RammyFanny

1. Tampa Bay Devil Rays - Pedro Alvarez, 1B/LF - Vanderbilt 2. Pittsburgh Pirates - Tim Beckham, SS - Griffin HS (GA) 3. Kansas City Royals - Aaron Crow, RHP - Missouri 4. Baltimore Orioles - Brian Matusz, LHP - San Diego 5. San Francisco Giants - Eric Hosmer, 1B - American Heritage HS (FL) 6. Florida Marlins - Tim Melville, RHP - Holt HS (MO) 7. Cincinnati Reds- Ryan Perry, RHP - Arizona 8. Chicago White Sox - Christian Friedrich, LHP - Eastern Kentucky 9. Washington Nationals - Kyle Skipworth, C - Patriot HS (CA) 10. Houston Astros - Gerrit Cole, RHP - Orange Lutheran HS (CA) 11. Texas Rangers - Alex Meyer, RHP - Greensburg HS (IN) 12. Oakland A's - Justin Smoak, 1B - South Carolina 13. St. Louis Cardinals - Jacob Thompson, RHP - Virginia 14. Minnesota Twins - Harold Martinez, SS/3B - Braddock HS (FL) 15. Los Angeles Dodgers - Aaron Hicks, RHP - Wilson HS (CA) 16. Milwaukee Brewers - Cole St. Clair, LHP - Rice 17. Toronto Blue Jays - Yonder Alonso, 1B - Miami 18. New York Mets- Brett Hunter, RHP - Pepperdine 19. Chicago Cubs- Sonny Gray, RHP - Smyrna HS (TN) 20. Seattle Mariners - Tyson Ross, RHP - Cal 21. Detroit Tigers - Dennis Raben, RF - Miami By the way, youtube has a video of Raben taking some BP if anyone was interested. I'm too lazy to go find the link.

According to that Joeyguy on OH the two trades will look like this : O's get : Jones, Tillman, Sherril and Chen M's get : Bedard Cubs get : Roberts O's get : Gallagher , Murton and Cedeno He said that Roberts to cubs will happen very soon after Bedard to the M's is completed. I know this is about the 500 time we have heard this but this time there are 2 guys from the baltimore sun saying that Bedard should be gone next week. Are you going off his old info about who would be involved in the trade? From what I see he didn't mention the specifics for us (though he said he would in PM).

Well, it looks like Ping, Meph, CR, and me are the main people doing this (though anyone else can obviously jump in), and everyone has their votes in. For the sake of getting this moving again... With the 19th pick in the draft, the Chicago Cubs select: Sonny Gray, RHP - Smyrna HS (TN) 1. Tampa Bay Devil Rays - Pedro Alvarez, 1B/LF - Vanderbilt 2. Pittsburgh Pirates - Tim Beckham, SS - Griffin HS (GA) 3. Kansas City Royals - Aaron Crow, RHP - Missouri 4. Baltimore Orioles - Brian Matusz, LHP - San Diego 5. San Francisco Giants - Eric Hosmer, 1B - American Heritage HS (FL) 6. Florida Marlins - Tim Melville, RHP - Holt HS (MO) 7. Cincinnati Reds- Ryan Perry, RHP - Arizona 8. Chicago White Sox - Christian Friedrich, LHP - Eastern Kentucky 9. Washington Nationals - Kyle Skipworth, C - Patriot HS (CA) 10. Houston Astros - Gerrit Cole, RHP - Orange Lutheran HS (CA) 11. Texas Rangers - Alex Meyer, RHP - Greensburg HS (IN) 12. Oakland A's - Justin Smoak, 1B - South Carolina 13. St. Louis Cardinals - Jacob Thompson, RHP - Virginia 14. Minnesota Twins - Harold Martinez, SS/3B - Braddock HS (FL) 15. Los Angeles Dodgers - Aaron Hicks, RHP - Wilson HS (CA) 16. Milwaukee Brewers - Cole St. Clair, LHP - Rice 17. Toronto Blue Jays - Yonder Alonso, 1B - Miami 18. New York Mets- Brett Hunter, RHP - Pepperdine 19. Chicago Cubs- Sonny Gray, RHP - Smyrna HS (TN) Cubs get a pitcher with great stuff who gets the "undersized label". Very athletic, has a fastball that sits in the 92-95 area (touches 97 IIRC), and a slider that project to also be a very very good out pitch. As always, he'll get some comparisons to Oswalt, Lincecum, and more recently, Drabek.

