Draft Preview - Arizona Diamondbacks
by Andy Seiler on Feb 8, 2010 11:38 AM EST
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PrintThe fifth team draft preview on my blog focuses on the Arizona Diamondbacks and their scouting director Tom Allison.
Here's an excerpt from the writeup, which features small writeups on 15 players involved with Allison's work:
Looking at draft budgeting under the tenure of Allison and Byrnes is a little hard to do, since 2009 was such an aberration compared to 2007 and 2008. The previous two drafts yielded plainly average budgets, and 2007 in particular stuck to slot after the first pick of Parker. Eichhorn was the only significant over-slot investment in 2008, and that wasn’t by much. 2009 didn’t differ too much from that trend, but with five extra picks on top of their normal number of picks, the budget doubled from year to year. Borchering, Davidson, Owings, Helm, and Schuster all represented overslot bonuses handed out to draftees, though they weren’t enormous slot-busters like some teams of late have gone to in order to acquire what they consider top-tier talent. The Diamondbacks’ 2009 draft was considered one of the rousing successes in all of baseball, so saying that largely over-slot bonuses are needed to fill out a solid draft class is logically incorrect, as players like Pollock, Belfiore, Smith, Krauss, Wheeler, and Nick all represent excellent picks for slot bonuses or less. Looking at 2010, they own picks 6, 56, 88, 121, and every 30 picks following that, provided that Rod Barajas signs a Major League contract with another club before the draft. That means that Allison is faced with a new situation that he hasn’t faced before since joining Arizona. He won’t have any extra picks. On top of that, he’s drafting the highest he’s ever drafted before, and there will be more pressure than ever to succeed. I suspect the budget will drop back down into the $5-6 million range for this draft without all the extra picks, but it all depends on how much they spend for the sixth slot.
As always, read about the 2010 MLB Draft Notebook and pre-order it here.
What do you think? What will the Diamondbacks do?
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I could see them taking...
a college lefty. Chris Sale, Drew Pomeranz, and James Paxton should all be available when they draft and none would be too much of an overdraft.
Starting Pitcher
Both out of need and best talent available.
The uncertainty of both the re-signing and injuries to Webb, and to a lesser extent the rehab of Parker, leaves their minor league system pretty void pitching wise. I could see them going for Taillion or Cole, if available, or even someone like McGuire (presuming one of the other top college arms is already gone at 5).
dbacks
from what has been reported from a few of the dbacks sites I frequent, the Dbacks will go after a polished college pitcher and reportly like Paxton and McGuire a lot.
as far as the pole goes. Pollock has the best shot at making the show, but his ceiling is very low compared to some of the others. I’m hoping Borchering and Broxton can fullfill their potential as they both have huge tools that blow away Pollock’s
Don't want to start another fanpost for this.
LeVon Washington out with a bruised hand. I’m working on finding out how long he’ll be out. This is the kind of stuff you can expect from my Twitter account this year.
how could there only be one vote(me) for patrick shuster
the guy threw freaking 6 straight no hitters in his senior year
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