[Westheim]

2019 AMATEUR DRAFT

As the draft was about to start I was more or less set on taking David Lessman if he was left over at #22. Like they always say – a two-way player gives you the chance to be disappointed twice. Or something like that.

We had just under 100 players in the pool on the shortlist, as well as the following 14 on the hotlist (*indicates high school player):

SP Doug Moffatt (14/15/11) – BNN #7
SP Nick Salinas (14/13/16) – BNN #6
SP Mike McGill (12/10/11) * - BNN #9
SP Tony McDonald (11/12/13) *
SP Robert O’Brien (12/12/16) *

CL Jon Ozier (20/12/14)
CL Erik Schoonover (19/14/11)

C Mike Burgess (15/14/17) *
C/1B David Lessman (11/12/13) *

INF/LF/RF Rich Hereford (9/13/9)
1B Kevin Harenberg (12/14/8) – BNN #1
SS Tim Stalker (11/10/9) – BNN #10

RF/CF Josh Woods (10/13/13) * - BNN #3
RF/LF/CF Omar Larios (10/10/14) – BNN #4

Failing to get Lessman, the backup plan was to take Jon Ozier, because of past good experiences with closers taken in the first round. We need another one of those homebrewed murder closers. Ozier wouldn’t be able to replace Alex Ramirez right away of course, but one can hope, right?

The Thunder had the first overall pick courtesy of the worst record in 2018 and selected C Mike Burgess, right off the hotlist, which continued to be picked from with the Wolves taking 1B Kevin Harenberg at #2 (unusual for a first baseman to go this early), and the Falcons picking SP Doug Moffatt. The top five were completed by two more starting pitchers, Dustin Cory to the Titans at #4, and Nick Salinas to the Miners at #5.

At least our hopes at getting David Lessman ended early when the Capitals selected him with the eighth pick in the draft, still miles away from the Coons’ first chance to dip into the boys available. The hotlist was decimated after only half of the first round had been picked through, with only five players remaining: the two closers, McDonald, Stalker, and Larios. Five picks later, this was reduced to just Ozier and McDonald, and the bedeviled Blue Sox took Ozier at #20, and the cursed Warriors selected McDonald at #21, so our entire 14-man hotlist was erased before we ever got to pick, and with PRECISELY the last two picks taking the last two players.

Thrown into disarray, because so far our hotlist had ALWAYS yielded at least one pick, Martinez and me had to scramble to make a pick in just five minutes’ time. If in doubt, pick a pitcher in the first round, that’s what they say, right? Pitchers don’t disappoint as often. Sifting through our second-row choices as quick as possible, we narrowed it down to a 19-year old Canadian high schooler as our only pick in the first or supplemental round.

Martinez had worked out a battle plan that focused on high-floor, medium-ceiling players with certain stock abilities that had a good chance of reaching the majors in the first rounds, before switching to a no-holds-barred approach for the middle and last rounds. While we nibbled our way through the next rounds, twice we focused on an infielder that was snatched up before we could get to our next pick. Once this was 2B Ozzie Rioseco in the third round, and then 3B Matt Williams in the fourth round. In a way, Williams would have already been a high-risk pick given that he had good home run power, but also was striking out rapidly, with a rather low batting average for a pick going just outside the top 100.

Our shortlist ran out early in the ninth round, after which we went really crazy, as far as that was even possible.

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2019 PORTLAND RACCOONS DRAFT CLASS

