The collegiate Shohei Ohtani has struck again. Friday night, University of Florida two-way star Jac Caglianone went deep for the ninth straight game, tying the college baseball record. He now shares the record with former University of Nevada slugger Tyler Bosetti, who hit a home run in nine straight games in 2021.
Here is Caglianone’s latest long ball:
Caglianone entered Friday’s game hitting .407/.497/.860 with 22 home runs in 37 games. He also has 3.89 ERA with 49 strikeouts in 39 1/3 innings. Two-way players are more common at the collegiate level than in pro ball, though few do it as well as Caglianone has this season. He’s been one of the very best players in the country.
Our R.J. Anderson ranked Caglianone the ninth-best 2024 draft prospect coming into the spring. Here’s his write-up:
Caglianone is Gainesville’s most impressive two-way talent since singer-songwriter Tom Petty. He launched 33 home runs and averaged 10.5 strikeouts per nine innings last season (each from the left side), dominating headlines on a Gators team that featured two first-round picks in outfielder Wyatt Langford and right-hander Hurston Waldrep. Caglianone’s profile is built around prodigious strength. He hits the ball extremely hard, and he’s able to touch into the upper 90s on the bump. While there’s no denying his immense physical gifts, he has zone-control issues on both sides that will require adjustments. Caglianone swings at everything, over the plate or otherwise, and he compiled more than three strikeouts per walk. As a pitcher, he issued free passes to more than 16% of the batters he faced, which would have led MLB starters by nearly 3 percentage points. If you’re looking for a reason for optimism, Caglianone has since reworked his mechanics and put more distance between himself and Tommy John surgery. We’ll see what, if any difference it makes, or if the vast gap between his entertainment value and his projected value remains in place. He enters the spring rumored to be a candidate to go as early as No. 3.
It should be noted Caglianone has closed many of the holes in his games this spring, both as a hitter and pitcher, and he’s now at least a candidate to be selected with the No. 1 pick. The Cleveland Guardians won the draft lottery in December and hold the No. 1 pick for the first time ever.
The MLB record is a home run in eight straight games by Dale Long (1956), Don Mattingly (1987), and Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. (1992).