Yep, at least to our supplemental. I've got to run for a little bit, if anyone wants to post the updated order into the supp., then go for it. It's looking like Gray will be our guy, but i'll still leave it open for others (probably not too many) until tommorrow morning or something. If someone else takes Gray first I think it's safe to say that he will be the majority.

Baltimore beat writer agreeing with the Bedard thing and players the OH mentioned: http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/sports/roch/blog/2008/01/erik_bedard_7.html Exactly what they've been saying (those 3 and the only holdup is over the 4th prospect).

1. Sonny Gray, RHP - Smyrna HS (TN) 2. Taylor Jungmann, RHP - Rogers HS (TX) 3. Brandon Crawford, SS - UCLA 4. Isaac Galloway, OF - Los Osos HS (CA) 5. Jarret Martin, LHP - Centennial HS (CA)

Exactly. They've called a few things right before, so it gives some hope. If they are wrong, who cares? Beats talking about how bad Theriot is for the entire offseason...

Who's ready for some INSIDER UPDATES? =D> :D First off, OH is saying Bedard to the M's will happen very very very soon, likely this weekend or early next. Here's a few quotes: Which BigBird confirmed. Now this is actually something said by the Baltimore beat writer guy on the radio: Likely Sherrill..but maybe Dempster? And here's the JoeyR5 guy who posts on OH and the Cubs prosportsdaily site: I'll see if I can dig up any more info from him. Long viva this thread.

Alright people, now it's time to vote for you're Cub pick. The 5 day thing I mentioned seemed a little too long, so i'll probably wait for everyone's vote until tomorrow or monday or something, depending on how many people reply today.

Mets pick 18 Ping. We're 19.

1. Tampa Bay Devil Rays - Pedro Alvarez, 1B/LF - Vanderbilt 2. Pittsburgh Pirates - Tim Beckham, SS - Griffin HS (GA) 3. Kansas City Royals - Aaron Crow, RHP - Missouri 4. Baltimore Orioles - Brian Matusz, LHP - San Diego 5. San Francisco Giants - Eric Hosmer, 1B - American Heritage HS (FL) 6. Florida Marlins - Tim Melville, RHP - Holt HS (MO) 7. Cincinnati Reds- Ryan Perry, RHP - Arizona 8. Chicago White Sox - Christian Friedrich, LHP - Eastern Kentucky 9. Washington Nationals - Kyle Skipworth, C - Patriot HS (CA) 10. Houston Astros - Gerrit Cole, RHP - Orange Lutheran HS (CA) 11. Texas Rangers - Alex Meyer, RHP - Greensburg HS (IN) 12. Oakland A's - Justin Smoak, 1B - South Carolina 13. St. Louis Cardinals - Jacob Thompson, RHP - Virginia 14. Minnesota Twins - Harold Martinez, SS/3B - Braddock HS (FL) 15. Los Angeles Dodgers - Aaron Hicks, RHP - Wilson HS (CA) 16. Milwaukee Brewers - Cole St. Clair, LHP - Rice Brewers pick up a lefty with nasty offspeed stuff, and who can contribute to their bullpen pretty quickly. With so many early picks, they can afford to go safe here and still take some risks later in the draft. While he may be pushed quick as a reliever, a starting role isn't out of reach in the future for St. Clair. I was tempted to go Sonny Gray here as well.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/baseball/rangers/stories/012608dnsporanglede.2cf828b.html HAAAAAAAAAAAA HA HA HA HA HA gasp HAAAAAAAAAAAA HA HA HA HA What? You're saying the good guy of the year award winner is worth less than a player who's younger and better than him and two pitching prospects? Who would have known...

