[Westheim]

Angel Casas might be the next Grant West. That closer search has been going on for almost a decade now.

Artie Hill is a high school player, and we have a terrible history with high school outfielders. Or outfielders in general. Have we drafted a good one after Daniel Hall? I'd have to read up on that.

One problem might be not trusting your own scout completely. Vince has been around some. Our draft history with him looks good on pitchers, but horrible on hitters. It can't be all coincidence. He really has better success unearthing kids all over New Spain. So a few things came together here:

- horrible history with outfielders, including with Vince
- high school player
- OSA has him run of the mill

Too much doubt in the end. On the other hand: only one reliever we drafted in the proper first round has ever failed us (Juan Santos, 1984). And we drafted quite a few: Cunningham, West, Miller, Martinez, Nordahl, Bruno;

I may be reading too much into this. But I was not happy to pick Hill over Casas. If Casas had been gone at #7 it might well have been Hill, because the starting pitcher was gone, we have so many first basemen drafted and lingering, and the other relievers have their own issues.

---

Re, franchise outfielders: I still have my money on Beairsto-Torrez-Brady in the longer run, although Beairsto's K's are most unsettling. If Beairsto could cut down the K's he could platoon with Reece in left starting immediately, since it's obvious that Reece is over the mountain, but we gotta pay that contract anyway. He can't be traded and he won't ever go to AAA, so he's on the roster through 2004. Besides, he had eight hits against L.A., and that's enough for my faith to come back. Not defensively, he's old and wrecked, but offensively.

Also, where are we going? To hell, of course, but there is still a big free agent on board in Palacios. However, he is in a slump and has little trade value right now. We might want to wait for a few more weeks before evaluating our options further.

With Amador, I want to get him three to five starts in AAA. We should not have much trouble to find him a rotation spot in case of him succeeding for the Alley Cats.