[Westheim]

2007 AMATEUR DRAFT

The 2007 ABL Amateur Draft took place on Friday. The Raccoons had the eighth pick in every round, plus two supplemental round picks and the eleventh pick in the third round, courtesy of free agency compensation for Clyde Brady and Ralph Ford.

We sort of had a list of players that were somewhat interesting, but Whitebread was not particularly amazed by any of the kids. The numbers were favorable of a couple of high school pitchers, but picking eighth and with only four pitchers around, we weren’t guaranteed to get one.

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 Mark (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)

The #1 overall pick was with the Pacifics, who selected 22-yr old SP Bruce Mark with the first overall pick, followed by fellow pitchers Ben Lehman to the Rebels and Jim Cushing to the Loggers. Bednarski and Milliard were also gone by the time we had our first pick coming up.

Whitebread had Lillis, Overstake, and Denton to pick from among his starting pitchers. He said that originally he had intended Lillis to be his top pick, but had consulted with two of the pitching coaches in our system and the area scout and had found out that he was mostly throwing fastballs, fastballs, fastballs. How much potential was there for complementary breaking stuff to be developed?

With that, the Raccoons used their #8 pick for Kevin Denton. Lillis and Overstake were taken back-to-back at the end of the first round, and by the time our first supplemental pick moved to the top of the list, all pitchers and outfielders from the hotter shortlist were already gone, only the two infielders Peterson and Vanderwall remained.

2007 PORTLAND RACCOONS DRAFT CLASS
Round 1 (#8) – SP Kevin Denton, 19, from Houston, TX – southpaw with a sinking fastball and a dirty splitter; generates plenty of ground balls with poor contact by batters
Supp. Round (#32) – 1B C.J. Vanderwall, 20, from Annapolis, MD – more or less your prototypical first baseman with shoddy defense, no speed, and at least some power … although we would wish for a bit more power…
Supp. Round (#44) – SP Mike Cole, 18, from Greater Carrollwood, FL – huge swooping curveball on this right-hander, but the fastball is not very impressive, and he will need to improve on his WIP changeup to make it in baseball
Round 2 (#63) – C Brian Hammond, 21, from Brooklyn, NY – lead-footed catcher with a strong arm but sometimes clumsy behavior. Has good contact abilities and might come up with some pop, too.
Round 3 (#87) – LF Josh Turzak, 18, from Mt. Lebanon, PA – he might never win a Gold Glove, being nimble with neither of his paws, but he has a good swing and can hit for power all over the field
Round 3 (#90) – INF Nick Robinson, 21, from Moorhead, MS – cast from the quirky mold, he is a highly-skilled defender and quick runner and base stealer, but has mostly a singles bat; needs to have the desire to hit home runs slapped out of his head, which results in strikeouts on desperate rips
Round 4 (#111) – RF/SS Shane Lea, 18, from Hillsboro, OR – first, we got to find this kid a position where he can do the least damage with his clumsy paws, then we got to school his eye and make him more patient in his approach; the result good be a good ballplayer.
Round 5 (#135) – INF Mark Lydic, 18, from Casas Adobes, AZ – good range, arm, and speed, but not too adept with the bat, but might hit a few home runs to console his manager over his .210 batting average
Round 6 (#159) – INF/LF/RF Chris Phillips, 18, from Los Angeles, CA – quite an adept fielder basically all over the field, Phillips has to show much more with the bat to even make it as an utility
Round 7 (#183) – C Pedro Torruellas, 18, from Ceiba, Puerto Rico – this switch-hitter is a mad hacker; when he makes contact, he sends pitchers crying, but it doesn’t happen all that often
Round 8 (#207) – SP Danny Wood, 19, from Redan, GA – this lefty was not even the #1 pitcher on his high school team in backwaters Georgia…
Round 9 (#231) – SP Josh Meissner, 18, from Mission, TX – right-hander with an 86mph “fastball”, and his splitter has the ability to freeze batters in time
Round 10 (#255) – INF/RF Andy Lannon, 18, from Omaha, NE – another one of those kids playing all over the place with their glove, but not getting much done with the bat
Round 11 (#279) – SP Keith Dale, 18, from Parma, OH – right-hander with an 86mph “fastball”, yet again, and the breaking stuff is rather dull
Round 12 (#303) – LF/RF/1B Pete Schipper, 20, from Margate, FL – likes to hit for power – which he does – but occasionally it would be nice to get on base more often than just every fortnight

All players were assigned to Aumsville to get their start in professional ball. We released a few players, including two former fourth rounder in infielders Jamie Orr and Jerry Lawson, and of course there was also that Ed Caldwell trade.