[Westheim]

2051 DRAFT POOL ANALYSIS

There were only 97 players on our shortlist for the 2051 draft that was coming up less than three weeks from now, which didn’t mean that there wasn’t anything juicy available for the #8 pick held by the Raccoons; it was just overall a bit of a disappointing crop as far as the second-to-fourth rounds and so on were concerned. Especially baffling was the near-absence of interesting high school pitchers. We had earmarked all of ten hurlers in that category, and while some of them did make the annual hotlist below (*indicates high school player), they were not available in any sort of depth, except for trash picks in the late rounds:

SP Scott Evans (10/16/8) * – BNN #10
SP Roger Pritchard (11/11/12) – BNN #1
SP Larry Clark (11/12/10) *
SP Richard Castillo (10/14/12)
SP/CL Matt Walters (12/12/11)

C Brett Hamill (12/15/17) * – BNN #2

1B Gustavo Jacinto (13/9/12)
SS Rich Padilla (9/8/14) *

LF/RF John Kaniewski (10/11/12) – BNN #9
LF/1B/RF Trent Brassfield (13/15/12) * – BNN #4
OF/1B Armando Caban (10/11/11) – BNN #6
OF Cory Oldfield (12/14/6) * – BNN #7
OF Richard Romig (10/5/12)

Some of them didn’t look all that juicy from just the stuff/movement/control or contact/power/eye potentials as compiled by Pat Degenhardt, but they f.e. had excellent defense like Padilla, Romig, and Caban. Brett Hamill was the other way round, an intriguing masher with decent catcher ability, but a weak arm that was of concern. A move to first base was an option here, since he had at least basic mobility.

And then there was the case of Matt Walters, who drew rave reviews for his 95mph fastball and swooping curve – all issued left-handedly – but didn’t have much of a third weapon. If he ever figured out that changeup (or something else entirely) he’d certainly become a decent middle-of-the-order starter, but if not there was hardly the shadow of a doubt that he’d make for a fearsome eighth/ninth inning reliever. It was always dodgy to toss a first-round pick at that profile, but in this case the reward could be very good either way. He’d be 21 on draft day, so there was still some time to get things figured out for him.

The only three players from BNN’s top ten we were missing were a pair of two-pitch pitchers not nearly as fascinating as Walters (Tim Jacoby, Chance Crawford), and OF/3B Bryant Law, who was probably our sixth- or seventh-highest ranking outfielder, but was trimmed to get the hotlist closer to the usual dozen-or-so players.

With the #8 pick we were guaranteed a selection from that hotlist, but we did not hold a supplemental round pick this year and the current draft order saw us pick again at #49. This was with two type B free agent pitchers (Leo Iniguez, Vic Padilla) still out there, although they were both injured and neither would be available before July at the earliest.