Season 27 Diamonds in the Rough

The Season 27 Diamonds in the Rough for Shtickless featured a number of strong relief pitchers and a few defensive specialists but not much else.

Will Definitely Make the Big Leagues if they get anywhere close to their projected ratings:

RP Douglas Jay – Texas – great control with 80+ splits, 2 strong pitches
RP Rafael Park – St Louis – nice righty split with good P1
RP Charlie Nixon – Texas – very solid all the way across with a high 90s lefty split
RP – Curtis Larkin – Salem – likely a setup B type

Should make the bigs if they reach their projecteds:

SP – Nolan Corino – St Louis – a LR or late rotation SP
RP – Chili Fitzgerald – Salem – setup B

The hitters were very weak but these guys might make the big leagues someday:

Defensive specialist Cs, all definitely have below average bats – Mike Maroth Scottsdale, BJ Landrum New York Bowie Mafia, Micah White Houston, Shelley Ferguson Las Vegas, Laynce Blasingame – Chicago

Only really decent bat – 1b Tike Easterly Pawtucket – could someday DH or play 1b

Interesting fielder/hitters – SS (?) Max Vega of Toledo and Derek Goodwin of San Antonio – both have very nice defensive ratings with the exception of arm strength which might keep them from everyday jobs

2b/CF – Julio Rosado of Detroit and Shane Morton of San Diego both have very nice glove and range but not much else

There’s about 5-10 other guys who improved a bunch on defense but who overall likely won’t reach their projecteds or don’t have the bats to ever make it to the ML

Overall Texas, St Louis and Salem seemed to get the biggest boost from DITR.

Season 27 Hall of Fame Voter’s Guide

This voter’s guide is just going to use the basic stats/awards on the main screen of the player cards – I understand that a lot more advanced metrics can/should be used, but this is for ease of comparison. The potential nominees will be broken down into three sections, I’m sure there will be disagreements (and some value different metrics more than others, such as defense), that’s why we vote! (I’ve chosen to not list positions here but break-up into hitters and pitchers). Overall comments and predictions at the bottom.

First Tier (really clearly deserve to get in unless extreme voter apathy or voter bias):

Hitters:
Wiki Armas – .323 avg, 3282 hits, 589 HR, 241 SB - 11 AS, 3 MVP
Hootie Stewart – 3000 hits, 753 HR – 6AS, 2 MVP

Pitchers:

None

Second Tier (definitely should be considered and get a competitive number of votes):

Hitters:

Miguel Matos – 2706 hits, 565 HR – 9AS
Chris Offerman – 2773 hits, 524 HR – 7AS
Mike Ponson – 3064 hits, 547 HR, 323 SB – 6AS
Steve Thomas – .307 avg, 2776 hits, 636 HR – 6AS, 2 MVP
Dan Johnson – 490 HR, 305 SB – 7AS, 1 MVP, 4 GG

Pitchers:

Sammy Bennett – 2.94 ERA, 519 SV – 8AS
Mark Chase – 3.26 ERA, 473 SV – 10AS
Sammy Malone – 3.31 ERA, 501 SV – 9AS
Dave Newhan – 3.55 ERA, 216 wins, 2218 SO – 8AS
Alex Villano – 2.90 ERA, 529 SV – 8AS
Morrie Keller – 2.82 ERA, 460 SV – 7AS

Third Tier (likely will get a few votes but never enough momentum to get in):

Hitters:

Harold Cannon - 2755 hits, 388 HR, 596 SB – 6 AS
Steve Dewitt – .304 avg, 530 HR – 3AS, 2MVP
Tony Hernandez – 2607 hits, 604 SB – 7AS, 2 GG
Glen Judd – 564 HR – 5AS
Kelly Payne – 2304 hits, 591 HR – 5AS
George Rollins – 2680 hits, 623 HR – 2AS
Ronnie Stewart – 2232 hits, 589 HR – 2AS

Pitchers:

None

Overall Comments – This group is really dominated by power hitters and relievers, really a surprisingly weak crop of starting pitchers. 500 HR alone just doesn’t make a player standout in this group, it will likely take a combination of big homers and 3000 (or close) hits plus a pile of postseason awards to get in amongst this group.

