I’m already tossing & turning about the upcoming IAL Rookie Draft, which isn’t until March, 2010. The upcoming crop of rookies seem to be a very good one, with five B starters, a A&C* relief pitcher, a star catcher, thirdbaseman, & shortstop available, along with four fulltime outfielders (one may be moving to 2B). What to do?
Last year I even caught myself by surprise when I selected reliever (A&B* K) Joey Devine over the dominant 20 year old lefty starter Clayton Kershaw. My bullpen was a glaring weakness going into last year’s draft, so passing on Devine would’ve been very difficult. Later in the draft we bolstered the pen further by selecting Cory Wade & Sergio Romo. In the past we’ve chosen Julian Tavarez & Guillermo Hernandez in the first round, the Highlanders have taken one year stop gap graded A*’s Armando Benitez, Jorge Julio, & Mike Gonzalez, you can never go wrong filling a team need & helping your ballclub in the now, i.e., drafting a card. So it looks pretty clear, if Andrew Bailey’s still on the board, we’ll take him.
But then there are the other talented rookie options out there that keep me up at night, what to do! Tommy Hanson & David Price are the real deal, unfortunately I don’t think either pitcher will fall to me. Then there are B starters J.A. Happ & Randy Wells, both proved their worth, and don’t look to be one hit wonders, they probably won’t be there when I pick. There are still a couple of more B starters, Brad Bergesen & Josh Outman, both are limited, both were injured, but both are B’s. Then there are good young starters Rick Porcello, Trevor Cahill, Brett Anderson, Brett Cecil, Jeff Niemann, Homer Bailey, Tommy Hunter, & Clayton Richard. Surely some of these gems will fall beyond the first round, because there are also alot of talented position players in the draft.
Matt Wieters looks like the 2nd coming of Joe Mauer, or as CLuke points out, maybe Brian McCann. Over at the hot corner (or maybe a future SS) is Gordon Beckham, who is not just a pretty bat, this kid can pick it. Shortstop Elvis Andrus is young, only going to get older (& better), maybe he’s Edgar Renteria, or when he grows into his body, Hanley Ramirez. Four outfielders stand above the rest, one is Chris Coghlan, batted .320, but might move to 2B. Another is Dexter Fowler, who can fly, but is that enough to be a regular outfielder in the IAL? And then there’s the Bucs Andrew McCutchen, maybe he’ll be an important building block to the Pirates resurgence, or another talented youngster to be dealt when payday rolls around (he won’t be taken by DonS as he doesn’t draft from losing ballclubs, went against his rule drafting Cincy pitchers last year, don’t think he’ll do that again). Don’t overlook St. Louis Cardinals power hitting outfielder Colby Rasmus. It’ll be hard to overlook oldster Garrett Jones, who really showed he could mash, when given a shot in Pittsburgh, plays OF/1B. Then there’s my hyped outfielder Travis Snider, will he be the next Brad Komminsk or Cory Snyder?
The funk of this whole draft day situation is that there are managers in the IAL (I’m sure you have them in your league as well), who’ll go to the rookie draft with their prospect book in hand, and say, “I’ll take that phe-NOM from Tommy Hanson. Is he a righty or a lefty & what team does he play for anyway?” Hey, where can I get one of those prospect books & a bottle of sleeping pills?