[Westheim]

2064 DRAFT POOL ANALYSIS

After sifting through the draft pool for the upcoming young players auction, we were left wondering what an oddball year it was once again. We selected 111 players for the annual shortlist, and it was one of those rare moments in time where the number of pitchers almost (but not quite) matched the number of position players: 53 pitchers, 55 batters, and three two-ways, although none of those three were the level of exciting that would get them three paragraphs in this section and their shirtless posing picture from the college yearbook becoming Cristiano’s desktop background.

Even when it came to the most exciting of those 111 players, most of them were starting pitchers (and I could have crammed in another five of those if I had wanted to). Which brings us seamlessly to the hotlist of a dozen or so of the most interesting talents on offer (*high schoolers):

SP Brian Roberts (15/12/13) * – BNN #8
SP John Robinson (13/15/9) * – BNN #5
SP Garrett Brandt (12/14/12) *
SP Josh Morris (12/12/14) *
SP Billy Thompson (12/14/11) – BNN #1

CL Shamar King (14/12/12)

C Andrew Farlow (13/14/13) *

INF Koji Hatakeyama (14/3/10) *
1B Keith Bevilacqua (10/13/16)
INF Brian Hills (10/12/15) *

OF Fernando Cruz (12/14/14)
OF Chris Tuck (13/11/12) – BNN #2

Hatakeyama was technically a Japanese citizen although his parents had moved to the US for work when he was 3 years old and he had grown up in the US school system. Hills was odd because he didn’t show up on anybody’s smug analysis of top draft picks (including Cristiano’s), but our scouting department seemed to love him.

There was something to be said about drafting a first-round catcher that could be ready in a couple of years, too!

Kind reminder now that the Raccoons only had the #13 pick and beggars, choosers, yada yada.