[Westheim]

2023 DRAFT POOL ANALYSIS

The Raccoons have a top pick in the draft – the fourth overall selection – and the draft pool was overall … lacking. There were a number of selections to be made among starting pitchers and you could easily get a very decent prospect at #4 under any circumstances, but when it came to batting, things were quite dire. More than half of the 89-strong shortlist compiled by the Raccoons were pitchers, which was unusual to say the least, and even then the reviews compiled by the Riddler were rough for sure for some of the kids.

Picking together a ten-or-so hotlist was possible of course, but would include a lot of pitchers for sure… High School players are marked with an asterisk:

SP Geoff Swayze (12/12/6) * – BNN #4
SP Matt Diduch (14/12/11) – BNN #3
SP Pat Okrasinski (12/14/11) – BNN #1
SP Bobby Reed (10/11/10) *
SP Josh Weeks (11/12/11) – BNN #2
SP Zach Ward (10/13/10) *

SP Adrian McQuinn (10/14/12)

C Elijah Bean (13/12/10) *

2B/SS/3B Tim Stackhouse (12/14/14) – BNN #5
1B Brad Woods (9/10/14)

RF/LF/1B Brian Marshall (9/9/12)
OF/1B Kyle Brown (10/11/11)

I must admit, Stackhouse looks good. If he’d fall to #4, I might be tempted to take him, but I doubt it, given just how dire the hitting side of the pool looks.

Also, why is Adrian McQuinn listed separately from the remaining starting pitchers? Because the Riddler threw up a red flag for him only having two pitches and him not seeing the potential for a third pitch to add to that short arsenal. The UCLA student from Shasta Lake has a very good fastball and a mean slider, but that’s it, really. And then those pitches are not really good enough for him to be a closer, either, so he really isn’t first round material, sadly.