Oakland Athletics Draft Review
by John Sickels on Jun 9, 2010 4:00 PM EDT
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PrintContinuing with the American League West, we turn our attention to the Oakland Athletics.
Oakland Athletics:
1) Michael Choice, OF, UT-Arlington: His power is real and he has good patience, although his insane walk total in college overstates things since he was pitched around. I also think his overall tools are a bit underrated. Overall, a solid choice, pardon the pun.
2) Yordy Cabrera, 3B, Florida HS: Main negative is his age, already 20. But scouts love his power potential, and he has a third base arm. This is potentially excellent value in the second round.
3) Aaron Shipman, OF, Georgia HS: Very good tools and decent hitting polish for a high school kid. There was some talk he could go earlier than this, making him a value selection with upside.
4) Chad Lewis, 3B, California HS: Decent defender at third base with the potential to hit for power and average as he matures. Like Shipman, he could have gone higher and looks like a solid pick in this slot.
5) Tyler Vail, RHP, Pennsylvania HS: Low-90s fastball but raw, was expected to attend college at Maryland but being drafted this high increases his chance to sign.
6) Tony Thompson, 3B, University of Kansas: Showed a first round bat last year in the Big 12, but a knee injury this year hampered him both offensively and defensively. Faces a move to first base, but could be a huge value pick in this round as the injury recedes into the background.
7) Jordan Tripp, Of, Golden West JC: Shows good plate discipline, power and speed potential, could be a very nice pick here.
8) Blake Hassebrock, RHP, UNC Greensboro: Can hit 94 MPH and looks like a pitcher at 6-5, 190, but has serious command and control problems. Good upside but high risk of failure.
9) A.J. Kirby-Jones, 1B, Tennessee Tech: Good power, good plate discipline, lacks tools and glove.
10) Josh Bowman, RHP, University of Tampa: Successful college guy with an average arm, could be middle relief filler.
FOUR OTHERS OF NOTE: 11-Wade Kirkland, SS, Florida Southern; 14-J.C. Menna, RHP, Brookdale CC; 18-Jose Macias, RHP, Franklin Pierce; 28-Ryan Pineda, 2B, Cal State Northridge
COMMENT: Very heavy offense, with an obvious focus on power and strike zone judgment. I like the way they mixed high school and college hitters. The pitching picks are unimpressive on first blush, and I wonder if they could have done better with that, though teen round picks Menna and Macias bear watching. But the offensive choices look very strong to me, with Lewis, Thompson, and Tripp all potential bargains in their rounds.
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Seems like a solid if unspectacular draft to me
A good amount of high upside hitters early but light on pitching. I think the A’s will find a decent relief arm or two from the later rounds but starting pitching depth probably won’t get too big a boost from this draft. One thing that I was wondering about is what the signability is like on the high school kids. The last couple of years the A’s have raised their draft budget to around $6.5M but from my layman’s view it doesn’t seem like this draft will cost nearly that much. I wonder if the A’s will throw some dollars at a third day flier like Aaron Judge.
If Choice and Yordy Cabrera work out
This could look a like pretty terrific draft – even if none of the later picks do
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3rd day fliers
Andrew Knapp (Rd ~41) a Granite Bay HS catcher was listed in Baseball America top 200. Think we can sign him?
round 41
Would be shocked if the A’s even make an offer, would be even more shocked if he thinks about taking it. At that point draft picks are mostly formalities and/or organizational needs.
Sometimes they are committed to college and teams think that they are unsignable (or he might tell all teams he going to college and don’t draft me). Maybe $$ could change his mind. Looks more of a defensive catcher, needs work hitting.
yes, but
By round 40, Oakland has probably accounted for its entire draft budget and then some.
Really, any prep player outside of the first 15 rounds who isn’t from Puerto Rico is almost certainly going to college. If you can take anything away from the drafting, it suggests that the drafted player might be somebody that the team likes, but wouldn’t want to make any kind of meaningful investment in at this point. It’s a chance for the team to talk to the kid, get to know him a bit, and put him down on the follow list through college.
If you really want to know what the odds are like, go digging through the late rounds of previous drafts. See how many of those guys are preps who actually end up signing, and furthermore check out how many of those guys do anything. Beyond microscopic.
Agree but hoping. Two years ago the A’s drafted a boras guy (LHP) out of HS late in the 40 something round and he went to Florida.
A couple of those late round picks
Are from northern california or committed to schools there: 2 players to CAL Berkeley, another to Stanford, and Fresno St. So possible they could consider the “hometown” angle and convince them to sign with also paying over slot money
Yeah. Great draft for offense.
Lots of impact bats.
Pretty bad for pitching, and terrible for up the middle defense.
I wanted hitters...
and thats what they drafted. Little disappointed in the pitchers but very glad to see the power hitters being drafted.
"Carter's 25-game hitting streak isn't any normal streak. He's 46 for 97 (.474 average) during the run, adding 16 walks and compiling 81 total bases in the process. I'm out of superlatives for what he's doing." - Kevin Goldstein
Developmental Strength
One of the only things the A’s seem to do particularly well in the minor leagues is develop pitchers. Guys like Bailey and Storey and Smyth and Smalley were not high picks but have all emerged as excellent relievers.
Whereas they’re desperate for power throughout the whole system, with only Taylor/Carter really projected to mash.
I like Choice better than a lot of folks, and don’t know why so many A’s fans were bummed about an outfielder who’s projected to hit 30+ homers. That’s more than the entire A’s outfield will hit this season. Yordy was a nice pickup in the second round.
A's fans were bummed because Choice is one of those high risk/reward type guys
and Oakland isn’t very good at developing them. Also because they left guys like Grandal on the board.