Prediction – Armas and Hootie Stewart get in, all these good relievers steal votes from one another keeping any from getting in, if voters unite perhaps one of Ponson/Matos/Thomas gets in, with Ponson the most likely.

Season 27 Rule 5 Analysis and Summary

The season 27 rule 5 draft featured 17 first round picks. Pawtucket made the most picks of any franchise, going 5 rounds. Washington had three of its players taken in the first four picks (someone explain to the new Washington owner how to protect young players!) and had five total players taken. Detroit and Seattle lost four players each.

First round pick analysis (just one person’s opinion, feel free to disagree!)

1. Rochester – Tony Hudek – SP – a mid-rotation SP who is close to his projecteds, can be immediately inserted into the rotation

2. Pawtucket – Santiago Silva – LF/1b – best rule 5 bat available, potential all-star who can slug and hit for average

3. Las Vegas – Jeremy Andrew – RP – great splits, bad control, good durability, with good control he’d be a star

4. San Fran – Stephen Avery – SP – close to his projected with average splits, a bottom of the rotation or long relief candidate

5. Louisville – Ivan Cedeno – RP – will eventually be strong against lefties, average against righties, better long-term potential

6. Florida – Harry Valenzuela -  RP – 35 y/o 8 year ML vet with a 4.8 million salary – expensive for a set-up guy but solid ratings across the board except for velocity

7. Seattle – Jon Ogea – SP – perhaps the best SP potential of any pitcher but several years away from being a top of the rotation guy

9. Philadelphia – Andrea Butler – CF/2b – girly name, great contact, average but solid elsewhere, a nice long-term role player

10. Ottawa – Geraldo Javier – SP – currently not good enough to be in the bigs, potentially a long relief guy or maybe bottom rotation SP in a pitcher’s park

11. Salem – Dick Hooper – SS – best SS in the draft, great fielder which makes up for a bat that is contact and not much else, great stolen base potential

14. Minnesota – Johnny Wallace – C – above average bat against lefthanders, good potential arm with average pitch calling

16. Texas – Chet Kline – 2b/COF – a guy whose defense doesn’t fit a position well, above average bat but excels in nothing

21. Monterrey – Russell Foster – SS – at 26 nice projected defense but likely won’t reach projecteds, mediocre but passable bat

22. St Louis – Tatsuya Funaki – SP – great projected overall but not good enough for the bigs yet, already on waivers

24. San Antonio – Nicholas Raben – COF – nice health and durability, not good enough for the Majors, likely ever

26. San Diego – Matty Giavotella – DH – great power/contact, great against lefties, average righties and average eye, should slug but strikeout a bunch

30. Trenton – TJ Hughes – SP – likely a long-relief guy, possibly bottom rotation as splits improve, lacking good pitches

Overall owners did a fairly decent job protecting players as likely only 2-3 of these guys (Silva, Hooper, Ogea) have all-star potential but certainly some nice roster fillers for teams in need

Shtickless HBD Blog Resurrected!

After years of absence the Shtickless blog is back under new (season 26) commish vandydave’s direction. Ideally blog posts will become a regular occurrence with contributions from any interested owners.

Upcoming features -

-  Season 27 division previews (looking for one owner from each division to do the team by team preview)
- Season 27 Hall of Fame voting preview
- Season 27 free agency summary and analysis
- Season 27 rule 5 draft summary and analysis

And more. Or not.

 

B0T STOVE – Half-assed return

It’s been some time since we last had an update, and there’s a lot of ground to cover. Let’s just tackle these things by division.

