toonsterwu

Fascinating draft so far. A lot of team seemed to really roll the dice on upside (Braves, Indians, Cardinals, Royals, Rockies come to mind). Certain drafts were going to be tough to screw up in 2 rounds (namely, Diamondbacks). Astros and Rockies look to have done rather well. Drafts that fascinate me so far: Dodgers - They got three good college arms (Buehler/Funkhouser/Sborz) and an intriguing upside gamble in Hansen. I thought Sborz was under-rated this spring - I think he's a closer (although he's been fine as a starter), but with the plus fastball and a slider that flashes ... he looks like a solid late inning prospect. Feels like a bigger Corey Black. I liked him, leaving aside my bias, more than TCU's Ferrell. Brewers - Yeah, this might be some UVA bias showing, but Kirby's a good college arm. Is there a little Rich Hill in there? Perhaps, but I don't think his command is as big an issue (almost all UVA pitchers have to make some mechanical tweaks in the pros), and I do believe the lat strain was a factor. Ponce is another solid college arm to work with and everyone seemed to love Trenton Clark's bat. Pirates - That's three really nice looking hitters. Newman/Kramer looks like a future middle infield (I like this combination better than Oakland's combination of White/Martin, although I like that combo as well). Hayes is a nice upside gamble. Phillies - Really love this draft so far. I was fascinated with Randolph's swing, and Kingery can hit, IF or OF. Really intrigued with Kingery. Feels like he could be a really good CF if he can't make it at 2nd. A lot of the top guys left seem to be prep talents, so if we've saved enough money on Happ/Dewees, gotta think we can nab someone in the next round.

Maybe, but the only CF options seem to be Alcantara(if you trust him there)/Szczur/Hannemann (has to show he can hit in AA first)/Almora. It's not exactly a crew to get too excited over for CF/leadoff next year, when you are supposed to be in year 2 of the window. If not Fowler, I've got to think they'll pursue another CF option.

Probably, although I wouldn't be surprised if both were pushed up to South Bend to start, if both are as polished as the Cubs think they are.

Dewees. Okay. Guess we love our OF's. 35 arm? Feels like we're saving money to make a run at prep arms later.

Eh, I'm okay missing on Eshelman. Nice arm, but I'm not going to be too worried. I imagine they'll save some money on Eshelman to help with Daz Cameron.

For me, it comes down to information that we don't know. Namely, the medicals and how the Cubs doctors view them. The report was that the spinal issue was a manageable one, IIRC. That said, looking at the available names, I'm starting to learn towards Cole Sands here, or maybe another college bat.

Damn ... Kirby to the Brewers. I guess I'm hoping on Matuella now, but with Matuella to keep falling, one has to think there's some concern, either with money or health. Still, I'd take that gamble in the 2nd round if he's there.

So ... I'm trying to figure out where the Astros get their savings from to make Daz Cameron his offer. Is it Bregman? Hard to see why Bregman would take a way below under-slot deal. He was going high anyways. Hard to see Tucker take a significantly below-slot deal either. Or are they planning on saving a bit on those two and then just going for easier signs later on the in the draft? Eh ... either way, good for the Cubs to see some more guys sneak through.

Well, there goes Funkhouser. Not bad for the Dodgers getting two quality college arms in Buehler/Funkhouser. I think the Orioles may select an arm here, although they were supposedly heavy on getting bats this year. Still, with Matuella/Kirby, feel like they could take a gamble with an arm here.

Excellent start for Beeler.

It was a bit out of left field, but Ward was a top 100 prospect. We'll have to see how things shake out for them. For all the concern about Funkhouser, if he's there at 47, I'd be very pleased. Same goes with Kirby and Matuella, obviously. Still 13 picks to go ... but dang, the 2nd round pick is far more intriguing right now than the first rounder. Jacob Nix, Cody Ponce, Alex Young are still around. Same goes for a hitter like Kingery. Fascinating choices still around.

