2012 Draft Discussion

[Guest]

According to multiple sources, the Twins will select Georgia prep outfielder Byron Buxton second overall in Monday's amateur draft.

Jim Callis of Baseball America reported that Buxton is first overall on Minnesota's draft board. The Astros are expected to take Stanford right-hander Mark Appel first, leaving Buxton for the Twins. Most believe that Buxton has the highest ceiling of any player in the draft, but his floor is considerably lower than Appel's by all accounts. The five-tool outfielder, nicknamed Buck, has been clocked at 99 mph while pitching and once hit a ball onto the top row in the leftfield bleachers at Wrigley Field.

No!

[roadster]

If we do take a position guy at 6, I am going to be hoping like hell we have some pitching fall to us at 43 and 56. Smoral, Weickel, or Sims would be a great gift.

 

I like Smoral too...

 

HS 6'8" 225 lbs lefty low 90s (touching 95) dropping on the board due to a foot injury...decent secondaries with slider and changeup low 80s

[Guest]

If we do take a position guy at 6, I am going to be hoping like hell we have some pitching fall to us at 43 and 56. Smoral, Weickel, or Sims would be a great gift.

 

I like Smoral too...

 

HS 6'8" 225 lbs lefty low 90s (touching 95) dropping on the board due to a foot injury...decent secondaries with slider and changeup low 80s

And a very strong commitment to UNC.

[roadster]

If we do take a position guy at 6, I am going to be hoping like hell we have some pitching fall to us at 43 and 56. Smoral, Weickel, or Sims would be a great gift.

 

I like Smoral too...

 

HS 6'8" 225 lbs lefty low 90s (touching 95) dropping on the board due to a foot injury...decent secondaries with slider and changeup low 80s

And a very strong commitment to UNC.

 

Hopefully money talks...

[Guest]

If we do take a position guy at 6, I am going to be hoping like hell we have some pitching fall to us at 43 and 56. Smoral, Weickel, or Sims would be a great gift.

 

I like Smoral too...

 

HS 6'8" 225 lbs lefty low 90s (touching 95) dropping on the board due to a foot injury...decent secondaries with slider and changeup low 80s

And a very strong commitment to UNC.

 

Hopefully money talks...

 

I'm not sure supplemental money will be enough.

[Guest]

Goldstein on the score saying that he'll be real surprised if we take anyone besides Almora.

[Cubswin11]

If we do take a position guy at 6, I am going to be hoping like hell we have some pitching fall to us at 43 and 56. Smoral, Weickel, or Sims would be a great gift.

 

I like Smoral too...

 

HS 6'8" 225 lbs lefty low 90s (touching 95) dropping on the board due to a foot injury...decent secondaries with slider and changeup low 80s

And a very strong commitment to UNC.

 

Hopefully money talks...

 

I'm not sure supplemental money will be enough.

What's slot at 43?

[Tedward]

According to BA, slot for #43 is $1,196,000 &

#57 is $911,700

[Cubswin11]

According to BA, slot for #43 is $1,196,000 &

#57 is $911,700

Ok, so if we had a deal worked out at 6 with someone for under slot we'd probably still have to go over slot at 43 quite a bit to get Smoral. If his commitment is really that strong.

[CUBZ99]

In his latest mock, Law says Almora to the Cubs is the closest thing to a lock in the top 10.

 

I find it hard to believe that the front office that has been mostly silent and difficult for any reporter to get information from, would all of the sudden be telegraphing what their first draft pick is going to be. I'm guessing this Almora talk is simply posturing hoping that someone they like better falls to them.

 

The baseball scouting community is pretty small. McLeod, Wilken, Hoyer can't go to an Almora game without being seen and recognized. And I'm sure other 15 other Cub scouts whose names mean nothing to us would be recognized by other scouts, too.

 

So I think the "telegraphing" is simply showing up at Almora games to watch. Hard to hide that. I suspect the "might draft him even if they had the first pick" is not coming from Wilken or McLeod, but is coming from some scout from a different org who sees Cubs at all of Almora's games.