AL North

-This is a division that highlights that the league isn’t so much separated into the haves and have nots, but the tries and the try nots. The disparity between the top two teams and the bottom two teams represents a common thread amongst each league.
-Augusta made a huge splash in free agency when they acquired renowned slugger Wiki Armas, but more credit for the team’s success should go to Cleveland holdovers Brian Mays and Roosevelt Adcock. The turnaround has been sharp, but it also makes one wonder how successful dmurphy could have been if he spent half the effort on his team as he did on selling stolen Wii Fits online.
-Toledo trading Wilfredo Gonzalez in-season within the division might seem shocking, but Gonzalez had to go. He wouldn’t let anyone have the remote in the locker room, and insisted on watching reruns of Chopped.
-Virgil Seanez is destined for the DL this season. Not because he’s injury-prone, but because he’ll throw his back out carrying this team.
-gin still doesn’t give a shit about you or this league. He’ll tank all he goddamn pleases. And if it gets him more players like future stud pitcher Bernie Quintero, it might just help him eventually become respectable again.

AL East

-Cy Townsend for Norfolk eats boogers.
-It’s bullshit how many good young players Stu has in his organization.
-Wichita is using great pitching and Gill McMillan to make a push for the division crown, but the real unsung hero for this team is cbriese. Because I’m pretty sure he’s paying for it all and randomly throws players his son’s way to fill out an already strong roster.
-Buffalo’s top draft pick Stretch Martin went on the DL with back spasms, which is somewhat ironic because he probably would have been fine if he actually stretched.
-Pittsburgh selected elite catcher Wilson Harper with the third pick of the draft. Harper used his $5,501,000 bonus to buy a shitload of pajama jeans. He likes to wear them when he’s catching a bullpen session, and even asked the minor league affiliates of Pittsburgh to adopt denim-themed uniforms. So if he says he’s into pajama jeans because he’s being ironic, he’s a lying twat. He loves those pants.

AL South

-For some reason, Sam Swindell always draws the most awful trade offers. Sure, he’s an odd player to evaluate because his low stamina means he’s either an upper echelon starter who can’t get deep into games, or a relief pitcher who can’t really throw all that frequently. But the return suggested by other teams always seems to more or less reflect what you’d get for an above average Set Up A pitcher.
-Montgomery Rule V pick Deep Throat Lee is really popular with the Alabama gay community (i.e. jktcat and Nick Saban), but he insists the name came from his parents’ affinity for anonymous political informants and not anything sexual.
-Kansas City never seems to make any off-season upgrades, and yet still finds itself contending for the division title. Babypop likes to keep everything in house as an organization. The rationalization isn’t that KC is awesome at talent acquisition or developing players, it’s more because babypop is too shy to talk to new players. He’s waiting for the free agents to come to him.
-San Antonio was shocked when slugger Juan Cano dropped to them in the draft. For all intensive purposes, this was a steal. It had them rethinking why he dropped as much as he did. Did they do well enough research? Maybe. But rumor has it that some teams took him off their boards because he listed Whitney as his favorite TV show on a background information survey and they wonder what sort of brain damage he has.
-Ha. Bret. Remember when people thought he wouldn’t suck? That worked out. I can’t even tell if this terrible season is on purpose or not.

AL West

-The fact that Salem is still sometimes playing Hootie Stewart has to be illegal, right? It’s at least unethical to abuse a corpse like that.
-Colorado decided to invest $0 in amateur scouting budgets in a season when they had three first round draft picks. Yeah, the picks were pretty terrible, but they were still better than some of the ones bret would make when he was actually trying.
-The Colorado beat writers have openly started a Hal Fitzgerald for MVP campaign on twitter, but they haven’t yet found a deft pun to use as a catchphrase. So far they have “AL MVP? Go to Hal.” Or “Fitz In Your Box”.
-Albuquerque decided to resign Albert Encarnacion. He’s got an ERA under 4.00 for the first time in ten seasons, so winepimp figured he’d reward him by tacking on another year to his contract. Encarnacion needed the money anyway. He practically went bankrupt when he invested all his money into packs of Garbage Pail Kid trading cards and the Garbage Pail market started drying up.
-One has to wonder what dirt Edgard Amaro has on Fregoe for him to even be on the ML roster, and making over $600,000. My guess is he saw Fregoe pressing his dick into silly putty to see what happens.

