[Westheim]

2043 AMATEUR DRAFT

It was time to get out to New York first thing in the morning and come down on League HQ to sort through the parade of young pitching and hitting talent that tried to get paid for stick-and-ball games. The 2043 amateur draft was upon us and the Raccoons had compiled a shortlist of 117 players for the shortlist (including three listed as both pitchers and hitters), and also the annual hotlist of about a dozen or so players that we’d take in a heartbeat. Players with * are high school standouts.

SP Kellen Lanning (12/12/9)
SP C.J. Benjamin (12/12/12)
SP Luke Schwartz (12/12/12)
SP Jeremy Baker (12/12/13)
SP Joe Wilson (12/12/11)
SP Garrett Guistino (11/13/13)

SP Barry Montgomery (16/16/12) *
CL Brian Grohoski (18/14/7)

C Nick Samuel (10/12/13)

UT Mike Proffitt (9/11/10)

OF/1B Mike Harmon (9/13/12)
OF Jim Vesey (8/12/8) *
OF Brent Cramer (13/8/9) *
OF Tony Lopez (12/12/12)
OF/1B Ken Crum (10/12/11)

The closer we got to draft day the more I got attracted to the idea of maybe taking Barry Montgomery with our #7 pick (the reward for all the losing last year) in the first round. Even if he wouldn’t run into an ace, there was still the chance to get a lights-out closer out of the deal, which wasn’t the worst bargain.

The Capitals had the first overall pick, selecting high school outfielder Jim Vesey with it. The Titans also selected an outfielder with the #2 pick, taking in Tony Lopez. The Blue Sox made it 3-for-3 with the selection of Mike Harmon. Coming up fourth, the Warriors went for catcher Nick Samuel. The Aces used their #5 pick on outfielder Brent Cramer. That only left the Indians to pick ahead of the Critters, and they went for outfielder Josh Poupard, who was not on our hotlist.

And the Raccoons? Suddenly I felt dizzy. Why was nobody taking those starting pitchers, any of them? Shouldn’t we take one of the starting pitchers, the undisputed ones? Lanning? Or Schwartz? Or … or … and the worst thing was, I had forgotten Honeypaws at the hotel, and how could I make an informed decision, sitting there, staring, sweating, under the impatient looks of 23 other GM’s, the league brass, and our own Scout Guy, who tapped his fingers on the table rhythmically. Okay, Baker!! Why him?? I DON’T KNOW WHY!! DON’T ASK SO MANY QUESTIONS!! (breaks into tears)

At least I made the Pacifics happy, who drafted Montgomery at #8. Maybe we will look back on this day with great regret! Lanning went #9 to the Condors, and the Bayhawks took Ken Crum at #11. Brian Grohoski was a #14 pick by the Crusaders, one spot ahead of the Rebels’ selection of Garrett Giustino. The #21 pick was C.J. Benjamin by the Thunder. The Loggers took Luke Schwartz at #23, and Joe Wilson, taken by the Cyclones, concluded the first round proper.

That made super utility Mike Proffitt the only player from the hotlist that didn’t get taken in the first round proper, but I was still trying to bite a piece out of the table over not taking Montgomery with the #7 pick when the Pacifics snapped him up with the #8 pick. Proffitt slipped to the Bayhawks at #31, thus ending the hotlist watch part of this year’s draft bonanza.

The Raccoons did not have a supplemental round pick, so we only got back into the action with the #51 pick in the second round and took a well-rounded outfielder that could do a bit of everything in 23-year-old Matt Glodowski, a right-handed batter. Then I got back at the Pacifics by drafting another outfielder right out of their backyard in L.A. boy Daniel Wright. Yeah! (stands up and yells over at the Pacifics delegation) How you like that, punks!?

