[Westheim]

2001 AMATEUR DRAFT

As detailed before, the 2001 draft class was short on starting pitchers, left-side infielders, and centerfielders, while containing a wealth of average first basemen.

Barney or not Barney (Manning)? That was the main question as we closed in on the June 15 draft. Vince Guerra was certainly convinced by his potential, but had dug around a bit and had turned up a few things about Manning, that 17-year old southpaw starter. He reportedly had the most terrible grades in high school, topping out at a C minus in shop class. His life consisted of video games and some baseball. Vince recommended to carefully pick here. The ability was there, it was big, but the laziness was bigger.

What other options were there? I was keen on relief pitcher Cody Bryant, and we had a history of picking great whenever we went to relief pitchers in the first round (Grant “Hall of Fame” West, anyone? And there’s more). Then there were a few fielders in 1B Stanley Murphy, 1B/2B Francisco Soto, and LF/RF/1B Chris Beairsto. Vince tended to give the nod to Beairsto, the French-Canadian, who was 22. We had made an expensive first round pick with Daniel Sharp last year, drafting basically major league ready talent and said talent was batting around .300 this year – you can certainly do worse.

Beairsto was also rather flexible in where you could put him, never mind that we think we have solid talent at all three of his positions.

And whom would the Knights pick with the first overall selection?

They selected 1B/2B Doug Henry, who had been seventh on our list of infielders, a 17-year old switch hitter with a pale face.

Here come the Coons! Beairsto? Manning? Soto? Vince knew best, probably?

2001 Portland Raccoons Draft Class
Round 1 (#2) – LF/RF/1B Chris Beairsto, 22, from Edmonton, Canada – compactly built corner outfielder, not very adept defensively, but gifted with an exceptional eye and both contact and power abilities, although he would sometimes hack, trying to do too much; high potential to become an impact player within the next 15 months
Round 2 (#66) – MR Cody Bryant, 19, from Los Angeles, CA – right-hander with a nasty slider and a sinking fastball inducing tons of groundballs, this kid has to work on his control, and everything else should fall into place easily
Round 3 (#90) – 2B Cedric Chateau, 22, from Toronto, Canada – good contact bat, but mostly for slap singles, yet he has a good OBP playing for Rutgers, and he is quite adept as a second baseman. His weak arm limits him to the right side of the diamond
Round 4 (#114) – MR Stu Sharp, 18, from Palmetto, FL – fastball tops out at 90mph for this righty, but the swooping curve is something to marvel at; has just started throwing a changeup and it seems like he will need it to get to the Bigs
Round 5 (#138) – SP Tim Webster, 21, from Memphis, TN – marginal southpaw working hard on four messy pitches; if he makes it, he’ll have to master control since he also tops out at 90-91 mph.
Round 6 (#162) – RF/LF Jose Cruz, 19, from Scottsdale, AZ – not very agile, not very powerful, despite a big build, but he knows how to put the ball in play
Round 7 (#186) – MR Luis Beltran, 21, from Houston, TX – southpaw with a slider, prone to home runs
Round 8 (#210) – SS Rafael Galindo, 18, from Santiago, Dom. Rep. – slick little shortstop with a very thin frame; can steal bases, but doesn’t hit for a lot
Round 9 (#234) – SP Marc Cunningham, 17, from Fontana, CA – slowball pitcher with a 86mph fastball that doesn’t even hit the strike zone
Round 10 (#258) – C Ramón Ramos, 20, from Guacara, Venezuela – no positive abilities to speak of
Round 11 (#282) – 1B Gilberto Hernandez, 21, from Maracaibo, Venezuela – all the power he has is more than mitigated by his terrible approach at the plate; if he hits a ball, then it’s by accident
Round 12 (#306) – SP Albert Pujols, 20, from Comendador, Dom. Rep. – throws balls with his left arm, strikes with none of his arms, has a 6.16 ERA for Oregon State, and c’mon, Albert Pujols!?

We assigned our two Canadians to the AA team, and the rest of the pack to the A level.

Manning went fourth overall to the Miners, Soto seventh overall to the Aces, and Murphy eighth to the Pacifics.

Undrafted went the son of former Falcons reliever Lorenzo Ángel, Lorenzo Ángel jr., who at age 18 had no abilities whatsoever, but demanded a $750k signing bonus.

180th overall and to the Blue Sox went – to my great annoyance – a fabulously named first baseman, the potentially fear-inducing … wait for it … Cletus Wamboldt.