Charlie Condon MLB Draft projection: No. 1 pick would make UGA history

Georgia baseball coach Wes Johnson knows what a No. 1 overall MLB draft pick looks like. Prior to coming to Georgia, Johnson was the pitching coach at LSU, where he worked with Paul Skenes.

Skenes was the top pick last year and quickly established himself as one of the top pitchers in Major League Baseball after just a short stint in the minors. He was named an All-Star Game selection Sunday.

In his time with LSU, Skenes won the Dick Howser and Golden Spikes Awards. Georgia third baseman Charlie Condon took home both of those awards this season.

“Where those two guys are similar, the great ones I’ve been around, they just have a different mind,” Johnson said in June. “They want to challenge themselves daily. When they do that, if they don’t get the result they always want, they understand that they’re going to get better because of how hard they challenge themselves.”

If Condon follows Skenes’ arc Sunday and becomes the No. 1 overall draft pick, he would put Georgia in rare company in terms of producing No. 1 overall picks.

Georgia baseball works on No. 1 recruiting class as Charlie Condon moves on

LSU and UCLA are the only two schools to produce a No. 1 overall pick in baseball, basketball and football. LSU became the first school to accomplish the feat when Shaquille O’Neal was taken with the No. 1 pick in the 1992 NBA draft. Ben McDonald went No. 1 in the 1989 MLB draft and Billy Cannon was the No. 1 pick in the 1960 NFL draft. LSU has had multiple No. 1 picks in all three drafts.

UCLA matched the feat when Gerrit Cole was taken with the No. 1 pick in the 2011 MLB draft. Troy Aikman was taken with the No. 1 pick in the 1989 NFL draft and Lew Alcindor, later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, was taken with the No. 1 overall pick in the 1969 NBA draft.

If the Cleveland Guardians, who own the No. 1 pick in this year’s MLB draft, take Condon, it would be the third time in the last five years that a Georgia Bulldog has been the No. 1 overall pick in either the MLB, NBA or NFL Draft. Anthony Edwards was drafted by the Minnesota Timberwolves with the No. 1 pick in the 2020 NBA draft. Travon Walker was the No. 1 pick in the 2022 NFL draft.

Edwards is the only Georgia basketball player taken in the first round of the last 10 NBA drafts. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was the No. 8 pick in the 2013 NBA Draft.

Georgia’s highest-drafted Bulldog in baseball is John Henderson, a No. 4 overall pick by the Chicago Cubs in 1975. Emerson Hancock, the No. 6 overall pick in 2020 by the Seattle Mariners, is the most recent first-round pick from the program.

Condon is competing alongside Oregon State second baseman Travis Bazzana, Florida first baseman Jac Caglianone, and West Virginia shortstop JJ Wetherholt to be the No. 1 pick in the 2024 MLB Draft. The Cleveland Guardians have the No. 1 overall pick.

Georgia, unsurprisingly, has been far better represented in the NFL draft. The Bulldogs have had five players taken with the No. 1 overall pick: Frank Sinkwich (1943), Charley Trippi (1945), Harry Babcock (1953), Matthew Stafford (2009) and Walker (2022). Only USC (six) has had more No. 1 overall NFL draft picks. Since Kirby Smart took over the football program, Georgia has produced 17 first-round draft picks.

When is the 2024 MLB Draft?

The MLB Draft takes place in Fort Worth, Texas from Sunday, July 14 through Tuesday, July 16.

The Cleveland Guardians have the No. 1 overall pick followed by the Cincinnati Reds, Colorado Rockies, Oakland Athletics and the Chicago White Sox. To see the full MLB Draft order, go to https://www.mlb.com/draft/2024/order

Georgia third baseman Charlie Condon (right) won the the Golden Spikes Award, which goes to the nation's best amateur baseball player. Condon already won the Dick Howser Award, presented to college baseball's best player. Take a look at photos of Condon on the field from the AJC's Jason Getz.