[Westheim]

2063 AMATEUR DRAFT

The Raccoons were in Indianapolis on Friday, beginning a 3-game set with the Indians, but draft duties compelled me to travel to New York and League HQ instead, because there was a #12 pick that had to be peppered away – and then nothing for a good long while after spending a second-round pick and $35M on whatever Josh Elling was doing at this stage.

As a kind reminder, this was our annual hotlist (*high schoolers):

SP Alan Fullen (13/12/15) *
SP Joe Whitley (12/16/9) *
SP Eric Siebert (12/12/13) *

CL Allan Bergerud (17/14/12)
CL Mike Martin (17/11/10)

C Justin Hart (11/12/10) – BNN #8

INF John Schmidt (17/2/16)
3B/2B Morgan Jones (14/5/8) *
3B/2B David MacFarlane (9/11/13)

LF/RF Ian Streng (10/13/13)
OF Bill Davidson (9/15/12) – BNN #4
OF Juan Licona (10/12/15) * – BNN #3

The first overall pick turned out to be John Schmidt, getting drafted by the Falcons followed by … well, not a hotlist player, but SP Zach Haluska by the Pacifics at #2. The Wolves then took Bill Davidson, followed by Justin Hart going #4 to the Knights, and then another non-hotlist player, outfielder Melvin Avila, to the Cyclones. Alan Fullen went sixth overall to the Loggers. After that it was Juan Licona to the Rebs, Joe Whitley to the Caps, and outfielder Adam Campbell to the Warriors. Ian Streng (Baybirds) completed the top 10. The Raccoons had five hotlist players to pick from: Siebert, Bergerud, Martin, Jones, and MacFarlane.

We had already mentally distanced ourselves from the idea of taking a closer again in the first round, and then naturally gravitated to the only remaining starting pitcher. There was nothing to outright not like about Siebert, and he was taken with the #12 pick.

After that, Allan Bergerud went #14 to the Buffos, immediately followed by the damn Elks taking Mike Martin. The Condors grabbed David MacFarlane with the #17 pick. That left only Morgan Jones, who plunged a long way down the draft board, but not all the way to the Raccoons in the middle of the third round. The damn Elks took him with the #53 pick in the second round.

This year, our shortlist only lasted us through our 12th round selection and we had to wing it in the final round. This would normally be Funny Names Time, but even there the selection just wasn’t there. Sad times. We ended up gifting a year of meal money – because I couldn’t see the guy lasting more than 12 months – to some sad sack that wasn’t gonna tick the box to play ball professionally otherwise, ever. And I would insist that Steve from Accounting would file that meal money as a charitable donation!

+++

2063 PORTLAND RACCOONS DRAFT CLASS

Round 1 (#12) – SP Eric Siebert, 18, from Royal Oak, MI – right-handed groundballer with a splitter/forkball mix promising to be a control guy even though high strikeout totals were unlikely going forwards with him throwing 92mph at this point
Round 3 (#74) – SP Vinny Morales, 22, from Jackson Township, NJ – right-hander throwing 93 with a curve, fork, and changeup mix; sometimes came a bit too straight and was taken a bit too deep by the opposition, but the pitch mix did look promising overall
Round 4 (#98) – OF/1B/3B Jamie Colter, 21, from New York, NY – very versatile with five positions played, even though he was best kept in left or first due to range and arm strength not being top notch; also didn’t have much speed to go with an otherwise balanced batting profile
Round 5 (#122) – RF/LF Steve Washington, 18, from Clarksville, TN – switch-hitting power threat with a good defensive profile and speed; how does that package fall to the fifth round? Basically by being a living strikeout.
Round 6 (#146) – SP Cameron Bridges, 19, from Wakefield-Peacedale, RI – right-handed Rhode Islander with a curveball of dreams, but apart from that he was throwing only 89, lacked a serviceable third pitch, and hung it too often overall
Round 7 (#170) – 2B/1B Mike Julian, 17, from Warrensburg, MO – throws like a girl, but that might not matter if he can morph into a singles-slapping, walking, base stealing terror at second base
Round 8 (#194) – C/1B Jonathan Nelson, 18, from Chicago, IL – another pick being made on a vague power promise with nothing else standing out in an otherwise mediocre hitting and defensive profile
Round 9 (#218) – C Sergio Cerezo, 17, from Ft. Valley, GA – plenty of red flags with this kid, most of them related to disciplinary action by his own high school for various prank-related outrages; if he wasn’t a knucklehead, he actually showed some signs of hitting talent
Round 10 (#242) – SS Frank Bond, 19, from Chatham-Kent, Canada – describing him as a light-hitting shortstop was asking a lot of heavy lifting of the term “light-hitting”; essentially he couldn’t hit a lick, and we were drafting him to turn him into a righty reliever with an interesting curveball
Round 11 (#266) – SP Barrett Krumland, 18, from El Monte, CA – left-handed (hey, hey!) curveball with a heavy flyball tendency, and throwing only 87; we had sure taken less hopeless cases with the Nick Brown Memorial pick…
Round 12 (#290) – 3B/LF Casey Pederson, 21, from Tigard, OR – good boy living like ten miles from Raccoons Ballpark described as a very hard worker that unfortunately lacked much talent except for the ability to pick it at the hot corner
Round 13 (#314) – INF Justin Lewis, 22, from Bellerose Terrace, NY – some infield versatility but a dire hitting profile

All new picks were assigned to single-A Aumsville.

+++

We also emptied the system of a few other players that were now or already had been surplus to requirements. Notable dismissals included…

For pitchers we parted with 29-year-old relievers Corey Barrett and Adam Harris from the AAA roster. Both had been in the majors with the Raccoons (and Barrett with the Condors before that), but their ABL ERA’s with Portland were 6.35 and 5.61 respectively, and we had other options at this point. Also gone were Justin Clark (2058, 5th round), stuck in Ham Lake for the last four years and still not having any command or clue; Bobby Meagher (2058, 8th round), who was pretty much copy/paste except for five games in AAA at one point; Danny Walls (2061, 9th round), who was walking more people every year; Mike Wind (2060, 9th round), who was already 24 and had no grasp of how to pitch in AA; Tristan Luter (2061, 8th round), who was labeled as dangerous to batters’ health for how wild he was; and the odd scouting discovery on top of that.

Position players excised included catcher Tom Johnson, a big mis-pick in the third round in 2060; SS Ben Henry (2057, 4th round), stuck in Ham Lake forever; and a pair of single-A infielders in Javier Banuelos and Julian Santana that had cost a grand total of $43k to sign in separate July IFA rounds;