Not bad for the Braves. A lot of upside with those arms in Allard and Soroka. With all the arms on board, I'm going to be a tad surprised if the Blue Jays don't pop on of them. Could definitely see the Yankees pop another one after that. Here's hoping things fall right for us.

Heck of an upside draft for the Rockies so far with Rodgers and Nikorak. Very, very nice for them.

Forgot all about Wiseman. He was the backup to Almora, IIRC, that year. No real interest in Wiseman now. He feels like a corner OF, watching him at Vandy. Don't think we need another college corner guy early. This draft's setting up pretty well for us so far. 22 picks to go, and around a half dozen intriguing college arms and Nikorak is still on the board. It probably means that it pushes a 2nd tier arm to our spot, but either result is a positive.

With the way this draft is going, I do wonder if an intriguing college arm slips to us. Still .. 25 picks is a long way to go, but there's at least a half-dozen intriguing college arms on the board. Heck, Jon Harris is still hanging around. Betting money is none fall to 47, but it's intriguing how the HS arms and then the double shortstops going off in the teens have forced some college arms down. Leaving aside the fact that I'd like an intriguing college arm to slip to us ... I do like the Nick Plummer pick for the Cardinals.

According to Iowa's bio we drafted him in the 20th round in 2012 as a catcher out of simeon 2012 would be the first year for this regime, draft-wise, right? If so, Hickman is probably someone on their radar, as we know scouts love to keep tabs on their guys, even after a position-switch.

Probably somewhere between 3-5. #4 for me behind Torres,McKinney and Schwarber. Let's see, I'd probably go 1. Kyle Schwarber 2. Gleyber Torres A tier below 3-7 in some order - Duane Underwood, Ian Happ, Billy McKinney, Mark Zagunis, Carl Edwards Jr. 8-10 Trevor Clifton, Dan Vogelbach, ? Not sure, tough to fill it out right now, and there's a 2nd round pick to factor in. A long way to go in the season. Underwood could slide down a bit. Depending on the reports for Clifton, he could go up or down. If Happ ends up in LF, we really have 3 have three somewhat similar guys in Happ/McKinney/Zagunis, so it's hard to figure how to rank those three. Vogelbach could obviously be gone by season's end.

It's interesting that Happ was announced as an OF, but McLeod noted the potential to play 2nd in the press release. Feels like this may be another Zagunis-type situation - they like the bat and will bring him in the fall to see if he can man 2nd, if not, perhaps push him up faster as an OF. Can't complain about the pick. Not hugely excited ... I mean ... Happ is fairly similar to Zagunis if both are considered as corner OF's. That said, poor draft at the top. I wasn't even excited about the top 3 pitchers ... and I'm okay with drafting a pitcher in Round 1. I really like what I've seen of Cornelius Randolph, though, and I wonder if we'll look back in a few years and go damn, Randolph was next. Happ's safer, though. Really fascinated with Whitley down the stretch, so will be fascinated to see how that turns out in Tampa. I like the Bregman/Tucker combination for Houston - not exactly a "floor" pick with Bregman, but a safer pick, and then a home run type gamble on Tucker. This presumes they get them all signed. As for 2nd round ... tough to figure out who gets there. Looking at BA's top 200, my personal favorite is Joe McCarthy (would love to see if a swing coach can tinker with him a bit to get more power ... very disciplined, strong eye, and lots of raw power potential) ... but I doubt they draft another OF that early. I wonder if we'll go with another Stinnett-esque pick and save some money to push later ... although if I remember correctly, didn't they call about Derek Casey last year before going with Stinnett? If Scott Kingery or Ke'Bryan Hayes are there, I'd be intrigued with those picks, particularly Kingery (granted, he's a 2nd baseman, and they may want to try Happ at 2nd as well, but Kingery's got such a good bat). Arm wise, maybe Cody Ponce falls there. That'd be an intriguing gamble. I'm somewhat intrigued with the little I know on Blake Hickman. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, as I'm too lazy to check right now, but didn't we draft Hickman back in the day? Sounds like an exciting arm to mold. Just too far away to really know right now. Cleveland popping Aiken and Giants popping Bickford - some high ceiling arms are coming off the board. I imagine Matuella will go late first and Kirby late first-early 2nd. Dream result would be Nate Kirby falling to us, but I doubt that.

was going to head to the game tonight, but I gotta figure that it's rained out in Frederick.