NL North

-Cincinnati OF Shaggy Barnes still has never seen Anchorman despite everyone else on the team telling him he “needs to see it”
-Detroit isn’t winning the division, but the team isn’t letting themselves feel down. Instead robusk has them all listening to this album from Kurt Vile.
-Insiders are becoming wary as there hasn’t been any mention recently from robusk about how his team is just overachieving or shouldn’t really be contending for the playoffs. Competing teams are feeling uneasy about the lack of gratuitous self-promotion, because they can’t gauge their own deficiencies otherwise.
-When David Bako came off the Disabled List, people in Hartford cried from their genitals.
-Columbus wound up releasing recent draftee Davey Smith because it was determined that he was not, in fact, former professional wrestler the British Bulldog.

NL East

-Even dherz’s farts have a lisp.
-New York pitcher Ray Putnam has been using some of his salary to fund and produce an off-Broadway play called War Whores. The response has been mixed, calls have not been returned by Spielberg, but Putnam proudly tells anyone around that the puppet sex scenes in his story are much better than in Team America. Specifically stating: “War Whores is like Brown Bunny, Team America is like Bugs Bunny.”
-It had to be a mistake that tylermathias won a World Series. This season is more appropriate for what should be happening in Dover. They should not have strayed so far from mediocrity, because they’ve now lost their identity as a team. Gill McMillan was so disappointed by the change in organizational values that he did not consider returning to Dover.
-Scranton, admirably, is still continuing the experiment of playing two Designated Hitters, despite being in the NL. Phillip May and Octavio Valenzuela are not meant to play the field. But I guess that’s why Alcheez sees a little of himself in those two…
-Brad Leach is black? I never noticed before. It sucks that he can close all those games for jwelsh, but still isn’t allowed in the water ice store.

NL South

-You would think Memphis’ Ryuu Chong knows karate or some martial arts, but he doesn’t.
-I’m really surprised that Bill Mahoney has never had a DL stint in his playing career. I guess good budgeting and good luck can help. But can they help him now that he’s been SUPERJINXED?
-What’s the rez stand for in that rezlife shit Vandydave is always talking about? Is that some Midwestern slang for retarded?
-I bet Clay Knotts would have a hard time making knots out of clay. I think most people would.
-Let it be known that Texas relief pitcher Hootie Pote pronounces his last name like “pootie”. And it’s lots of fun for announcers to say outloud.
-Mexico City had been pretty consistently stellar for a while there. Then once they break the bank to sign Slim Betemit, the team goes to the shitter. Betemit is having the worst season of his career, and he has chimichangas to blame for it.
-It’s weird that as defensively conscious as Mexico City is, they somehow have ten minus plays from their pitching staff. Did someone tell them the grass around the mound is hot lava?

NL West

-Congratulations on your division title, Tisi.
-San Diego really gets a kick out of starting right handed bats.
-Cheyenne’s Grant Simas is Matt Stairs’ favorite fake player on a website he didn’t know existed.
-It’s only a matter of time before Gill Cho starts reeling off Cy Young awards. He’s good already, but the only trophies he’s got now are the used underwear of previous sexual conquests. I’m just surprised the guys didn’t notice their underwear was missing.
-I wonder how many players have trash-talked Mo Mosely by calling him Ho Mo. It has to be pretty high. I doubt there’s much originality in name-calling on the baseball diamond.

Power Rankings – Catheter Bag Half Full

Mid-Season Power Rankings

We are a little beyond the halfway point. We’ve had the All Star game. We’ve had patrickm forget to give us Diamonds in the Rough. We’ve had Fregoe decide to start tanking.

It’s about time for another set of power rankings.

I wanted to get a gauge of the consensus opinion, so I solicited for people to supply their Top Ten and Bottom Five. I received votes from 8 people, including myself.

Here you go, whiner:

1.      San Antonio – 62-33 – Previously ranked first overall, San Antonio has gone 31-22 since our first Power Rankings installment. Of the eight voters, rlahann’s squad received five first place votes. They’re pacing the league in most pitching categories, and it’s really quite remarkable when an American League team who is subjected to facing Designated Hitters has the fewest runs allowed of all teams.

