Oklahoma
Detroit Tigers select RHP Malachi Witherspoon with No. 62 pick in 2025 MLB Draft
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The Detroit Tigers selected Malachi Witherspoon, a right-handed pitcher from the University of Oklahoma on Sunday, July 13, in the second round of the 2025 MLB Draft, with the No. 62 overall pick.
Witherspoon had a difficult path to the MLB draft. Raised by a single mother, Meg, with two other siblings, he and his twin brother, Kyson, have forged a path in baseball after playing hockey and gymnastics. Kyson was drafted No. 15 overall by the Boston Red Sox.
Malachi was the more touted prospect as the brothers began college at Oklahoma, and even received an over-slot offer following the 2022 draft, in which he was a 12th-round pick by the Arizona Diamondbacks. But with the Sooners, Kyson, undrafted in 2022, moved up the draft boards.
The 6-foot-3, 211-pound Malachi Witherspoon features a fastball peaking at 99 mph. But he struggled with control in the zone, according to scouts. His fastball in particular was well-hit at Oklahoma, suggesting he may need to remake its shape entirely to succeed in the big leagues. When he throws pitches such as his curveball with depth, he tends to have more success.
Witherspoon was the No. 121 prospect in this year’s draft, according to MLB Pipeline. The 20-year-old is the third second-round pick selected by Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris. In 2023, Harris selected second baseman Max Anderson at No. 45 overall from Nebraska. In 2024, he selected pitcher Owen Hall at No. 49 overall from Edmond North High School in Oklahoma.
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The Tigers earlier Sunday picked Jordan Yost, a shortstop from Sickles High School, Florida, with the No. 24 overall pick in the first round. The Tigers selected another high schooler in power-hitting catcher Michael Oliveto, with their second pick at No. 34 overall in the Competitive Balance Round A. They wrapped up Day 1 of the draft by selecting Arizona State left-hander Ben Jacobs in the third round, at No. 98 overall.
The No. 62 pick comes with a recommended bonus slot value of $1,451,200, though teams can exceed that to sign picks as long as they do not exceed their total bonus pool. If the Tigers sign the No. 62 pick for less than slot, those savings can be applied to other picks in the draft. The Tigers have $10,990,800 to spend on their 21 draft picks this year, the 17th-most in baseball. Teams are allowed to exceed the allotment for picks by 5% before paying a 75% fine on the overage. No MLB team has exceeded the 5% limit since the slots were created.
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Day 1 of the draft features the first three rounds, with Day 2 on Monday, July 14, featuring Rounds 4-20, beginning at 11:30 a.m. on MLB.com. The Tigers have 21 picks in total.
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Last season, Alabama football was effectively eliminated from College Football Playoff contention by way of a 24-3 loss at Oklahoma that was entirely uncharacteristic of the team that had just trounced LSU 42-13 two weekends prior.
The wait for the rematch spans less than a year, 357 days in total. On Nov. 15, the No. 4 Crimson Tide (7-1, 5-0 SEC) will meet the No. 11 Sooners at home at 2:30 p.m. CT. The game will be nationally televised on ABC.
Oklahoma (7-2, 3-2 SEC) is 2-0 in true SEC road games this fall. Those wins came at South Carolina and at Tennessee, respectively. The Sooners had a 6-7 season last year, its first in the conference, with the upset over Alabama paving the way for Brent Venables’ team to get into a bowl game.
Alabama began year two of the Kalen DeBoer era with a theme that continued from 2024 and was perhaps most exemplified by that Oklahoma game: losing on the road to an unranked team. However, since then, the Crimson Tide has not lost a game (though it came close in its 29-22 triumph at South Carolina on Oct. 25).
This Saturday, the Crimson Tide plays host to LSU in a game that kicks off at 6:30 p.m. CT, also on ABC. The Tigers (5-3, 2-3 SEC) revamped their coaching staff after a 49-25 home loss against undefeated Texas A&M Oct. 25, relieving head coach Brian Kelly of his duties the next day and dismissing offensive coordinator Joe Sloan the day after that.
The Sooners would do well to avoid another loss for their own hopes to get into the 12-team College Football Playoff. Texas and Ole Miss have defeated Oklahoma so far in 2025 (the Sooners and Longhorns play one another at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas), and a third loss with an SEC featuring so many contenders for a berth would be catastrophic. Oklahoma is on a bye this weekend, meaning it will be rested for the game at Alabama.
Alabama has not lost a conference home game since November of 2019 against LSU. All four of the Crimson Tide’s 2024 losses under DeBoer occurred away from Tuscaloosa. Its last home loss overall was in September 2023 against the Longhorns. That year, the team went on to make the last iteration of the four-team Playoff in what turned out to be Nick Saban’s final season as head coach.
The Tennessee Volunteers played one of their more important games of the college football season on Saturday night, as they played one of their most important and most beneficial home games of the season, as the Tennessee Vols played against the Oklahoma Sooners. This is a game that the Vols were expected to win, but that was not the case for the game outcome, as the Vols walked away from the game with a loss. The Tennessee Volunteers lost the game in front of their home crowd, and this was their second loss in program history with their black uniforms. This is something that hasn’t been very common, but even through those superstitions, things still can go south.
This team didn’t show up the way that many hoped they would, but even in that same breath, the Oklahoma Sooners didn’t either. However, the Sooners showed up more than the Vols did, as the Vols walked away with a loss.
This performance caught the attention of many, including one of the main players who used to play for the Tennessee Volunteers. That player is Daniel Bituli, who is known for not keeping his thoughts to himself, as he isn’t afraid of letting his thoughts be known. This is something that has been noticed throughout the season with Bituli, as he made it clear how he feels during the game.
Here is what the Tennessee fan and former player had to say about the Vols during the game against the Oklahoma Sooners.
Volsfootball1217 0180 / Caitie McMekin/News Sentinel, Knoxville News Sentinel via Imagn Content Services, LLC
“Respectfully, some of our guys are acting soft asf.”
While this team has lost three games it is safe to say that some expectations has still been exceeded. Let’s remember that the Vols lost a lot of players to the transfer portal. One of the players being Nico Iamaleava, who was all but confirmed to be the starting QB for the Vols this season.
The Vols have been looking to improve what they have built, but the real work has yet to be finished, as this is a young team with a llot of returning pieces. The Vols have an exciting future, but they will need to continue to get better, and in the opinion of former Tennessee Volunteers linebacker Daniel Bituli, the Vols need to fix some of these acts that they have been having such as acting soft.
This is a team with a lot of positives, and some negatives to go with it, but this season if far from over as the Tennessee Vols have three regular season games and a post season bowl game ahead of them.
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