[Westheim]

2022 AMATEUR DRAFT

Wednesday was also draft night, with the Raccoons, who had the 18th pick in every round, and nothing more, hoping against hope to pick somebody from their hotlist:

SP Nick Danieley (14/14/12) – BNN #2
SP Peter Gill (11/13/9) * - BNN #10
SP Ben Darr (10/14/11) * - BNN #4
SP Erik David (13/11/12) – BNN #5
SP Dave Christiansen (10/13/11) *

CL Ricky Ohl (17/13/9)

1B Cameron Meachum (8/12/14)
SS/3B Butch Gerster (10/4/12)
INF/LF John Kelley (9/7/12)

OF Mike Chaplin (9/10/13) – BNN #1
OF Todd Eminger (10/8/10)
OF David Allard (11/7/11)
OF Mark Walker (9/9/13)

The more I looked at his profile, the more I liked Ricky Ohl. There is something about high-stuff relievers, especially when they are young and controllable … financially, young relievers never have any control over their pitches… And since I was doubting that we could get a top-notch starting pitcher with the 18th pick, Ohl became the more attractive.

There was no way to get the top-flight pitcher in many’s book in this draft, Nick Danieley, unless you were the Buffaloes. They swooped him up with the #1 pick. Peter Gill to the Thunder, and Mike Chaplin to the ****ing Elks soon followed in the top 3. The top 5 were completed by Dave Christiansen (to L.A.) and Erik David (to Dallas).

That left only one starting pitcher on the hotlist … and Ben Darr fell to the Indians as early as #6. Suddenly I felt uneasy about our chances of ever drafting Ricky Ohl at all. The next few picks did not come off the hotlist until #10 (Eminger to New York), and at #13 the damn Capitals sniped Ricky Ohl when I almost had my fingers on the oddly-coloured tie he was wearing. I wept as the Capitals GM walked off the stage with him.

That left only batters on the hotlist. I was a fan of Mark Walker’s college stats, but the Druid had written something about tornados in Laredo, and wasn’t that the Pacifics’ double-A team’s home? Tornados mean whiffs – and I can’t have no whiffs on my team, nor tornados. Butch Gerster was an appealing pick because he had something solid that could not be taken away from him that easily, defense and speed – although a car crash f.e. could do grisly things to the human body AND WHAT I AM EVEN DOING HERE SIGN THIS KID

The mind wanders. Gerster was the first-round pick for the Critters, and Walker went at #22 to the Knights. David Allard was taken 36th overall by the Aces, and Cameron Meachum ended up being taken 54th overall by the Warriors, four picks ahead of the Coons’ second chance. The Raccoons were left with John Kelley, a versatile defender. He could do more stuff defensively than Gerster, but was not that much of a batter; thus the hotlist was exhausted.

2022 PORTLAND RACCOONS DRAFT CLASS

Round 1 (#18) – SS/3B Butch Gerster, 21, from Moss Bluff, LA – highly talented shortstop, excellent defense with huge range and an extremely precise arm and sure hands; also very fast; bat is more of the high-OBP kind than one that promises power outbursts, although he should be able to hit five or seven dingers at the major league level every year
Round 2 (#58) – INF/LF John Kelley, 21, from West DeLand, FL – versatile defender and probable utility player, good speed, solid contact bat, maybe too trigger-happy
Round 3 (#82) – SP Matthew Humes, 20, from Utica, NY – right-hander, throws 91, and complements that fastball with a good fork and a maybe-changeup? There are also some control issues to be ironed out according to the scouting report, although OSA is more favorable on him overall… so this is very much a second-opinion pick that our scouting director very much objects to
Round 4 (#106) – 1B/OF Ryan Allan, 20, from Thornton, CO – contact batter with good eye and discipline that does not hack wildly, with good defensive attributes and great range, so he does most likely project as a centerfielder since he is largely starved for power. He bats left-handed.
Round 5 (#130) – OF Scott Bahl, 18, from Newton, MA – another defensive centerfielder type with speed, contact bat, and decent discipline; Bahl, who had the most likely ironic nickname “Boom Boom” completely lacked power of any kind at this point and projected as a singles slapper, but we have a certain Cookie on the roster that likes to claim that slapping singles ain’t all bad
Round 6 (#154) – 2B Brian Hage, 18, from Pottstown, PA – not enough arm strength to make it on the left side of the diamond, so this kid is going to be limited to the keystone despite great range that would suit a shortstop; contact bat, but not very selective in his approach
Round 7 (#178) – MR Michael White, 20, from Newport News, VA – right-hander throwing 91mph, also has a changeup and a splitter; I wonder whether it’s worth the hassle to try and stretch him out, but he has three distintictive and non-terrible pitches to begin with, so it might be worth a try making him a starter in single-A…
Round 8 (#202) – SP Arnold Bond, 19, from Twin Lake, MI – right-hander with a 87mph fastball(?), also a decent curve. Not much of a third pitch that we can make out, though…
Round 9 (#226) – OF Juan Magallanes, 18, from Tulua, Colombia – odd switch-hitting, Colombian kid attending a small Jewish high school in Brooklyn; there must be some magic hidden in the ninth round here that his scouting report can’t show…
Round 10 (#250) – SP Jordan Ponce, 17, from Caguas, Puerto Rico – left-hander throwing it at merely 86, but he hasn’t filled out that 6’ frame yet, so maybe there is more to come; quite a nice curveball that he has, but no third pitch to complement that repertoire
Round 11 (#274) – MR Joe Ashe, 20, from Mobile, AL – this year’s Nick Brown Memorial Pick is a left-hander winging the ball at 90mph, with said ball generally ending up somewhere in the protective netting; has a changeup to add to the fastball, but they both end up in the netting and it is hard to tell them apart as you’re ducking in panic
Round 12 (#298) – C Andrew Lanza, 19, from Sulphur, LA – by head count, we can use another low-minors catcher, which is mostly all of the reasons why he got drafted at all
Round 13 (#322) – SP Steve Lehman, 19, from Corona, CA – another left-hander, and another 87mph heater; movement is there, control, eh, oh well, and oh dear…

Aside from Gerster, who was assigned to AA Ham Lake, all draft picks were to start out their professional careers in Aumsville, and I was quite sure that some of them would also finish them there eventually.

Of course we also had to release plenty of players. These included in no particular order: 2017 Nick Brown Memorial Pick Ken Shelton, who had become extremely struck in AA Ham Lake; 2019 third-rounder Cory Weeden, who at almost 24 years old did not have the vaguest concept of the strike zone; 2021 tenth-rounder Kyle Oglesby, who was challenging hard to walk nine per nine innings in Aumsville; 2020 Nick Brown Memorial Pick Danny Russell, who had acquired the nickname “Human Catapult” in Aumsville, which was a bad nickname for a pitcher; 2020 thirteenth-rounder Eddie Shipley, who was bravely soldering on in Aumsville with a 6.53 ERA; and 2021 twelveth-rounder 2B Brian Higgins, who couldn’t hit the snooze button on his alarm clock;