2.      Montgomery – 59-36 – Ranked 8^th at the quarterpoint, Montgomery has gone 35-18 and made up ground on rlahann for best record in the division, much less the league. The recipient of the other three first place votes, Montgomery recently squandered an opportunity to gain more ground on San Antonio. The series coming out of the All-Star break saw the Stan Rhodes Memorials take the first two games before a rough outing in the third game and a heartbreaking 17-inning defeat in the fourth game, ensuring a series split.

3.      San Diego – 59-36 – San Diego has been on an incredible tear since the quarterpoint, skyrocketing up the power rankings after going 38-15 over the last few weeks. They graded fairly highly on most ballots, except for one by a rival and another by someone’s statistical theory.

4.      Salem – 57-38 – Moy has gone 30-23 since our last update. He’s distanced himself in his division, somewhat. While some could argue that this team has played above expectations, it consistently placed in the middle of all top ten lists.

5.      San Francisco – 54-41 – Acecards’ team has gone 32-21 since the last update to move further up the rankings. They actually had the same number of weighted votes as our next team, but got a bump because they were consistently higher ranked and the only low ranking came from an NL rival. One ranking metric that was used included runs per at-bat as a consideration, and San Francisco fares exceptionally well in this ranking, especially compared to their National League counterparts.

6.      Mexico City – 54-41 – The Quetzalcoatl have gone 29-24 since our last update, but still don’t have much separation in what’s looking like the National League’s best division. With the highest expected winning percentage in the National League and an unfortunate 2-10 record in Extra Inning games, there is still room to improve.

7.      St Louis – 52-43 – The fastest risers on this list, St. Louis has gone 33-20 since the last update to contend in the National League South. The fact that users with advanced metrics as a determining guide for their rankings have St. Louis as high as they do is indicative of the progress they’ve made, because they were off to a terrible start in the beginning of the season. It went beyond a regression to the mean, and the pendulum has swung in the complete opposite direction. With a talented roster, St. Louis is starting to look like a much more significant opponent down the stretch in the NL

8.      Dover – 52-43 – Tylermathias losing his job and actually paying attention to this team has led them to go 25-28 since our last update. They still hold a secure lead of the NL East, but it’s beginning to slowly dwindle. Excluding divisional games, against what is generally a weak group, this is just a .500 team.

9.      Montreal – 52-43 – Gin has gone 31-22 since our last ranking, mostly out of spite. He’s moved past a slumping Toledo team to take control of a division in flux. Potential reason? This is the most walked team in the league. Low-control pitchers will really struggle against this line-up.

10.  Kansas City – 48-47 – Kind of a surprise final entrant, considering of the eight voters they only made it onto two ballots. But because of the depth/mediocrity of this league, the back-end votes were split amongst many franchises. Kansas City actually held the edge because robusk gave them a second-place vote on the heels of a measurement that shows Kansas City has been performing very well in both facets of the game, and is proven largely unlucky. I never double-checked his math, but Babypop says this team has the biggest difference between BABIP and Batting Average, which is odd because they actually lead the league in batting average.

Other teams receiving votes included an Albuquerque team that just swept San Antonio not too long ago, and has steadily decreased moy’s division lead… Memphis was on the most ballots of the teams that didn’t make the cut, but with consistently low placing, most teams apparently don’t have much respect for the 53-42 record, which sits as the fourth best in the NL… Philadelphia, Fargo, Milwaukee, and Norfolk each had one lone supporter. It’s especially interesting that Fargo received votes for this previous list, and our next one:

The Bottom Five

28. Louisville – 41-54- Bret has made progress with this team compared to the first quarter, as they’ve gone 28-25 in that span. The peripherals suggest that maybe Louisville’s slow start was just a result of epically bad luck, but the issue probably resides with a league worst .293 opponent’s batting average allowed. While they have made some strides since starting off so abysmally, they’re still awfully awful.

29. Buffalo – 40-55 – tracyr’s squad has gone 23-30 since our last update. They have the second-most strikeouts in the league, and were one of only two teams to make each of the five “Worst Five” ballots submitted.

30. New York (AL) – 37-58 – The DANZAS have gone 21-32 since the last update. They’re the most struck out team in the league. I guess compared to the awful start, this is still progress. But they still suck.