Tell me who said it doesn't matter? You're talking to NSBB here, you know the OBP posterboys. We're saying that if he has an abnormally high slugging % to compliment an average to sub average OBP (road splits), it will negate it. Although he'll get on fewer times (probably a .320-.330 OBP), the times he does get on will alot of very meaningful doubles/homers. No one said it isn't important. We're saying in certain instances it can be made up for (superb defense and very high slugging), and Khalil can make up for it. Agreed. Have you read anything in this thread? Honestly? I'm not about to post his splits away from Petco one more time. He's a damn good hitter when he doesn't play in the worst flyball park in the MLB, and it makes sense considering he is an extreme flyball hitter. Now you're going to reply by saying, "OBP shouldn't change from park to park", and i'm going to reply that when those flyballs actually drop for double and homeruns in the other parks, you're OBP is going to become ALOT higher. Just thought i'd get that out of the way. Probably .30-.40 points higher. We're not saying he's going to walk a ton, but if he can get his OBP to mediocre (which by all means the evidence points to he can), then his slugging pushes his offensive value through the roof for the position he plays. And all of this is not taking into account his amazing defense. That's nice and all, but I don't think you can pinpoint our exact problems out of a 3 game sample size. Yes, despite the fact that we were 21st out of 30 teams in homers... Do you honestly not remember those HR droughts we had last year that were aboslutely pathetic? Didn't we go like 10-12 games or something without hitting a HR? We're in the middle of the pack in slugging, meaning we somewhat made up for it with doubles, but it still something that should be addressed. Speed for what? We're already going to be an above average defensive team and stolen bases have been proven to hurt you more than they help. I don't remember the exact numbers, but even with Roberts insanely high SB%, it only resulted in the Orioles scoring like 6 or 7 more runs throughout the course of a season or something like that. I'm not fully opposed to the SB though, it helps to be able to use it in specific situations. What we seem to disagree on is the fact that you think it's a need and I think it's a luxury.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/baseball/rangers/stories/012608dnsporanglede.2cf828b.html

1. Tampa Bay Devil Rays - Pedro Alvarez, 1B/LF - Vanderbilt 2. Pittsburgh Pirates - Tim Beckham, SS - Griffin HS (GA) 3. Kansas City Royals - Aaron Crow, RHP - Missouri 4. Baltimore Orioles - Brian Matusz, LHP - San Diego 5. San Francisco Giants - Eric Hosmer, 1B - American Heritage HS (FL) 6. Florida Marlins - Tim Melville, RHP - Holt HS (MO) 7. Cincinnati Reds- Ryan Perry, RHP - Arizona 8. Chicago White Sox - Christian Friedrich, LHP - Eastern Kentucky 9. Washington Nationals - Kyle Skipworth, C - Patriot HS (CA) 10. Houston Astros - Gerrit Cole, RHP - Orange Lutheran HS (CA) 11. Texas Rangers - Alex Meyer, RHP - Greensburg HS (IN) 12. Oakland A's - Justin Smoak, 1B - South Carolina 13. St. Louis Cardinals - Jacob Thompson, RHP - Virginia 14. Minnesota Twins - Harold Martinez, SS/3B - Braddock HS (FL) Minnesota goes with a SS/3B who immediately would become their best position prospect at both positions (and probably overall). Could have gone pitcher as well, but they decide to take the chance on Martinez's huge potential and great makeup.

Meph, I know Hicks is a hell of a pitcher as well but wouldn't you say he profiles more as a CF now? I think i've read at BA, while his arm is obviously superb, he's got some early control problems, though I obviously don't know how serious. Seems like you can't go too wrong with him at either position though, making him an intruiging guy. Either plus plus D in center with a plus plus arm,with gap power and plus plus speed, or (if he can control it) a 95 mph heater with that power curve that's been talked about. 1. Tampa Bay Devil Rays - Pedro Alvarez, 1B/LF - Vanderbilt 2. Pittsburgh Pirates - Tim Beckham, SS - Griffin HS (GA) 3. Kansas City Royals - Aaron Crow, RHP - Missouri 4. Baltimore Orioles - Brian Matusz, LHP - San Diego 5. San Francisco Giants - Eric Hosmer, 1B - American Heritage HS (FL) 6. Florida Marlins - Tim Melville, RHP - Holt HS (MO) 7. Cincinnati Reds- Ryan Perry, RHP - Arizona 8. Chicago White Sox - Christian Friedrich, LHP - Eastern Kentucky 9. Washington Nationals - Kyle Skipworth, C - Patriot HS (CA) 10. Houston Astros - Gerrit Cole, RHP - Orange Lutheran HS (CA) 11. Texas Rangers - Alex Meyer, RHP - Greensburg HS (IN) 12. Oakland A's - Justin Smoak, 1B - South Carolina Seems like they'd either go Alonso or Smoak, and in the end Beane goes with the sexier pick who's one of the safest bets to become a major league middle of the order hitter. While Alonso's numbers are insane (and I do like him alot), I still think Smoak ends up being a safer bet.

Minor correction-Friedrich goes to Eastern Kentucky Thanks, fixed.

