would say they're just targeting individual pitchers less aggressively & looking for certain archetypes that they may think are undervalued.
It's not like they aren't drafting pitchers at all.
In 2020, 2 of 4 picks were pitchers & 12 of 16 UDFAs were.
In 2021, 8 of 15 guys they drafted & signed were pitchers & 1 of 2 UDFAs.
In 2022, 13 of 18 guys they drafted & signed were pitchers (0 of 2 UDFAs).
& in 2023, 11 of 19 guys they drafted & signed were pitchers (0 of 1 UDFAs).
But in 2020 the 1st 2 were hitters, in 2021 the 1st 2 were hitters, in 2022 the 1st 3 were hitters, & in 2023 the first 3 were hitters.
They are taking a "more darts" approach to pitching, which I think is the sounder analytical strategy in today's day & age. It just takes longer for those darts to necessarily develop into swans. We won't know if it was actually successful as it related to those drafted pitchers for a few years still, though. But I think the theory is sound.
& at some point you have sufficient infrastructure & cost controlled talent to cash in some chips.