31. New York (NL) – 39-56 – The Bowie Mafia have gone 24-29 since the previous power rankings. They haven’t shown much improvement. Either that can be traced back to dherz spending too much time with his geriatric neighbors in Tampa Bay, or the complete lack of talent on the ML roster. Regardless, they don’t score nearly enough runs. It’s the most anemic offense in the league by most statistical analysis, and it has squandered a decent pitching performance.

32. Cleveland – 35-60 – They’ve really gotten shitty. One has to suspect if dmurphy has began tanking, because last we checked they were 21-21 and were making improvements as an organization. To go from there, lose 39 out of 53 games, and shit the bed so profusely that you have to wonder if they know what a toilet even is. They are closing in on the Triple Crown of Pitching Failure, as they have the worst ERA, the worst WHIP, and are right there as the worst OAV. The pitching staff isn’t bad enough to warrant this performance. Also, he owes me money from our fantasy football league. Scumbag.

Season 14 Draft Retrospective

We just had our Season 19 Draft, which I chronicled in amazing detail already. But to show you how this draft nonsense plays out, here is a view of what we can potentially expect five seasons from now.

This is the Season 14 draft. It had been blogged about on this site by someone else at an earlier point, so I figured it was a fair enough place to start and highlight where these guys are at now.

1. Milwaukee, under the previous owner mikesons and stationed in Minnesota, took Sam Swindell first overall. Where is he now? On my roster. He took $4,000,000 to sign as a 19 year old. His low stamina kept him stationed as an elite closer in the minor leagues until he made his pro debut last season. How’d he do? Co-Rookie of the Year, bitches. The control and splits are still awesome, and as long as he’s managed properly he’ll put up nice numbers.
2. Tpete took Kyle Leary with the second pick of this draft. What has he done since then? He plowed through the minor leagues and made his major league debut last season, when he became the ace pitcher on the World Series champions.  His ERA/OAV/WHIP don’t look as pretty as they should, but he’s been a quality pitcher and has a ring to show for it. He won four games during the Milwaukee playoff run last season.
3. Patrickm took Randy Pote with the third pick. Compared to the first two, he’s not been that awesome. But he did make the NL All-Star team last season as a rookie last season. He’s been traded twice so far in his career, but he seems to be quite happy in Mexico City with cbriese.
4. It’s looking like this was a nice draft for pitchers. With the fourth pick, golfteach took Harry Lewis. Lewis made his Major League debut last season in St. Louis and wound up winning 16 games and taking home the NL Rookie of the Year. He’s the foundation of the St. Louis rotation, and a still-improving player.
5. Our next player off the board was the first hitter in the draft. Robin Leonard was part of a blockbuster trade in Season 17 that sent him from Cincinnati to Salem, and he wound up being an instrumental part of their World Series run. Leonard deserved postseason MVP consideration when he put up a ridiculous 1.296 OPS on Salem’s title-winning run. Since then he’s already put up a 51 home run season and an All-Star appearance.
6. Matty Duran went off the board next as a lower-control pitcher who offered high peripherals in every other regard. He’s still playing in Albuquerque, and a career 3.48 ERA indicates he’s doing pretty well.
7. Bill Fornataro was picked out of college by Milwaukee, which is now Minnesota, and was traded to Minnesota, which is now Toledo. Already a Gold Glove winner at the ML level, Fornataro is in the middle of a career year that is helping the Tapefaces push for a bye in the American League. His .323 average places him in the league leaders.
8. Blackmink picked Jamie Green, a college catcher, and he decided he’d just rather not sign. I don’t blame him. But considering the talent in this draft, it’ll seem like mink is awfully retarded.
9. Trading card magnate, Don Russ, went ninth overall to kbjone’s Vancouver squad. Since that point, he’s been traded to Norfolk, where he’s been serving as the team’s primary set-up man this season. His stats haven’t been bad, and his ratings suggest he can thrive in this role.

10.  Tracyr selected Al Adams as the Centerfielder of his future. He was one of the first players in the Major Leagues drafted in this class, and has produced adequately. He hit for 29 home runs in his first full season, last year.