Round 1 (#22) – SP Reese Kenny, 19, from London, Canada – right-hander with a good fastball with slight sink, generating groundballs, and a mean curve and slider. If he can also develop the changeup, his sizeable arsenal could make up for the today almost substandard 92mph fastball. Stamina is good, and his body reminds one of a good ol’ workhorse, sturdy and robust, but not fat.
Round 2 (#67) – OF Devin Mansfield, 19, from Ruskin, FL – excellent defensive outfielder, very agile and speedy. No home run power, but perhaps you make him go from line to line and exploit the fringes for doubles and triples. Good contact bat, but not in a Cookie way where you can expect him to hit .300 and up.
Round 3 (#91) – SP Cory Weeden, 20, from Boise, ID – this right-hander has an interesting mix of four pitches, which helps him mask that he only throws 90mph with little hope of gaining velocity at this point. Besides control issues, he also has a strong, durable body according to Martinez and should be able to pitch for a long time if taught proper mechanics.
Round 4 (#115) – SS Jon McGrew, 21, from Albany, NY – primarily a defensive shortstop with tremendous range and a strong arm, McGrew can rip one from time to time, but power is not his primary attribute at the plate. Has a good eye and can make steady contact. Not that quick on the bases despite a good first step and doesn’t project as a big base stealer, but could be someone you play hit-and-run with on either end.
Round 5 (#139) – SP Ken Braddy, 20, from Fort Lauderdale, FL – this left-hander throws 90mph, but will probably end up in the bullpen. Can’t get his third pitch, a changeup, over most of the time, and when he does, he gets burned.
Round 6 (#163) – 2B/SS Justin Steenrod, 20, from Lincoln, NE – good defensive middle infielder with a contact bat, but little in the way of power; mostly slapping singles only.
Round 7 (#187) – 3B/RF/LF/1B Ron Pietsch, 18, from New York, NY – foremost a corner infielder, his arm generates lightning and is also suiting him well for playing rightfield, although his bat doesn’t profile him as a rightfielder; has no power whatsoever, and also no speed, trying to survive with batting average alone.
Round 8 (#211) – OF Adam Bareford, 20, from Los Angeles, CA – good range, not so good an arm, so he might be best suited as centerfielder, which also matches his bat; another guy with no home run power at all, and this one also a free swinger not shying back from chasing stuff in the dirt and six feet away.
Round 9 (#235) – OF/1B Matt Luke, 19, from Whiskey Creek, FL – here was some power potential, even though Matty Luke bought it with lots of swings-and-misses. Not a tremendous defender, but he had some range and speed and would be able to hold down a corner no problem.
Round 10 (#259) – LF/RF Steve Grosso, 22, from Phoenix, AZ – here was a 2-way player nobody had walked about. His bat was nothing much, but he had a nice curveball that he occasionally showed off, along with a 90mph heater, for Coastal Carolina. Right-hander Grosso would be converted into a pitcher right after the draft.
Round 11 (#283) – C Joe Dale, 18, from Chicago, IL – normally reserved for the Nick Brown Memorial Pick, we hadn’t yet selected a catcher, and they were running out, and we could use one more in the system. Dale himself isn’t excelling at anything except lying in his hammock and daydreaming.
Round 12 (#307) – CL Jim Garrison, 20, from Cape Coral, FL – Garrison was the Nick Brown Memorial Pick in the penultimate round this year, a left-handed reliever with a standard fastball / curveball combo, none of those two pitches being very good…
Round 13 (#331) – MR John Hyden, 21, from Atascadeo, CA – righty with a slider, throws 91mph heaters that usually rebound hard off the launchpad.

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No, Adam Bareford and Andy Bareford are not related.

All picks were assigned to single-A Aumsville. If we had gotten Ozier, I would have been tempted between AA and even AAA, but … ah.

To make room in the system, a number of players were released the same weekend. Among those released (in addition to international discoveries that were never mentioned before) were: A MR Eddie Briggs (2018, 10th Rd.), A INF Ian Herbert (2016, 10th Rd.), A MR Julian Hill (2017, 9th Rd.), AAA LF/RF Brandon Johnson (picked out of the trash), AAA LF Matt Stubbs (2010, 2nd Rd.);

Johnson and Stubbs were a combined 57 years old and were never more than fringe players to begin with, and we are more than loaded on the corners. We need he at-bats for a few younger players. Dwayne Metts is one of those trying to find a grove in AAA and being forced to share space with 30-year old washouts. We still retained two comparably ancient outfielders in AAA in Keith Chisholm and Danny Ochoa, because both were hitting a bit in AAA at least, and we have the injury bug and could be down another six players by July.

There was one more player getting canned. This extra paragraph shall be devoted to 26-year old SP Jeff Magnotta, the 2012 first-rounder by the Raccoons, taking at #18 to be precise, that between 2015 and 2017 made nine starts in the major leagues, going 3-5 with a 5.17 ERA. While that does not look any worse than anything Damani Knight f.e. has done in his career, the 32 walks and 11 strikeouts in 47 innings certainly were a special kind of terrible. Magnotta sunk through AAA to AA Ham Lake in ’18, and this year had pitched to a 4.92 ERA in that league. At 26 years old, it was not too early to cut him loose. Magnotta was also released the day after the draft.

And I really thought Magnotta would make it.

After the first round of dismissals, we still had 123 players in the system, including those on the DL.