[Westheim]

2048 DRAFT POOL ANALYSIS

The annual amateur draft was almost right on top of us, and of course the Raccoons had done their homework and had compiled an 111-player shortlist from which to pick the player that would hopefully piece another decent team together on the other side of the abyss that the current dynasty was busy tumbling into right now…

There was a hotlist, too, of course! (*denotes high school player)

SP Zane Fenlon (12/15/12)* - BNN #4
SP Tom Lindgren (15/13/9)
SP Art Schaeffer (13/12/13)

SP* Dave Lister (10/15/15)*
CL Ruben Mendez (19/14/12)

SS/3B Stephen Medlock (12/7/13)*
3B/2B Dave Blackshire (10/12/15)

OF Dave De Lemos (13/4/13)
OF/1B Noah Caswell (10/15/9)*
OF Alex Cruz (9/9/17) – BNN #1

There were a few interesting cases in there, like Lister, an 18-year-old Canadian from Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures … (stretches his jaw after that one) … The right-hander had a nasty sinker/slider combo… but nothing else. He was entered as a starting pitcher, but the world hasn’t seen a Scott Wade in a while, and true 2-pitch pitchers never seem to cut it anymore. Is that worth investing a first-round pick in?

Blackshire was also interesting, the only two-way player entered into the draft that made the shortlist twice, as both a hitter and a pitcher. He was also only getting by on two pitches, though, and the 20-year-old’s stick had enough potential to not turn him into a 65-inning reliever when Pat Degenhardt thought he could rap out that many extra base hits in a year. Strong throwing arm with clumsy paws there, but he’d make a damn fine third baseman!

One more player to watch out for, although he did not make the hotlist, was former Raccoon Ronnie McKnight’s youngest son from his fourth marriage to 2027 Miss Angola, DaShawn. He was a light-hitting middle infielder with not much power or speed, but a glove sure enough to throw a seventh-round pick or so his way for sure.