2024 MLB Draft Profile: Billy Amick
Draft Profile: Billy Amick (Tennessee, transfer from Clemson)
Height: 6'1
Weight: 220
Bats/Throws: Right/Right
Billy Amick, one of the hauls of the transfer portal in college baseball, is a pre-season All-American at Tennessee after an incredible 2023 season at Clemson. He is poised to possibly be taken in the top 40 overall selections if he can replicate his 2023 production at Tennessee.
In 2023 Amick killed pitches with glove-side movement. He hit over .400 against sliders from RHP or LHP with max exit velocities of 110 MPH a piece, including an astounding frequency of 85% sliders ≥ 95 MPH from LHP, and barreling the pitch more than 57% of the time against LHP. He also did damage against RHP, posting an in-zone contact rate of around 90% with a slugging percentage of around .800.
Amick did not get many curveballs thrown his way in 2023, possibly for the reasons listed above. His quality of contact on them was not as high as the slider, but he did hit over .300 against them in 2023 with a slugging percentage well over .700.
Amick’s chase and whiff rates are quite high against the slider and curveball, each in the 30s. But make no mistake, when he makes contact with glove-side movement, it has tended to be very loud.
Amick throughout the year pummeled fastballs, especially from LHP, batting over .400 with a slugging percentage over .1000. He also hit over .320 against them from RHP, but the quality of contact as a whole was lower. He did manage to have a hard-hit percentage of over 63% from each side, which again is very impressive (exit velocity ≥ 95 MPH).
There is not much to go off of for Amick against fastballs in the high 90s, so I will refrain from addressing that. He did, however, have in-zone contact rates of over 80% against either side and did not whiff too often against fastballs. He does have the tendency to chase when pitchers expand the zone on him due to his aggressive nature, but he again does damage and creates loud contact very frequently.
He also can compact his swing to deliver effectively. While he does a good job of lifting the ball routinely to ideal launch angle levels, he can tighten his swing on the inner half to push balls out (as shown in the Boston College clip) to generate fundamentally sound swings in multiple fashions, and to all fields (as shown in the second HR clip, and the second UNC clip).
If there is a defining hole in secondary pitches for Amick, it is the changeup, especially against LHP. His quality of contact was poor, had chase and whiff rates in the 40s, and had a batting average under .200 against it. He does a lot better against it from RHP in terms of production, but there is a dropoff in terms of contact quality against it relative to other pitches.
Offensively, Amick’s ability to barrel balls is outstanding, and modern MLB front offices will like his offensive profile because of his ability to lift the ball consistently while making quality contact.
Weaknesses
Defensively, I frankly am not sure where Amick is best suited to play. I don’t believe he can handle third base at the major league level, and teammate Blake Burke will occupy first base for a lot of the season. Defense is not his strong suit. He has some brief exposure to catcher as well, but I think as far as his development for an MLB team is concerned, I believe he is destined to play first base.
Offensively, there is a lot to like with Amick, but a weakness of his is that he chases often. He did not walk much last year and tends to swing at a lot of pitches. Since a lot of good things happen when he makes contact, that is very understandable, but I would like to see some improvement in swing decisions and working counts more in 2024.
Conclusion
I am very curious to see how Amick’s game continues to evolve in the SEC. I like his profile offensively for an MLB team, and I think the things that he needs to work on can be improved over time. His quality of contact against multiple pitches, the versatility of his swing, and his ability to lift the ball are all appealing. His stats should only continue to improve, moving to a much more hitter-friendly park than Clemson’s.
It all comes down to his swing decisions. When he makes contact, good things happen! There are elements of swing-and-miss in his game, though, but if he can improve his discipline and swing decisions, I think he very easily could be a first-round pick in the MLB Draft due to the nature of his offensive skill set.
