Tony Vitello explains why Christian Moore was the No. 8 overall pick in the MLB Draft
Tony Vitello zeroed in on one game. What makes Christian Moore so special? Good enough for the Los Angeles Angles to use the No. 8 overall pick in the 2024 MLB Draft on the Tennessee star slugger and second baseman?
Go back to April 21 to find out. No. 2 Tennessee at No. 3 Kentucky in a rubber game of a weekend series that was going to go a long way toward determining which team would win the SEC.
Moore hit three home runs — a two-run shot in the third, a solo shot in the seventh and a three-run bomb in the eighth — as Tennessee took the series with a 13-11 win.
“He literally took over the game,” Vitello said Sunday night on the MLB Network set in the moments after it was announced that the Angels had selected Moore with the eighth pick.
Moore finished 4-for-5 at the plate in the win at Kentucky, driving in six runs and scoring four more.
The three-run home run in the eighth was the exclamation point, putting Tennessee up 13-9. His two-run homer in the second opened the scoring and his solo home run in the seventh tied the game.
“I’ve never been around a guy that can decide he wants to win a game,” Vitello said, “and then impact it the way he did.”
Christian Moore set single season, career home run records at Tennessee
By the time Moore’s season was over, he had led Tennessee to its first national championship after setting program records with 34 home runs, 55 extra-base hits and 236 total bases. He hit .375 with a 1.248 OPS and a .797 slugging percentage.
He set the Tennessee career home run record, too, with 61 over his three seasons.
“He was great all year long,” Vitello said, “that’s why he shot up the board.”
And he’s got the brain to match the braun, according to his coach.
“The other thing I’ll say, in uniform, it’s very obvious how physical he is,” Vitello said. “Cognitively, he’s off the charts. Ian Kinsler, Max Scherzer, really the only two guys I’ve been around that have the same cognitive ability that CMo has.”
Tony Vitello has produced six first-round picks at Tennessee
Tennessee has had top-10 picks in back-to-back MLB Drafts, with pitcher Chase Dollander going No. 9 a year ago. Garrett Crochet, an MLB All-Star this season, was the No. 11 overall pick in 2020.
Drew Gilbert and Jordan Beck were both first-round picks in 2022, with Gilbert at No. 28 and Beck at No. 38. Blake Burke later Sunday night became Tennessee’s second first-round pick in this year’s draft, going at No. 34 overall to the Milwaukee Brewers.
“I’m a winner and I’m a competitor,” Moore said on the MLB Network broadcast. “I don’t know what is going to happen the next couple of years, but I promise you I will get a ring for sure. It’s in my blood.”
That comment caught Vitello’s ear.
“He’s got about as much conviction to him as you’ll ever find,” Vitello said. “Sometimes it teetered the line, or opponents or whoever else can get disturbed by it. But you’d rather have a fire burning too bright than not burning at all. And you heard it in his voice with that conviction. It’s burning.”
