Braylon Doughty and Joey Oakie profile members of the Cleveland Cavaliers shooting staff. She boasts of 50 FV and ranks in the perspective of the organization, while the latter ranks as 40+ FV who ranks 16th. Both are 20-year-old right-handers who were drafted out of prep — Doughty 36th overall in 2024, Oakie third around the same summer. Their roofs are high. As Eric Longenhagen and Brendan Gawlowski teamed up to write last winter, “Doughty was arguably the most polished high school pitcher in the 2024 draft” and “Oakie signed for first-round money [as] a pot with unsavory features of power. “
Eric Binder knows them as well as anyone. A member of the Guardians’ front office for more than a decade, he now plays a key role as assistant general manager at one of baseball’s most well-regarded operations. He previously shared his thoughts on the young prospects at FanGraphs, doing so as a featured Sunday column in September of last year.
A renewal was in order when the defending AL Central Park champions visited Fenway Park in the final week of this year’s regular season. The binder was serving – said other members of the organization’s brain trust, as the inherent title of the division threatened – so I took the opportunity to learn where the two paths of development stood. Obviously, how do the times unfold, and what are the primary foci of development?
“Braylon had an incredible year,” Binder said of the Murrieta, California native. He went up “to development” where he completed the season in Double-A. It was amazing to see his performance translate to that level. One of the great things about Braylon is that he can throw a lot of voices for hits, and he has an incredibly high range.”
“Perhaps he’s more of a power tackler than he probably gets credit for in terms of his speed,” Binder continued. “He also has the ability to have huge webs across his arsenal to create multiple formations. He can put some nice demands on them, but he’s still kind of scratching the surface of where his arsenal can be. We’re very excited about the year he’s had and excited about the future.”
Doughty split this past season between High-A Lake County and Akron, posting a 4.10 ERA, a 3.22 FIP, and a 26.3% strikeout rate over 109 2/3 innings. His walk rate was a miserly 5.3%.
Oakie’s numbers weren’t nearly as good. Pitching at Low-A Hill City, and briefly with Lake County, the Arkeny, Iowa native had a 7.30 ERA and 5.80 FIP over 49 1/3 innings. He also had an annoyingly high 18.3% walk rate to go with his 25% strikeout rate. But, as Binder explained, Oakie’s potential goes far beyond this past-time activity.
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“Joey shows the same power and unique release angles that we’re really excited about,” the pitching-focused assistant GM told me. “He’s got more quality pitches across his arsenal. Controlling discipline and finding consistency in hitting is the top softball thing for him to build. He just needs to be consistent in his performance. When Joey’s at his best, we see the power, the shapes, and the swing and the ability. It’s about him every time he goes out there to get a base.”
What, then, with the ingenuity-but the crude hope?
“I’ll start with Braylon,” replied Seneca. “For him going into the offseason we have an opportunity to set our biggest goals. He’s still a young pitcher, so attacking his body, attacking his machine, building his physical capacity, that’s number one. By doing that, he’ll be able to establish his best tradition, and we’ll see the best potential going into next year.”
“With Joey, it’s like a conversation,” Binder continued. “One of his strengths is that he has so much emotional capacity in the tradition, that he can join that in constant profiles is the most important thing. Going out and coming back with our group focused on what is the best delivery. How to harness us which is one of the biggest goals for Joey over the offseason.”
I will give the perspective the last word here. Brendan asked me to speculate earlier this week that Doughty hasn’t changed much since Julio, when he was 37th on the board (Doughty is up from 35th to 35th), writing how he has “effective and elite power breaking stuff thanks to his penchant for spikes.” Oakie update is more moderate. Brendan reported that when he “throws hard, he touches 100; [with a] power slide, “also” wild and likely support perspective.