We don't make many moves pre the Draft, but those we do are purposeful.
Those of you who've been paying attention could probably see this one coming a mile off but it almost didn't happen, with me chasing first Aaron then Maris before regaining my senses. And it was made more difficult by how abjectly unwanted Eddie was, with us having to tie him to Howdy and still retain 20%. Still, this is a good move for us - Bill is just the sort of understated, underrated guy to suit our smaller budget. Plays 1B and all 3 OF slots, but will be our everyday RF for 1958. The bigger dilemma is what we do if McNair comes on like he projects to, but we've got a season at least to figure that out.
This next one began with Adam Frazier the catalyst in an approach from the Shippers.
For him and Shawkey, who is handy but whose pitch-to-contact style is not a good fit for us, we pick up a guy who could prove well handy for us next year in Barry, a wildcard corner IF/OF prospect in Joe Rudi and a passable MiLB catcher in Navarro.
This final one was all about that high pick, with the Rally Caps actually flipping Ryan almost immediately to New York for Eddie Cicotte.
Saying that, Lonborg may suffer the same fate with us if the Draft doesn't fall our way.
On the topic of which, poor old Boston can't seem to take a trick of late, and get hammered in the Lottery to the benefit of St. Louis and Salt Lake City.
That pick from Raleigh means we have numbers 23, 51 and 60 in Rounds 1 and 2. We know what we need but the pool isn't exactly dripping with ready-made power right-handed 3B so we'll just play the old wait-and-see game and, should the guy we need not be there then we'll take the guy we want.
Ken Keltner is the guy we covet above all others, but not in our wildest dreams do we ever believe he'll make it thru 22 picks. He nearly does, but goes to Dallas at 17, and with no other players at that position really grabbing us, we change tack and look to the longer term with our early selections.
Here are our newest Seal Cubs:
And the first two rounds in full, with Jose Rijo taken first overall by the Terriers ahead of Ty Cobb, who'll be joining us in the Adams Band with SLC.