I move on to the CL Central. Editors note: I'm aware that many draft day trades were made and players were actually being selected by teams and then immediately being traded. I am making no effort to figure out who was traded to who. If you selected them, then you get the credit for better or worse.
draft- T Wood Cin, J Borowski card, C Willems Hs, R Havens SC, B Medders card, C Epps, Hs, M Domnguez Hs, G Gil card
player profile- travis wood is power lh with a plus change up. he projects to front of the rotation and he dominated rookie ball.
assesment: Wood was an excellent pick up and Havens is one of the top college freshmen. The rest are HS players who I discount until they play against higher competition.
top pick- Andrew Brackman NCst 1st rd 14th overall
draft- Y Escobar Atl, E Campbell Atl, J Harris card, D Houlton card, E Abreau LAD, B Suttle TU, J Lindblom Tenn, C Satterwhite Miss
player profile- Brackman is a two sport star in baseball and basketball. He is a hard throwing RH who was ranked as one of the top soph prospects.
assesment- Ftw passed over more highly rated sophs to take Brackman. He is a gamble with the 14th pick because he has legitimate NBA aspirations. Atl prospects Escobar and Campbell are much more intriguing and should be in the next wave of players to appear on your TBS station.
top picks- Mark Pawelek Chn 1st rd 16th overall Jeff Bianchi KC 1st rd 24th overall
draft-K McCullough TU, M Morse card, J Devine Atl, J Rodriguez card, J Towles Hou, P Kelly Min, A Gomez Cha
player profile- Pawelek was the cubs 1st rd pick. He is a power lh who projects as a top of the rotation sp. He dominated rookie ball and will move to low A this season.
assesment- Gdp aquired two premium talents in Pawelek and middle inf Bianchi. McCullough is a likely 1st rd pick this june and there is talent at the back end of this draft
top pick- Emil Brown KC carded 1st rd 17th overall
draft-C Henry Nya, E Iorg Hou, I Desmond DC, J Sanchez Sfo, S Boucher Sea
player profile- C J Henry is the heir apparent to Jeter's throne. He is an athelic player who needs to refine his baseball skills.
assesment: Brown is a 4th OF who got a lot of abs for a bad KC team. I doubt he will be used as much in the future. Despite burning a 1 on Brown, Iow reedemed themselves with the selections of Henry and Iorg.
draft- G Majewski card, K Casto DC, B Finch Bal, J Marquez Nya, T Pena Arz, T Rogers HS, R Goins Hs, S Moore Chn, M Wright Hs
player profile- Casto has some pop in his bat but he is blocked by Zimmerman at 3b. Casto will likely be moving to 2b and if he can make the transition, he will become even more valuable because of his offensive skills
assesment- Duffy is a 4th OF type who is geting a chance to be Pitt's CF. I think he is keeping the position warm until McCutcheon is ready for the show. Duffy is a classic overdraft of a 3rd rd talent at best being grabbed early because of 90 good abs. Majewski is a quality setup man and Casto is a definite prospect.
Keith's grade of C+ for FTW may be right. But I think it has a chance to end up being much higher. Brackman was the highest rated soph RH starter at the time he was drafted and will be NCSt. #1 starter the rest of the year. AS he said Escobar and Campbell are legitimate Atlanta prosects to come in the next wave. But to me what makes the potential of this draft really good are the three freshmen picked up at the end of the draft. Lindblom and Satterwhite are two frehmen, rh starters who are in their teams weekend rotations and are both having outstanding years. Suttle, as mentioned in the now much debated topic of FTW Minor League Report fame, is hitting in the middle of the TExas batting order, hitting well and playing middle infield. Those three guys could be special. But the proof of course will be in the proverbial pudding.
Keith go get the dictionary and look up proverbial. Cause I know the education I received at UT was much better than the rent a diploma schools you attended. ($mu and ?) Wait, did you actually get a diploma or do you just run down other people's educations without having completed one yourself?
My average draft grade is a C. I would rate a draft of Brackman, Andrus and Campbell as average and it would receive a C. None of them (in my opinion) are premium top 100 prospects as of draft day this year. I would rate Andrus somewhere between 100-150, Campbell around 200+ and Brackman lower because it is just as likely that he will persue a basketball career. The potential of the college freshmen bumped Ftw's grade to a C+. I didn't comment on them in my assesment but they did figure into the grade. This makes Ftw's draft slightly above avg in my opinion. I am not weighting spring performances into my grading. I didn't add in for the positive seasons of Suttle and company nor did I downgrade for Brackman's dismal soph season.
the silly stuff
I made no reference to the quality of Eric's education. In his post, he surmised that he would be getting a better grade this year than last year. I responded that I graded harder than his TU professors. This is a reference to grade inflation at major US institutions of higher education not to the quality of the education received. I actually believe he has his Masters or PHD from Ohio Univesity.