1. Tampa Bay Devil Rays - Pedro Alvarez, 1B/LF - Vanderbilt 2. Pittsburgh Pirates - Tim Beckham, SS - Griffin HS (GA) 3. Kansas City Royals - Aaron Crow, RHP - Missouri 4. Baltimore Orioles - Brian Matusz, LHP - San Diego 5. San Francisco Giants - Eric Hosmer, 1B - American Heritage HS (Delray Beach, FL) 6. Florida Marlins - Tim Melville, RHP - Holt HS (Wentzville, MO) 7. Cincinnati Reds- Ryan Perry, RHP - Univ. of Arizona 8. Chicago White Sox - Christian Friedrich, LHP - Eastern Kentucky Although Cole is the better prospect, Chicago opts to get some kind of pitching into their system with Friedrich who has dominated since he step foot at Kentucky. KW has taken alot of heat for trading their two best pitching prospects, so he opts to go with the college guy who can get the show very quick thanks to his dominating curve and improving fastball and change. Smoke would also make sense, but with no pitching depth whatsoever in the minors, the Sox are almost a lock to go pitcher.

Huh? You never answered his question and replied by saying "there are people on this messageboard that believe Soriano is a good leadoff hitter, Khalil Greene is "all that", etc. It had nothing to do with what he said... :?:

Yeah Meph, I definately think Baltimore goes with Matusz if he's there. With the 4th pick, Baltimore selects Brian Matusz out of San Diego. With Bedard likely gone soon or by the deadline, Baltimore goes with a somewhat similiar pitcher who figures to be a quick riser through the minors. If the Bedard to Seattle trade goes down, Baltimore has a nice young core that has the potential to help the big league club rebuild alot quicker than most young guys (Weiters, Matusz, Adam Jones). So far: 1. Tampa Bay Devil Rays - Pedro Alvarez, 1B/LF - Vanderbilt 2. Pittsburgh Pirates - Tim Beckham, SS - Griffin HS (GA) 3. Kansas City Royals - Aaron Crow, RHP - Missouri 4. Baltimore Orioles - Brian Matusz, LHP - University of San Diego San Fran on the clock.

Yeah, he's an interesting case. Mixed results in college, but dominant at the Cape. I think alot of people are (possibly prematurely) projecting him to dominate for Mizzou next season.

I'm bored, so I thought it'd be fun to do a very early mock that we can look back on when the actual draft happens (to see how much it's changed--for kicks and giggles). Since there aren't too many people on the forum (or who follow this type of stuff), I say we just have alternating people pick (meaning the same person can't pick back to back). With so few people that browse here, there will probably be only 4 or 5 of us picking all-together, so don't be afraid if you and another person are moving it along quickly. When we get to our pick (19), we will have an open vote for who you would like us to take (the voting period will last 5 days), and whoever tallies up the most votes at the end of the 5 days will be our pick. If this actually works out decent, we can do a couple more as the college season progresses. Here's the draft order: 01 Tampa Bay Devil Rays 02 Pittsburgh Pirates 03 Kansas City Royals 04 Baltimore Orioles 05 San Francisco Giants 06 Florida Marlins 07 Cincinnati Reds 08 Chicago White Sox 09 Washington Nationals 10 Houston Astros 11 Texas Rangers 12 Oakland Athletics 13 St. Louis Cardinals 14 Minnesota Twins 15 Los Angeles Dodgers 16 Milwaukee Brewers 17 Toronto Blue Jays 18 METS--from Atl 19 Chicago Cubs I'll start it off. Here's Brewerfan.net's projected first round if you need any help: http://www.brewerfan.net/ViewDraftArchive.do?draftId=6 With the first pick in the 2008 MLB Draft, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays select: Pedro Alvarez, Vanderbilt. --Tampa Bay takes the biggest impact bat available and will find a spot for him when they need to. With a surplus of young/minor league pitching at their disposal, they can afford to take his bat and worry about position later. Next up, the Pittsburgh Pirates. Anyone? :D

Crawford will be interesting as well and has a decent shot of being at our pick unless he has a crazy good year. On a side note, i'm really thinking a decent player should be there for us, even if nobody falls due to demands. I know it's still early, but there just seems to be alot of 1st round talent. A guy like Hicks/Galloway/Crawford/Gray/Fredriech/Hunter all seem like they should go in the neighborhood of our pick (meaning 1 or 2 should be available).

I don't see how pretty much naming him the opening day starting CF at 23 years old is making it seem like they don't like him. Keith Law also thinks Moustakas was the 11th best player in last year's draft. He really said that? I don't see anyway he's that low with his raw stuff and good debut.

Kyle Blanks would be another nice guy to pick up with huge power potential and good results in high A ball (.920 OPS --24 HR's). I actually like their system somewhat and think there could be some interesting pieces coming back. However, I get the feeling that Hendry would probably rather trade Murton for mediocre MLB talent then good minor league talent.