11.  Philadelphia selected LHP Ajax Hogan, and wound up acquiring a very solid arm. Hogan is still developing and has had to get over more injuries than his health rating would indicate, but he’s grown into a solid pitcher in one of the National League’s best rotations. His stats aren’t showing his ability at this juncture, but he will be an instrumental part of any playoff push that Philadelphia were to make.

12.  When I had said with this most recent draft that bret’s pitcher was better than ones he had taken in previous drafts much higher, you can hastily throw Ringo O’Neill into that group. He does have his merits, however. He won a Gold Glove as the American League’s best defensive pitcher last season. After making a jump from AA to the Majors last season, O’Neill wound up pitching 199 innings, and going 9-8 with a 3.84 ERA. That’s Stan Rhodes numbers if you consider he was pitching for bret. Yet somehow this season he’s regressed horribly and has been demoted to Long Relief duty.

13.  With jwelsh’s second pick of this draft, he selected Rafael Oliva. Oliva never had the range to stick at shortstop, but he’s made his debut in right field in Philadelphia this season. He’s held his own by hitting .274 and having stolen 11 bases so far this season.

14.   I remember when mbriese selected Kirt Garcia, people seemed to think he was worth the risk. Like if he signed he’d be right up there with any of the other top players that came out of this class. I really wish HBD let you see a player’s profile after he chooses not to sign. Regardless, he shot mbriese down.

15.  Alcheez took switch-hitting first baseman Philip May. He made his ML debut last season and hit .333 and finished somewhere on the NL Rookie of the Year ballot. For some reason you can’t see voting results other than the top vote-getter once you’re beyond that season.

16.  Dover selected utility player Kent Sheldon, despite injury concerns, and have been using him semi-frequently as a third baseman. His ML numbers are underwhelming at .240/.316/.402, but they should improve with more playing time. It just doesn’t appear his defense will ever reach the projected levels that would have had him near a Gold Glove level.

17.  Cleveland selected high-contact Ed Wagner out of college. His range never developed enough to adequately play centerfield, but some of the blame could be the fact that he’s been sitting in AA every season since Season 15. Could be our first draft choice from this class to retire if he continues to stagnate.

18.  Dherz drafted Harry Valenzuela out of college to serve as a potential closer of the future. He wound up getting traded to Boise in Season 17, and he’s been an effective set-up pitcher at the Major League level this year.

19.  When stu was able to get pitcher Matty Villafuerte this late in the draft, it seemed to be consensus opinion to be a steal. Villafuerte doesn’t have ideal health, but it was enough where he can be relied upon as a starting pitcher. Unfortunately, a brutal arm injury set him back greatly in season 18 and his progress was cut off. His projections seemed Cy Young caliber when he came out, but now he’s settled into a middle-of-the-rotation pitcher. Still 23, it’s not inconceivable that he improve some more, but it’s still a tale of wasted potential already. His ML career numbers of 3.36 ERA, .231 OAV, and 1.22 WHIP indicate that he’ll be productive for the bulk of his career. Just not what he could have been.

20.  The Danzas selected Morgan Haney later in the draft, and wound up centering their rebuilding project around him. With good splits and high speed, Haney’s Major League debut this season has been a bright spot on a dark season. Of course, all that speed with that bad of baserunning is going to get him caught an awful lot. Going 1 for 8 in the Majors this year is pretty terrible…

21.  When Montreal drafted Wilfredo Mercado, they acquired a potentially elite closer. Mercado’s development was slow after being promoted quickly and traded twice, but it’s picked up greatly the past few seasons where his splits and peripherals indicate he has the potential to be a reliable, if not All-Star caliber, closer.

22.  Montgomery drafted Reggie Walker and he wound up signing late in the season, but proceeded to develop quickly. His high make-up got him promoted relatively quickly through the minor leagues. He has the jawline of a Bruce Campbell. He wound up being an integral part of a blockbuster trade which sent him to Scottsdale. So far in the Majors, he’s been hitting a .267/.332/.454 line and getting caught stealing near two-thirds the time. Will be a large part of Scottsdale’s most recent rebuilding project.

