I know everyone's been waiting with baited breath, but here it finally is: the second MOD for the Tigers. So I have my board for the first nine picks pretty settled, and I have a few players I'm considering for my round two and round three picks. So I'll put everything I have below and try to summarize my thoughts at the end.


Just a friendly heads up: I'm not running this draft as what I think David Chadd would do. In reality, expect the Tigers to draft pitchers. Lots of pitchers. Myself, I'm after position players with upside and safer college pitchers. I tend to avoid HS pitchers with high picks, but if forced, I'll go with athletic guys with good makeup and mechanics, but I prefer doing that in later rounds. The lack of prep pitchers in my top 9 is mostly due to injury concerns- this draft is very important to the health of the Tigers, and I'm (perhaps irrationally) concerned with this first rounder getting derailed by injuries.


First Round: Pick #9
1. Stephen Strasburg, RHP, San Diego State: He won't be here, but he's number 1 on my board.

2. Dustin Ackley, OF, UNC: See Strasburg. If he falls though, he's mine.

3. Grant Green, SS, USC: Okay, this is probably an unusual place for Green for a lot of you. But as far as I see it, he's performed very well in college, well enough to put him into the first round. Sure, he's struggled this year. But he's also got a decently high floor- he's probably going to make the Bigs, even if he isn't a star. And there's the upside of Tulowitzki/Longoria somewhere in Green that the Tigers could really use. Bottom line: there's no way I let Grant Green get past me at #9.

4. Aaron Crow, RHP, Indy Ball: To me, Crow is the second best RHP in the draft after Strasburg. I'm not worried about Scott Boras signability concerns, and I'm willing to pay what it takes unlike the Nationals.

5. Kyle Gibson, RHP, Missouri: Sure, he may not have the upside of some of the prep pitchers, but he's a solid choice in this draft and still has a bit of potential to be something beyond a #3.

6. Shelby Miller, RHP, Texas HS: Great fastball, good curveball, but it's his athleticism and (apparently) good mechanics that win me over. He's a tossup with Gibson at #5.

7. Alex White, RHP, UNC: He's been worked pretty hard, but he's still a pretty good pitcher with some upside. It's the apparent overuse at UNC that bugs me about him, and the reason I don’t have him slotted higher.

8. Tanner Scheppers, RHP, Indy Ball: The injury problems terrify me- the Tigers can't afford to have this pick implode- but that stuff is just too much to ignore. So I'd be willing to roll the dice on Scheppers.

9. Tim Wheeler, OF, Sacramento St.: A bit of a reach at #9, and probably interchangeable with Tyler Matsek. To be honest, though, I prefer the college OF to the HS lefty with questionable mechanics.

 

Second Round: Pick #55

These are just some players I'm considering in no particular order.

-Austin Bailey, C, GA: He's a project, and probably an expensive one at that. But there's major potential here, and if Mike Illich is willing to pay, it's a worthy risk. To be honest, every time I look at my second round board, I see Bailey sitting there and I know it's going to be very hard resisting picking him.

- David Holmberg, LHP, Florida HS: He's a projectable lefty, and probably expensive, but he's a pretty good bet for a HS pitcher. Advanced enough to be put on a decent development schedule, he's a good value in the second provided he can be lured away from Florida.

-Brody Colvin: RHP, Louisiana HS: Boy, I hope he falls to the second. Great arm, iffy command- big risk and big reward.

- Chris Dwyer, LHP, Clemson: Another risk-reward type arm.

 

Third Round: Pick #89

Some more players I'm considering.

-Chris Dominguez, 3B, Louisville: He's a power hitting 3B with not a lot of other skills. But he sounds a bit like a Joe Crede/Josh Fields type, and for a third round pick, that's not a bad guy to get. He's also cheap, which should help if I go for Green and Bailey or something like that.

-Jake Cowan, RHP, TX JUCO: This one's thanks to Andy Seiler (well, okay, most of this is thanks to Andy, but this player in particular is worth highlighting). A projectable righty in a JUCO program that's still getting results is worth looking at, and Cowan is just that.

-Andrew Doyle, RHP, Oklahoma: He looks to go around #89 on the BA draft sheet, but I can't find out much about the kid. Looks like a decent RHP out of a good college school.

 

Right, so this is what I'm thinking right now. Help would be appreciated, especially with later round players (I'm still a rookie and am kinda clueless with second and third rounders).

<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG /> <o:PixelsPerInch>120</o:PixelsPerInch> <o:TargetScreenSize>1024x768</o:TargetScreenSize> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:PunctuationKerning /> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas /> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables /> <w:SnapToGridInCell /> <w:WrapTextWithPunct /> <w:UseAsianBreakRules /> <w:DontGrowAutofit /> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]> <object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id=ieooui> </object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} -->