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2043 PORTLAND RACCOONS DRAFT CLASS

Round 1 (#7) – SP Jeremy Baker, 22, from Rochester, MI – left-handed college stud throwing 92 with serious control, and adding a fine splitter, forkball, and a changeup that mostly served to confuse people when they had to get their knees out of its way
Round 2 (#51) – OF Matt Glodowski, 23, from Freeport, NY – well-rounded player suitable for all three positions on the green grass, with decent contact and power, some speed, and a strong throwing arm.
Round 3 (#75) – RF/LF Daniel Wright, 18, from Los Angeles, CA – another strong arm here for rightfield, but a bit less range and not much of a chance to play center competently. Speed and stealing was not his forte, but we saw a power bat with enough contact ability to make an impact with something, even if it was only harsh reality in AA in five years.
Round 4 (#99) – 3B/LF/RF Justin Benne, 19, from North Charleston, SC – a bit of a wild pick for a guy that wasn’t making a lot of contact against high school pitching, but if he made contact, he’d hit the ball into the next county over. Best case was a Mark Dawson type of player that could fill all the corners and whack 20 homers with a low-end batting average.
Round 5 (#123) – SP Craig Holliday, 20, from Pottsville, PA – right-hander with a 91mph fastball, a curve, and his idea of a changeup. Fairly durable and has stamina like a horse, so maybe he can work his way onto a major league staff that way.
Round 6 (#147) – C Andy Boyette, 19, from Bourne, MA – run-of-the-mill, mid-round catcher; more of a contact bat with little patience and sparse power, no speed, but his act behind the plate grades out fairly well
Round 7 (#171) – RF/LF/1B Josh McCracken, 18, from Houston, TX – lefty hitter with mediocre defense and not much power or plate discipline.
Round 8 (#195) – SS Sergio Cancel, 18, from Coahuila, Mexico – light-hitting shortstop with good defensive metrics as far as range was concerned, but slightly clumsy.
Round 9 (#219) – MR Scott Ebert, 21, from Nashville, TN – left-hander with a 90mph fastball and a good curve, but control over none of that.
Round 10 (#243) – INF/LF Zach LaCasse, 18, from Brooklyn, NY – potential super utility… and that was about all the good things about him, because he wasn’t exactly a defensive wizard and his bat hadn’t gotten him drafted earlier either…
Round 11 (#267) – MR Erick Hackworth, 21, from Toms River, NJ – this year’s Nick Brown Memorial Pick throws 90 with his left paw, and has a cutter and a bit of a crappy changeup. Control is terrible.
Round 12 (#291) – INF Brian Maloney, 20, from Strathcona, Canada – low-hitting loudmouth that decently fields at multiple positions
Round 13 (#315) – SP Hiroshi Arai, 19, from Tokyo, Japan – left-handed Japanese high-schooler we were instructed to draft at Nick Valdes’ insistence, so he could get a deal done with Hitoshi Arai, his father, who owned 58 large pollution factories. The kid wasn’t even good enough to be the Nick Brown Memorial Pick.

Baker and Glodowski were both assigned to Ham Lake after the draft as somewhat developed college seniors. The rest of the draftees went to Aumsville.

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Of course we also had to cull some players. Some known names would be pitchers Chase Gregson (2040, 4th round), who walked everything with and without legs, Ricky Baez (2042, 10th round), who was just plain bad, and position players were also axed, including 1B Art Goetz, 28-year-old lefty hitter, who batted .263 with 6 homers for the Raccoons, but had now faded to hit .180 in AAA. The Raccoons were to promote 1B Ricardo Bejarano from AA, and had to get rid of at least one of their leftovers in AAA (the other being Damian Salazar, who was also with three paws out the door). INF Tom McCullough (2040, 10th round) and LF/RF Gregg Throndson (2039, 5th round) were also let go for running out of talent in the low minors.

We also dumped a pair of scouting discovery catchers from Aumsville, the odd trash heap signing, and would probably drop a few more players down the road. We still had 102 players in the minors (three of them on the DL).