Sunday Discussion Question: 2011 Draft

First i gotta say they never take who I like it usually never happens. Maybe once but never.

The Red Sox have a deep system but not considered strong because that depth is mostly in the lower minors. One area of weakness is the catching position, where they don’t have an elite or potentially elite prospect. That position has been on the minds of Red Sox fans that follow the draft for a long time but they never seem to address it. They always go with the best player they like available and have been willing to spend in the draft.

Last year was the first year for Amiel Sawdaye in charge for the draft, he went with 4 straight college players to open the draft 2 hitters, 2 pitchers, then went with 4 straight HS hitters so he mixed it in pretty well. Am still trying to see whats his pattern since last year was the first but it seems to be same as it was, diversified the portfolio as Theo and Co. say.

As for guys that they may be interested? I haven’t heard rumors yet of who they may be linked to but I’ll give 5 College players and 5 HS players that I could see them liking:

College

• Andrew Susac
• Mikie Mahtook
• Jason Esposito
• John Stilson
• Anthony Meo

High School

• Blake Swihart
• Tyler Beede
• Derek Fisher
• Nicky Delmonico
• Daniel Norris

As I said I haven’t read or seen any rumors yet as to who they may like, we’ll have to wait until Peter Gammons opens his mouth(J/K), its just a list of guys that I could see them taking combine with my own bias.

If I had any say in the first 2 picks I’d go with one of the to HS pitchers(Bundy, Bradley, Norris, Guerrieri) if any them drop and then come back with D. Fisher or Josh Bell. I like’ em high upside prospects.

The Rockies traditionally take the best player available, and I think that trend should continue. The BA mock draft had them getting the South Carolina outfielder (Jackie Bradley?), and I can totally see them taking a toolsy outfielder with their first pick. It’s that, or a quarterback. You can never have too many quarterbacks in CO…

Organizational areas of weakness IMO: 2B, 1B, 3B. Somebody’s gotta take over 1B when Helton retires. Maybe that’s Arenado? I’m starting to think it’s Kyle Parker; or they scoot Seth Smith to 1B since he’s a lefty, and Parker takes over in right.

Pitching depth never, ever hurts. Injuries happen, and sometimes prospects don’t work out (cough, Matzek). The only real certain spots in CO are SS and LF!

-SS to eventually replace Jeter
-Corner IF depth
-More pitching couldn’t hurt… the more advanced, the better

id want the Angels

I would love to draft for the Rays.

There are few scenarios for the Rays to ruin this draft.

I would love it if the Brewers draft Dylan Bundy, but overall for the 12th pick I would like them to draft the consensus top HS pitchers (Bundy, Guerrieri, Norris, etc.). As for the 15th pick I would like them to draft a college position player.

I believe they should consider both “the best available player” philosophy as well as team needs

Hopefully it comes down to Dylan Bundy or Jed Bradley. Bradley kind of reminds me of Zach Britton.

I think one of this draft’s deep class of college arms will be the BPA when they pick. And I think that fits the system’s needs as well—there are a variety of pretty good position player prospects in their system, they need an arm who can step right in and be a top pitching prospect alongside Lyles to anchor the future rotation.

We’re on the same wavelength, John. At about the same time you were posting this, I was posting my in-depth preliminary draft board on McCoveyChroncles. It’s very, very long and somewhat Giants-centric, but it does have a lot of info and video links for the first 19 prospects on my board so a lot of draftniks should find something interesting to peruse.

Here’s the link:
http://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2011/5/1/2147204/5-weeks-until-the-mlb-draft-lets-talk-prospects

Conventional wisdom would say that Rendon would be the player that the lousy-hitting Mariners should take, but the more I look at the major and minor league rosters, the more I’d be perfectly happy with Cole.

Having Rendon would be awesome, but honestly the M’s don’t have any good pitching prospects that are near the majors. Beaven is giving up a lot of hits and a lot of runs and Taijuan Walker is a few years away. We need pitching depth and while we could get that in the later rounds, nobody will have the immediate and overall impact of a Cole.

I’ll be happy with either player, but Cole might be the smarter move.

I would like to see the Padres take the best available College arm at 10, probably Barnes or Jungmann. Obviously since it is unprotected signability is an issue here.

At 25 I would like to see them pick a middle infielder with a chance to stick at SS like Levi Michael or Baez. I would probably lean toward Michael because he could move through the system quicker. The Padres have no one at SS in their system outside of Everth Cabrera.

With their sandwich round picks I’d like to see them just go best available player. Maybe some high upside high schoolers will drop due to signability. I read somewhere that the front office is prepared to spend some money in this draft.

They definitely need pitching. Some middle infield wouldn’t hurt either or a catcher.

They will most likely be looking at college pitching like Taylor Jungmann and Matt Barnes. Wouldn’t be shocked if they went outfielder for Mikie Mahtook even though I don’t think we need OF all that much.

I would hope they went Archie Bradley if he is there and pay him I think he is going to be a stud workhorse. If Matt Purke falls because of the injury I think they NEED to take him. My dream would be for Trevor Bauer, but I think he has pitched his way out of the Mets range.

I see them targeting an arm, likely a college arm. though given the depth at pitcher in the draft I could see them taking a bat and going arm heavy in the rounds after that. Pitching is thin in their system right now, especially near the top end due to graduations, but I would like to see them still go for the best pick available, be that a bat or whatever. I think thats the strategy they’ll employ also, since they seem to have been following that mantra for the last few years.

if they get to draft Hultzen and Gray. They would join Jarrod Parker and Tyler Skaggs.

Two names I keep hearing from KC people are Bubba Starling and Dylan Bundy in the first round. I think that if KC goes with the pitcher in the first they’ll go with a position guy in the second and I see them starting “The Second Wave” of talent with a lot of high talented high school guys early supplemented by some NCAA names to fill out rosters later. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them reach on Eierman in the next as he’s a KC area kid as well. And with the Twins VP watching him play on Saturday (and several other cross checkers), they might have to go a round earlier than anticipated.

But I see them drafting a lot like the 2007 and 2008 draft where they were high school heavy early with guys like Hosmer, Montgomery, Giavotella (the lone NCAA guy), Sample, Melville, Lamb and Moustakas, Runion, Duffy, Neilson, and Ortiz (the other lone NCAA guy). Then after about the 6th/7th round bringing in some NCAA guys while taking just a few chances with HS/JuCo guys later.