[Westheim]

2010 AMATEUR DRAFT

Picking first at #43, the Raccoons didn’t spend too much time worrying about the most juicy talent in the draft. We’ll see what we get, when we get it.

The top picks in the draft turned out to be SP Melvin Alvarado (MIL), OF Justin Nickel (TOP), and SP Bryan Robbins (NAS), with C Justin Clark (LVA) and LF/RF Trevor Herbert (SFW) completing the top 5. The first pick not even on our extensive longer list of interesting young talent came at #11 when the Scorpions picked up outfielder Gerardo Callahan. The Wolves picked SP Zach Hughes with the first round pick that would have been ours, but this was with our most favorite pitcher, Jason Clements still on the board. He would fall to the Canadiens at #24.

By the time our first pick finally rolled around, there was only one player left from our hotlist, and that was SP Dan Moon. He was a right-hander with an astounding cutter/curveball combo and very mean stuff especially for a high schooler, but Juan Calderón also pointed out that his third pitch, a changeup, was seriously lagging behind in development and there was no guarantee that it would come around. That was not the issue with Justin Denham, who was also on the hotlist, except that he wasn’t, but Denham, also a high schooler, threw 5mph slower compared to Moon. Teams had already gobbled up outfielders like there was no tomorrow, so we really were between these two. Bank on a changeup that is not more than a guarantee for trouble right now, or go with the guy who throws a meager 89mph on average?

We broke our heads about that for as long as we were allowed to, then snapped to Moon. In the end, we could have gotten away with less drama: Denham remained around until our next pick. We picked two outfielders after that, and then suffered some minor frustration in round 3 when we had already focused on C Corey Call, whom the Cyclones then grabbed one spot ahead of us. Grrr!

It was a few minutes later when we realized that somehow a page was missing from our notes. “Say”, I asked Calderón, “where’s the page on third basemen?” He fingered through his notes. “I can’t find it”, he ultimately replied. “Say”, I went again. “Is that Matt Nunley still on the board?”

2010 PORTLAND RACCOONS DRAFT CLASS

Supp. Round (#43) – SP Dan Moon, 18, from Radcliff, KY – right-hander with a nasty curve and cutter, getting groundballs; also has very good stamina; main issue is his wonky third pitch, a changeup, that needs some serious work
Supp. Round (#55) – SP Justin Denham, 18, from Branson, MO – right-hander with a good 3-pitch mix; needs to get a bit more movement on the fastball, which shouldn’t be too hard with a 89mph “heater”. HIS changeup looks wonderful, though.
Round 2 (#72) – RF/LF/1B Jimmy Fucito, 22, from Norton, MA – good contact bat with soundly above-average power potential, although his walks and strikeouts could suffer, since he swings at really everything; no speed, but a killer arm, making him a rightfielder by default
Round 2 (#84) – LF Matt Stubbs, 18, from Elgin, IL – contact, power, and a good eye, also quite fleet on the feet, but he has some unnerving clumsiness on defense
Round 3 (#108) – 1B Isaac Berry, 17, from Plymouth, NC – mostly the prototypical first baseman, except that he can run quite a bit and has more range than the average Sir Swings A Lot…
Round 4 (#132) – 3B Matt Nunley, 19, from Hollywood, FL – a somewhat rare breed of a left-handed hitting third baseman, Nunley has the arm of a murderer, but isn’t too agile in the field, costing him in the double play department and disqualifying him from a shortstop assignment. We think that a slight adjustment to his swing could really bring out the power in him.
Round 5 (#156) – RF/LF Keith Chisholm, 20, from Kamloops, BC, Canada – nothing out of the ordinary here, except that he is really slow on the feet and has hit more than twice as many home runs than doubles in college ball
Round 6 (#180) – LF/2B Matt Saunders, 20, from Pine Hills, CA – this strange creature has exceptional mobility in the field, yet no timing to steal bases, also the occasional base running blunder, and also no arm to capitalize on the range in centerfield f.e., and no power to put him in a corner outfield spot in a productive way; no clue what we’re gonna do with him…
Round 7 (#204) – SP Chris Nickolaus, 18, from Philadelphia, PA – this right-hander throws a 87mph slowball, but has a mean slider; also working on a rudimentary changeup
Round 8 (#228) – SP Ford Pilger, 21, from Philadelphia, PA – and another right-hander with a changeup in progress, and not much of a fastball
Round 9 (#252) – C/1B Brian Moore, 17, from Westchester, IL – might well turn out to be a defensive nightmare, and to be a one trick pony that hits a ball really hard at a cost of 15 strikeouts apiece…
Round 10 (#276) – MR Ken Penwell, 21, from San Jose, CA – right-hander with a cutter/curveball repertoire and no intentions to add a changeup
Round 11 (#300) – SP Ethan Reynolds, 21, from Reed Creek, GA – I admit I was looking hard for a left-hander with not much about him in round 11, which has worked well in the past…
Round 12 (#324) – 2B Danny Plascencia, 18, from Caguas, Puerto Rico – I wasn’t into more infielders, but the scouting reports hints at a potentially nice contact bat surprise in this switch-hitter

All picks reported to Aumsville, including Fucito, and all 28 selections named Matt. If Fucito does well, he might get a promotion to Ham Lake quickly, though.

I'd give ourselves a D- on organization on this one, but at least we didn't yell out when it wasn't our turn.