[Westheim]

2031 DRAFT POOL ANALYSIS

Thanks to … uhm, cunning strategy and solid planning? … the Raccoons had a great set of draft picks for the 2031 this year’s teen and post-teen boys raffle at league headquarters in June. Earning the #5 pick through on-field performance and the #15 and #28 picks by resisting the urge to offer a contract to Kevin Harenberg, the Critters were set up well to make a difference for themselves down the road.

Now we just had to sort out those draftees, isn’t that right, Gustavo? Uh, you, you over there. – Yes, scout. – What do you mean, your name is not Gustavo?

As it was good custom around here, we had not only prepared a list of 101 young players we were at least some sort of interested in, but also a hotlist with a dozen or so guys that looked like they could go really high in the draft, and that we were also really high on (*denotes high school player):

SP Chris Crowell (13/14/14) * – BNN #9
SP Mark Holliday (11/14/11) – BNN #7
SP Denny Marsh (12/11/12)
SP Al Scott (11/14/9) – BNN #1

CL Austin Holt (18/14/12)

1B Chris Delagrange (10/14/14) – BNN #5
1B/LF/RF Will Luna (12/11/7) *
1B/RF/LF John Marz (13/9/7) * – BNN #8

OF Manny Fernandez (12/10/9)
OF Ryan Murray (12/11/14) – BNN #2
OF Joe Ritchey (13/10/16) * – BNN #6

There was something to say about a few of these, for example BNN’s #1 selection, southpaw Al Scott from Fort Worth, Texas, who had a huge arsenal to pick from and looked like he would definitely find a role in a big league rotation not too far into the future, but we were quite concerned about his lack of stamina, and stamina was not usually something that would get better for a 21-year-old.

Here we were a lot more into California right-hander Chris Crowell, 19, who had four pitches, knew how to generate groundballs, and had plenty of stamina to be pushed deep into games. I also liked his control much better.

There was however the question whether the Raccoons – given the opportunity at #5 – should seek a starting pitcher at all; we arguably already had almost a full rotation of legit SP prospects working their way up the system. Bats however were few and far between in the farm system. We had traded quite well for f.e. Chris Wallace in the last 12 months, but there was nothing quite like drafting a young slugger and seeing him grow, knowing he was all yours. This is not a slight to pitching prospects; I have loved my Brownies. But does anybody remember the last Coons-picked position player gem that had a successful career? I mean, since Matt Nunley… have we had *anybody*? [Ramos was of course not a draft pick, but taken in the IFA selection process.]

There was a pair of corner players with nearly identical skill sets on the hotlist in Luna and Marz. With that I mean good contact bats with power, while being of negligible defensive prowess. Neither was likely to grow into a big league outfielder, even at the close-your-eyes-and-listen-to-the-crowd-noise position, leftfield. Marz was a righty batter, Luna a lefty. Both were potential error sinks. Neither was in the upper half of the hotlist, but it was not outlandish for us to consider either one at #15.

Nope, I was really eyeing the triplet of versatile outfielders on the hotlist. All three of them had good contact abilities, decent power potential, strong defense, strong running legs for base stealing, and all three of them could potentially bring you tons of joy. If you ordered them this way – Ritchey, Murray, Fernandez – then you had more defense on the right, and more of an on-base racing threat (like Ramos) on the left. Ritchey *did* like to fish (and was the only right-handed batter in the trio), but he was also the only high school boy in the set and we’d have the most time beating it out of him.

I think we’re likely to make a selection from those three if the competition will allow us. It’s hard to say whether any of them will actually be around at #5, which would require two teams to select somebody else ahead of us. I thought Crowell was probably a top selection, and obvious future closers were rare, so there was also value to Holt. Delagrange was also a legit slugging prospect, but was also limited to first base.

No, I have a really hard time predicting the top picks here. Which of the three outfielders would be my favorite? I like Murray’s build, but his lead over the other two is at most two whiskers at this stage, and there’s a few more weeks to the draft.