[Westheim]

2007 DRAFT POOL ANALYSIS

The Raccoons’ mediocre finish in 2006 grants them the eighth pick in every round in the 2007 draft. As compensation for the departures of Clyde Brady and Ralph Ford the Raccoons have also received three compensation picks. Two of those are supplemental round picks (#6 and #20 of 31), and the third is a rather less impressive 11th pick in the third round. Overall, they will have six of the first ninety selections.

With this bushel of early picks it is the more unfortunate that the draft pool is not overly rich.

Whitebread compiled his usual cryptic tome of confusion. I kindly asked him to explain – with words, not fips, nor wobas – whom we should pick. He had no answer. At least not a short one.

There was a quartet of high school starting pitchers in the draft that the numbers seemed to make exciting or at least promising, but, Whitebread explained, other teams were using his superior techniques as well and would almost certainly have picked all of them, especially his top 2, by the time we would pick at the eighth position.

There was also a few outfielders in the draft with surprisingly similar characteristics. All without much power, all without good gloves, but good on-base qualities. There was considerably less promising player material among catchers and infielders available.

The top dozen or so, including “conventional” potential STF/MOV/CTL or CON/POW/EYE values Whitebread only assigns under protest, calling it an unscientifical procedure:

SP Brett Lillis (10/12/8)
SP Andy Overstake (11/14/4)
SP Jim Cushing (12/15/11)
SP Kevin Denton (10/12/10)
SP Bruce Mack (14/13/11)

CL George Youngblood (12/15/12)

3B/1B Tommie Peterson (9/8/14)
1B C.J. Vanderwall (10/7/15)

LF/RF Mike Bednarski (10/11/12)
LF/RF Danny Munn (7/11/14)
LF Steve Derer (9/16/13)
RF/LF/1B John Gartner (14/10/5)
OF/1B Dave Milliard (10/10/8)

There is an ongoing issue, probably with this league file specifically, that keeps generating draft pools of potentially dubious quality. Coupled with a soulless college graduate head scout who has traded exposure to sunlight for the passive glare of a laptop screen and has never witnessed the beauty of a ballgame in person, a 12/15/11 prospect is to be considered outrageously promising. Among ALL 360 players’ three primary attributes there are two 17’s and a single 18, all in “third” attributes (CTL/EYE).