[Westheim]

2064 AMATEUR DRAFT

I wasn’t in town anyway for Sunday’s rainout since there was a draft waiting to be bungled. The Coons had the 13th pick in every round and hoped to get some goodies with it. Some ABL ready pitching maybe? No? Aw.

Here again the hotlist compiled from the total of 111 players scouted by us for the shortlist (*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

There were 12 of these hotlist players, but the chances that they would all go in the first 12 picks were not that high, given how often we managed to completely **** the bed and draft some useless crap in the first round. It had to come from *somewhere*!

The Cyclones had the first overall pick and used to take on Fernando Cruz. The Wolves then went with another outfielder, Ricky Jurado. The Falcons had the #3 pick and spent it on John Robinson. Another starting pitcher went #4 to the Miners as they selected Brian Roberts. The Aces then made Hatakeyama the #5 pick, followed by Chris Tuck going #6 to the Gold Sox. The Bayhawks took Billy Thompson with the #7 pick – but that was the last hotlist pick before the Raccoons got their chance, and which left power-hitting catcher Andrew Farlow available as well as a bunch of interesting starting pitchers. Those were all high-schoolers, though, and would not be able to help the Raccoons for years and years. And no, the Critters just couldn’t resist the thrill of a slugging catcher coming up through the system. Andrew Farlow it was for the #13 pick!

Nobody else was taken off that hotlist until the Capitals came around and scooped Josh Morris with the #20 pick. After that Garrett Brandt went #23 to the Blue Sox. Keith Bevilacqua hung around until the Indians took him with the #34 pick in the supplemental round, and then it took another 14 picks to #48 before the Falcons selected Shamar King. That still left Brian Hills dangling – and he fell all the way to the Raccoons’ second-round selection. Now what? Obviously the other teams had no interest in him. Were we that far off again? Scramble and pick somebody else now? No. We prepared for months for this, maybe for once, just one time, all the other teams are wrong!

An odd thing occurred in that the shortlist ran out except for one defensively challenged catcher (what-are-you-gonna-do shrug) between the Raccoons’ 10th and 11th round picks. Now we were not going to draft a catcher in the 11th round, but said catcher hung around for the 12th round, too. Fine, we’ll take him.

No, normally there’s still a bunch of ho-hum infielders hanging around the shortlist by our last two picks, or catchers and/of first basemen when we *really* already drafted enough of those in recent memory.

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2064 PORTLAND RACCOONS DRAFT CLASS

Round 1 (#13) – C Andrew Farlow, 17, from Memphis, TN – built like a brick, dumb as a brick, but could also hit harder than a brick and rake for both average and power; no speed and middling defense, but chicks dig scars and I dig homers.
Round 2 (#58) – INF Brian Hills, 19, from New York, NY – defensively agile infielder with some speed and with a very patient approach to the plate and some pop that could be a nice fit for the #2 hole down the road, unless we ever find out why almost every other team had a chance to draft him and didn’t.
Round 3 (#82) – SP Harrison Hunt, 18, from Pleak, TX – this young southpaw is apparently so dumb that he can’t tell the his own six pitches apart, he just throws them; and hard… and with some really promising stuff potential.
Round 4 (#106) – CL Mike Davis, 21, from New York, NY – there are control issues with this right-hander, but there is also a very promising sinker/slider combo.
Round 5 (#130) – INF/LF Jacob Davis, 21, from Manalapan Township, NJ – very versatile defensive infielder with a contact/eye bat, but not a lot of speed; with a good throwing arm probably best suited for the left side of the infield.
Round 6 (#154) – SP Jesse James, 19, from San Benito, TX – there’s probably a few puns to be made with this name, but first he has to figure out his five-pitch mix and get more command into that right-handed pistol of his.
Round 7 (#178) – 1B Bob Scarce, 20, from Aurora, CO – defensive disaster in the making, but he can whack the ball a bit; also draws walks, but with his lack of pace you’d prefer if he hit the ball in a way that gives him infinite time around the bases.
Round 8 (#202) – LF/RF Scott Cole, 17, from Queens, NY – not much to see on defense and speed, but he has some power and also fits that contact/eye profile of an on-base guy (with, again, no speed).
Round 9 (#226) – MR Josh Powell, 22, from Long Lake, IL – not a bad fastball/splitter combo on this left-hander, but at his age he’s unlikely to add a useful third pitch going forwards *and* shake his iffy control
Round 10 (#250) – 2B/SS Danny Lukes, 18, from Sabattus, ME – light-hitting defensive middle infielder with a bit of speed, but he doesn’t look like he could hit his way out of a burning cardboard box to safe his life…
Round 11 (#274) – SP Tom Roane, 18, from Brooklyn, NY – this year’s Nick Brown Memorial Pick has a cutter/slider combo going and what he calls a “changeup” but mostly gets hit.
Round 12 (#298) – C Jonathan Parfet, 20, from Los Angeles, CA – defensively challenged and there would be an effort made to maybe convert him into a first baseman instead, but he also doesn’t hit for any power at all…
Round 13 (#322) – 3B/RF/1B Jayden Felder, 18, from Plant City, FL – very intelligent, maybe has a future in a front office.

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All new draft picks were assigned to single-A Aumsville and of course some purges were also going on, including, but not limited to, the following players:

With the Alley Cats suffocating to a 19-44 record on Draft Day there was little doubt that all the longtime failures on that team could go by now, if some sort of replacement was available in Ham Lake. From AAA we axed pitchers Daniel Benitez (2057 IFA signing for $240k), who had gone for an 8.56 ERA in some appearances for the Raccoons in the last two years, Brett Cotton (2057 first-rounder), who was building his BB/9 and shrinking his K/9 every year in Ham Lake, and Warren Tyler (2061 seventh-rounder), as well as outfielder Kyle Pisciotti, who had been acquired with Applecore and Sandy Pineda in that recently mentioned Tipsy Bobby et al. trade to the Capitals in 2062, and since then had not done anything but turn 26.

Benitez and Cotton had been on the 40-man roster, so we also got to wire them $213k each immediately.

Further down the system we released pitchers Evan Woodall (2062, 9th round) and Fred Sheets (2062, 13th round); as well as position players C Bobby Lund (2062, 8th round), C Nick McDaniel (2062, 12th round), and UT Dave Bale (2061, 10th round);

And again, this does not include scouting discoveries and garbage heap pickups that the cat dragged in between drafts.