 

At the top of the draft, where no teams will pick again until the 30's and trades aren't allowed, there isn't much purpose in "smokescreens" and subterfuge and all that. Each organization has a large pool of scouts and comes to it's own internal decision. I may be wrong, but I doubt that Twins are coming in with Buxton-Correa-Almora 1-2-3 on their HS list, but then some Twin scout calls in, "Hey, I just read a twitter where somebody said the Cubs might actually like Almora better than Buxton! Lets jump Almora up to the top, and pass on Buxton and Correa!" If the Cubs like Buxton and Correa better than Almora, I hardly think they've playing some grant conspiracy program thinking that they're going to somehow trick the five teams above them into taking Almore first.

 

I think it's part of the recognition of other scouts that may have factored in the Simpson pick. Wilken saw him at the late tournament weekend, and thought he looked like one of the 14 best prospects. And he recognized other scouts at the same tournament, so he knew he wasn't the only guy who saw how good Simpson was at that point in time.

 

I think it's maybe different in the sandwich round area. Cardinals 36, Cubs 43, Cardinals 52, Cubs 56, Cardinals 59, Cubs 67, Cardinals 86, Cubs 101. If there's an under-the-radar kid we love, and just can't let slip away, best not make that obvious or St. Louis will have a chance to grab him first, if they also love him but are also assuming he'll last longer.

 

Valid points, but the reports regarding the Cubs pick are not saying that the Cubs scouted him more, or that they attended more games than other teams. The reports are pretty specific, with one going as far as calling him as near of "a lock" as there is in the top ten. Based upon the new front office's self proclaimed urgency of this draft, it doesn't make any sense for them to talk with any reporter/scout about who they are considering or thinking about picking in the first round. It may not be a huge advantage, but it does nothing but benefit the Cubs if no other team knows what they are thinking going into the draft.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

The leaks come from agents.

 

Teams are reasonably candid with the player's agents because they need to know how signable the player is. The agent spreads that news around for a variety of reasons.

 

Note that Almora's agent is Boras, and Goldstein's last podcast included him going on a long brag about how he did a long, mostly OTR interview with Boras recently.

[javy knows my name]

FWIW, Levine just said on the radio that the Cubs would take Correa if he falls to them, otherwise it would probably be a pitcher(he mentioned Fried). Didn't seem too reliable though, he didn't know either of their names(the SS from Puerto Rico" and "the left handed pitcher from California"), and was probably just trying to infer based on who got a Wrigley workout.

 

Lazy. Unsubstantiated. Embarrassing.

 

LEVINE.

[abohnhoff]

Sorry to rant on an unrelated note, but Levine and Kaplan are supposed to be "Cubs Insiders" but seem to know less than the majority of Cubs fans. Levine is on daily with Waddle and Silvy and rarely knows the answers to even the simplest of questions. You only have to know 7 or 8 names to prepare for the Cubs draft, its not like we are drafting in the 20's and you need to know 50 names.

 

But anyway, heres to a good draft from the Cubs. Hope they go with an impact bat with the first pick and then load up on pitching throughout the draft.

[TruffleShuffle]

According to multiple sources, the Twins will select Georgia prep outfielder Byron Buxton second overall in Monday's amateur draft.

Jim Callis of Baseball America reported that Buxton is first overall on Minnesota's draft board. The Astros are expected to take Stanford right-hander Mark Appel first, leaving Buxton for the Twins. Most believe that Buxton has the highest ceiling of any player in the draft, but his floor is considerably lower than Appel's by all accounts. The five-tool outfielder, nicknamed Buck, has been clocked at 99 mph while pitching and once hit a ball onto the top row in the leftfield bleachers at Wrigley Field.

No!

 

i admire your optimism, but there was roughly a 0% chance that buxton fell to the cubs.

[Guest]

According to multiple sources, the Twins will select Georgia prep outfielder Byron Buxton second overall in Monday's amateur draft.

Jim Callis of Baseball America reported that Buxton is first overall on Minnesota's draft board. The Astros are expected to take Stanford right-hander Mark Appel first, leaving Buxton for the Twins. Most believe that Buxton has the highest ceiling of any player in the draft, but his floor is considerably lower than Appel's by all accounts. The five-tool outfielder, nicknamed Buck, has been clocked at 99 mph while pitching and once hit a ball onto the top row in the leftfield bleachers at Wrigley Field.

No!

 

i admire your optimism, but there was roughly a 0% chance that buxton fell to the cubs.

Yeah, I know.