If you think Billy Beane is a bad GM, I hate you and find you stupid.
"Leaving" Grandal
I’ll never really understand why some people on AN insisted A’s “left” Grandal when Choice was actually rated ahead of Grandal by Baseball America and there was absolutely no consensus that Grandal was somehow superior talent. This is all without even considering the fact that A’s system is already deeper at catcher than it is in the outfield, mind you.
"Rollins helps them with the small ball when he's not in the lineup." - Joe Morgan
I actually thought the reaction to Choice was mostly positive on AN
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by thejd44 on Jun 10, 2010 1:53 PM EDT up reply actions
It was very positive.
The reaction to the whole draft was positive – probably because it seems like the Front Office is taking a chance on high upside prospects with power, which is something we don’t really do.
"You see, in this world there's two kinds of people, my friend: Those with loaded guns and those who dig. You dig."
Yordy Cabrera
doesn’t turn 20 until 9/3/2010 according to the draft tracker from mlb.com. They also listed him at 6’1", but I had heard he was more around 6’3"/6’4"…
Anyone know more on these two things?
John thanks for having these reviews up so quickly! How long do you think till Choice and Cabrera sign?
So
The pun was intended?
Albert Pujols is a god, and you my friend should be doing no less than groveling at his feet.
looks like a great draft to me
I don’t care for Chad Lewis all that much, but some serious impact-caliber bats here. I’m not sure if Cabera will hit for average, but if he can control the strike zone he could really be something. Shipman in the third round stands out to me as one of the better picks that round – awesome package of tools.
Kane County should be a lot of fun to watch next year. I guess Lewis will probably be in short-season ball next year with Cabrera in KC?
I like this draft
Mostly because of the top 7 picks. The 2 keys will be
1. Does Michael Choice’s bizarre front-foot dance make him susceptible to high-level pro pitching? He takes so much time with his front foot in the beginning of his swing that he appears to be highly susceptible to off-speed and breaking balls thrown by major-league hurlers.
2. Can they sign all of the HS kids that they took in rds. 2-5? If they lose any of those 4 guys, especially Cabrera or Lewis, the draft begins to appear very thin. Especially since they were drafting so high.
Bold predictions: Lewis will end up better than Cabrera (his D is much better than advertsed and he works at his game diligently), and Thompson will end up being considered the best pick in the A’s draft in the future.
"There ain’t much to being a ballplayer, if you’re a ballplayer." - Honus Wagner
signability
I’d be shocked if they didn’t get all of those guys signed. None of those preps were expected to be especially hard signs with the possible exception of Vail, who was drafted high enough to make it a smart move for him to sign.
It's all about who signs. From what I can tell the A's drafted a lot of talented players.
I’d have probably taken Grandal over Choice, but that’s a personal preference.
Hopefully the A’s are willing to throw money at these high school kids and get them out of their college commitments.
"You see, in this world there's two kinds of people, my friend: Those with loaded guns and those who dig. You dig."
Really like Choice and Cabrera
The rest is kinda “meh” to me, but its certainly not a bad draft by any stretch.
Relive Royals History at royalsretro.blogspot.com
Great draft for hitters
Between Choice, Cabrera, Shipman, Lewis, Thompson, Tripp and Kirby-Jones you would think that simply through the law of averages one or two of them will end up being impact major league bats.
However, you really can’t give the highest marks to a class so thin on pitchers. Unless Vail is next Vin Mazzaro, A’s basically drafted guys with MLB middle relief ceilings, which is obviously not very insipiring.
"Rollins helps them with the small ball when he's not in the lineup." - Joe Morgan
We drafted a few intriguing high schoolers too, assuming we can get them signed.
The college guys are a little less inspiring, but the A’s organisation knows pitchers. I assume they think these kids can be tweaked with and turn into something.
"You see, in this world there's two kinds of people, my friend: Those with loaded guns and those who dig. You dig."
Must agree
Pitching was thincan easily be replaced in next year’s draft. Grandal would have been the pick but Sassi who is a;lready a young catcher in the system would be blocked. Think of when the A’s drafted Powell and Suzuki in the draft. Powell now just a back up. Colon was the A’s first choice but he ws taken by KC. Lewis is the player that could be special.
Choice was their first choice
Colon was a fallback, as was O’Conner.
by ToddyBaseball on Jun 11, 2010 9:55 AM EDT up reply actions
Later round picks
OF Ramsey/Aaron Judge- 6’7" 1b/P, both have football commitments. Could be signings since their bonus can be spread out over several yrs.
Knapp- maybe another Stassi situation. Local northern CA catcher, committed to CAL.
Scott Woodward Coastal Carolina- speed, athleticism, versatility.
Bratsen- Callis named him the fastest player in this draft with Gary Brown and DeShields,Jr. Though rest of his skills need work. Wants 7 figure signing bonus, likely ends up at texas AM
Lipkin- local catcher from Univ of San Francisco. 2nd time A’s drafted him, was on team USA. Solid all around skills
A’s have pretty much avoided HS hitters last one early was Sulentic in 2006. But the Lewis, Shipman, Cabrera group hopefully is signable.
The A's need offense in the organization, and they grasped it.
The A’s do not really need pitching, so they went further into the hitters camp.
With Braden, Cahill, Gonzalez, Anderson and Mazzaro around for a long time, along with Ross and Outman (recovering from TJ), they should be able to put together a rotation for the next several years. Coming up the pipe they still have several decent pitching prospects that can fill in, they have Krol at Kane County and they have the Mythical Beast Ynoa.
The A’s had a pitching heavy, hitting thin organization for years. Now that all that pitching is in the Majors, time to flip it.
it seemed to be a very
lets throw a bunch of potentially offensive shit against the wall and see what sticks in 4-5 years.
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