A part of me is thoroughly fascinated with Benintendi, as he does seem intriguing. Another part of me is so very lukewarm on the idea of the "next" Ellsbury. Leaving aside the Cubs guys that have been briefly tabbed as that (Szczur, Hannemann), there's so many guys that have gotten that type of label before, and ... most of them don't pan out. To be quite honest, I can't think of a guy I will really get excited about, and a guy I won't (I guess this mean I'll be alright with almost any pick). Heck, I'm still not enthused about the top shortstops in this draft, the guys that could go 1-3. The top three arms are intriguing, but ... geesh, leaving aside the pitcher factor, all three of Jay/Fulmer/Tate come with bigger concerns than top arms of recent past. The idea of Happ is growing on me in that, since we likely will make some trades this year, Happ could potentially fill in any "voids" in the system sooner than later (although you never know if a guy will just not mesh) and is a bit less risky than a HS bat. Just not an exciting draft. Too bad we weren't drafting late first this year ... I'm almost more intrigued being in that range, due to injuries. Will be glad next year when we're picking lower and don't need to care as much, as we have to wait and see how the pieces fall.

I have wondered aloud whether or not, provided medicals were fine, if we could get one of the injured pitchers to take a below slot deal, better than what they could get later (outside of a couple teams, namely, the Astros come to mind). Aiken will probably want slot, but I do wonder about Matuella or Kirby. I doubt the Cubs do that, though. Too risky of a move to justify it at this juncture, considering the risk that already comes with pitchers. For all the intrigue about Jay, I can't help but be a bit lukewarm on him. I doubt he gets to 9 now ... but man, taking college closers and making them into starters can be hit or miss. For every Andrew Cashner, there's a Nick Howard (and I admit, I probably got caught up in the Nick Howard intrigue last year as a UVA fan ... but he was pedestrian starter his sophomore campaign before excelling as a closer). I'd be fine if they felt good enough, but I can't help but be a tad worried. I mean ... the Red Sox really believed that Jonathan Papelbon would be a starter, and you can believe in it, but it still might not work (IIRC, they attempted to move him back to the rotation his 2nd pro season, but he or the team felt like it wasn't a fit).

Oy, Happ or Clark? A part of me feels like you can find a similar bat to Happ's later (Virginia's Joe McCarthy comes to mind, and he's probably a 2nd-3rd round pick due to injury). That said, Clark doesn't feel like he has such a huge ceiling to jump all over either, and all the LF talk blunts any excitement about his bat speed and hit tool. I'm fine with either, but I'd probably lean Happ with the idea of giving him a 2nd look at 2nd before moving him back to the OF ... but Tucker is still available on both their mocks, I still like Randolph a ton, and Whitley really is starting to sound fascinating.

crap, i was hoping that Jen-Ho Tseng would be in the rotation next week as I was going to go to Harry Grove in Frederick to take in a Game or 2. Guess I'll probably pick Underwood day then.

Most "go for it" trades tend to be viewed poorly in retrospect (the Indians Colon for Lee/Sizemore/Phillips trade comes to mind), but in this instance, I don't fault the idea of what Beane did (trading his top guy for arms to make an early push to try and make a run), but I do question if his targets where the best choices to be giving up Russell. Of course, he bounced back to do the Cespedes for Lester trade to get his TOR arm. It's been a fascinating year of moves for them. Was fairly intrigued with what they did this winter, but as with baseball, you can't plan for everything.

Good to see a strong start from Skulina and good to see Caratini's bat stay hot.