[Westheim]

1986 DRAFT POOL

The Raccoons will draft 15th in this year’s amateur draft, in every round, no picks lost, no picks gained. Easy as pie. Well, you like to draft either 1st or last, to be honest, and if I’m really honest, I want to draft last.

Still. There were a few hundred young arms and bats to judge.

Main prizes according to Nathan Bruce and his staff:

LF Ruben Flores, 22 – good allround hitter with contact, power, gap all there, but has to work on catching balls at times
INF Rory Gorden, 17 – very versatile, good contact batter with gap power
SP Harry Griggs, 18 – only rated 13/12/8 potential-wise, but has four pitches that he knows to use effectively
SP Miguel Martinez, 22 – potential 13/14/13 with a devastating curve and changeup
1B Travis Shaw, 17 – somewhat of a strange first baseman with little power, but a magnetic bat, but he does have the troublesome defense covered.
MR Hakim Shikuku, 18 – knuckleball reliever, almost unhittable, and also has no idea about the location of the strike zone
OF Scott Strong, 22 – bat potential reads 20/18/20, good defense, running speed, hot bet for #1 pick

There are a few more promising starting pitchers in the draft, too, and a few potential sluggers, so we should get a good round 1 pick even at #15. Or maybe not. The last few years have not been too kind on our round 1 picks.