23.  San Diego drafted Randall Young despite him not fitting the usual model of tisi’s Chicken Fukkar. He wound up being part of a significant trade that relocated him to Montgomery, where he’s proceeded to develop into a premier power hitter and AL Co-Rookie of the Year with teammate Sam Swindell. He’s flashed an ability to hit for a .300 average and hit 40+ home runs a season, and will be a core player in Montgomery for a while.

24.  Philadelphia’s third pick of the first round was LHP Marshall Sanders, who was eventually sent to Texas via trade. Despite being 27 years old, he has yet to make his Major League debut. He does, however, have more ability than the sort of pitchers vandydave tends to post on the league chat around the time of arbitration hearings.

25.  Salem selected DH Tanner Miller as a future replacement for Hootie Stewart. He never could play a position in the field with any skill, but he could be a designated hitter and had the contact, power, splits, and eye to be a dominant bat. His first taste of the Majors was during Salem’s run towards the World Series where he managed to drive in 10 runs in 12 games. While his durability, health, and fat face prohibit from playing as many games as an owner would like, he’s proven to be a great value. After an offseason trade to Montgomery, he’s putting up career numbers with a .323/.404/.677 line where he’s hitting a home run every ten at bats.

26.  San Diego’s second pick of the first round was elite defensive shortstop Tony Lawrence. While his glove and arm accuracy are still developing, he’s getting his first taste of the ML this season. While his bat has been cold (.180 average),  his defense has been strong. He’s valued as one of the more important young players in tisi’s organization.

27.  Acecards broke from an organizational staple of picking players with speed when San Francisco selected Galahad Fowler and his powerful bat in the first round. He’s particularly adept against right-handed pitchers, so he’s been mostly involved with a platoon now that he’s making his Major League debut.

28.  Detroit drafted Bob Schmidt due to his high splits, good power, and projectable arm for RF. But Schmidt has never stayed in one place for long, as he’s been traded four times in five seasons. He currently calls Minnesota’s AAA affiliate home. A recent injury has derailed his progress a bit, but his high patience and make-up has him still improving.

29.  Scottsdale selected Emmanuel Figureoa, but traded him to Montgomery in the next offseason. Since that point, Figureoa won many accolades across the minor league level and wound up making his first appearance in the Major Leagues last season. He has plus-power, and is starting to flourish in a powerful Montgomery lineup, which if you haven’t noticed has a lot of these first round picks playing for them. Figureoa has a .291/.351/.515 line going this season.

30.  Spacecoyote selected Alex Woo, who overcame an early career shoulder surgery, to develop into a versatile player. He was traded to Salem in Season 18, and been a large part of that team. He does a really good impression of Leslie Chow from The Hangover when he runs around naked in the lockerroom.

31.  Mexico City wound up drafting Bing Sutton, and he fits their mold of plus-defense players. While his arm accuracy has never fully matured, his other defensive ratings have him at Gold Glove caliber at a few positions. That’s not good enough for cbriese, so he traded him to Albuquerque. Even though his splits are skewed towards hitting left-handed pitchers, he’s had a very successful season this year with a .286/.333/.508 batting line.

32.  Vandydave selected Johnny Dipoto as a powerful catcher. His plus-power and good eye helped him tear through the minor leagues, which showcased him before he was eventually traded to Colorado. His power plays well at Coors Field, as he possesses a career .864 OPS in the ML.

33.  With the last pick before the sandwich picks, San Antonio selected pitcher Phillip Friend. While not having the health one normally looks for in a pitcher, Friend possessed good peripheral stats. He was promptly to Norfolk where he’s done all his developing. He saw his first action last year when he threw for 153.2 innings and went 6-13. This season hasn’t been much better, but he has the potential to be an above average SP5 for stu.
So what can we take out of this draft? Other than that I’m awesome at trades?

First of all, this was an incredibly deep draft. Some of the guys going in the 20’s wouldn’t have made it out of the top ten this season. But it also highlights that talent can be acquired at any point in the draft. And that blackmink is awful.

There are many players who are already making huge Major League impacts drafted outside of the first round, I’m just too lazy to go through them all.