[Westheim]

1998 AMATEUR DRAFT

We came into the draft with an insane allotment of six of the first 69 picks, including the fourth overall pick thanks to sucking so badly last season and losing about everybody on the roster in the winter.

The draft pool has been detailed above. There are very few infielders worth noting, and there isn’t that one hot starting pitcher everybody wants to have. There are lots of decent guys, though, a few rocket arms for the bullpen, and enough outfielders that have a nice future projection. While the pool has a lot of decent catchers, too, there is not the one catcher in there, but I still think we have drafted that one catcher already with Julio Mata last year, although he is currently struggling badly in AAA. We might still draft two catchers later on, since with the trade of Mario Guerrero two days ago, we have only nine catchers in our system.

The following players are very high on the wish list:

SP Frank McGeraghty (18/7/15)
SP Rod Taylor (14/7/9)
SP Daniel Dickerson (11/17/13) – highest bonus demand in the draft at $2.1M

RP Scott Boone (20/18/18)
RP Sergio Vega (20/15/14)
RP Tom Brooks (14/17/15)
RP Luis Valdes (16/15/10)

C Craig Bowen (9/13/16)

1B/3B/LF Jon Merritt (16/5/18)
1B/3B Bob Phillips (12/9/10)

LF/CF Chris Roberson (20/18/9)
LF/RF Lou Jenkins (16/20/10)
LF/RF/1B Will Bailey (14/14/13)
LF/RF/CF Herb Rose (14/8/13)
LF/RF Jesus Valle (14/12/10)
LF/RF/1B Emery Parkinson (12/14/12)

Right off the bat, I am torn between Chris Roberson and Scott Boone as the first pick. You can never have too many outfielders, first. Second, you can never have too many relievers, either. Third, we drafted right-handed relievers with our first pick the last two years, Manuel Martinez in 1996, and Dan Nordahl last season. Both are in AA, with Martinez fighting ill control, and Nordahl getting grey hair for the non-existent defense behind him. Scott Boone is a left-hander, 17 years old, and even more raw than the high school kids Martinez and Nordahl. Roberson is 21, and I have a feeling that he will go very, very high in the draft. Take him fourth, because he won’t be around by the time you pick again. He may not even be around at #4.

Neither of those two, by the way, rank in the top 10 by BNN. Bowen leads that list, and he is also a high school draftee. Dickerson is 2nd, and then the guys not on the short shortlist by me and Vince Guerra creep in. Jenkins and Bailey are 7th and 9th on the list, respectively, while the other six top 10ers are not on our short shortlist.

This is getting very talky here.

So, Chris Roberson figures to be our first choice. What if he is gone by #4? Boone? Or Lou Jenkins? Heck, each of those six outfielders listed above figures to be a star – right now. Sigh. Bring in the clowns!

1998 PORTLAND RACCOONS DRAFT CLASS
Round 1 (#4) – LF/CF Chris Roberson, 21, from Lyndhurst, NJ – high contact, high power, not a strikeout guy, and he also has speed and is able in the field; what more can you want from a hitter?
Supp. Round (#28) – MR Scott Boone, 17, from Edmonton, Canada – southpaw that doesn’t blow hitters away with the fastball, but his slider is just too filthy to be legal
Supp. Round (#50) – SP Frank McGeraghty, 20, from Washington, DC – strong stuff with four quality pitches, but this lefty has to work on movement to get into the Bigs; right now he is throwing pretty straight…
Supp. Round (#61) – LF/RF Jesus Valle, 19, from La Romana, Dom. Rep. – powerful bat, good contact abilities, but struggling with the strikeouts due to bad judgement of stuff on the corners; good speed and defensive abilities, too
Supp. Round (#66) – OF Herb Rose, 22, from Dover, OH – quality bat for high average, with less power than our two higher picks, but with more speed and good defense as well
Supp. Round (#69) – MR Sergio Vega, 18, from San Carlos, Venezuela – right-handed changeup artiste also working on a slider, and the fastball zooms past you at 95mph as well
Round 2 (#86) – C Pat McClellan, 21, from Rye Brook, NY – good eyes and contact abilities, and he also calls a good game; is a switch hitter as added quality
Round 3 (#97) – 1B John Morris, 18, from Vallejo, CA – his bat seems more likely to produce doubles rather than home runs, but he doesn’t strike out an awful lot; downsides are no speed at all and so-so defense
Round 4 (#121) – OF Bryan Forrest, 20, from Cambridge City, IN – his speed makes him a doubles hitter since he will go for two at the slightest provocation, but his problem so far is a sub-par contact ability; strong defense though
Round 5 (#145) – INF Reed Shaw, 21, from Elma Center, NY – swings at too much junk, and good speed and strong defense on several positions on the infield alone won’t get you to the Show…
Round 6 (#169) – SP Warren Gilles, 17, from Tallulah, LA – claims to throw six pitches, but we’re not sure whether he just doesn’t know what and how to throw at all
Round 7 (#193) – MR Jose Francisco, 17, from Saltillo, Mexico – right-hander with a promising curve
Round 8 (#217) – SP Ron Robinson, 17, from Warren, PA – right-hander with slider and changeup and impressive whiff numbers in his high school league
Round 9 (#241) – CL Víctor Valentín, 20, from San Cristobal, Dom. Rep. – right-hander, slider to knot up hitters, but weak fastball and poor control
Round 10 (#265) – INF Toin Agano, 22, from Kawasaki, Japan – good defender, bat … nyaahh… good defender.
Round 11 (#289) – 3B Woody Ayers, 21, from Queens, NY – good defensive third baseman
Round 12 (#313) – C Bill Lewis, 17, from Union City, NJ – I thought we could use another catcher

The Canadiens had the first overall pick in the draft and selected SP Daniel Dickerson with it. He was high on my list, and certainly a worthy #1 pick, and it took the decision whether to blow north of two million bucks on his signing bonus. The Wolves took SP Max Shepherd, followed by the Cyclones grabbing Will Bailey, giving us Chris Roberson.

Nobody signed any relievers in the first round, and so Scott Boone fell to us at #28. With McGeraghty still in, he would have been a valid option as well. Outfielders Rose, Valle, and Parkinson also remained at this point. Only Parkinson was taken between our first two supplemental round picks, and by now McGeraghty still being available was slightly suspicious, but we took him anyway, with Jesus Valle penciled in for the next pick.

After Valle and Rose were added, we took about the best guy that was left for a while, which included swallowing a $700k bonus to third round pick John Morris (more than our top pick Roberson!), before resorting to Reed Shaw and Warren Gilles, who had not been on the extended shortlist, to fill up on needs in the middle rounds. Francisco was the last pitcher on the shortlist, which actually at that point contained two more outfielders, but we had already taken four, and only Roberson was going to start in AA.

Looks like we drafted heavily from the Northeast this time. Also, this was a strange draft in that usually the pool was out of position players, especially outfielders at some point during the penultimate round. Not this time! We actually drafted position players in the last few rounds. There were however no position players left over at the end, only pitchers.

Roberson was the only player assigned to the AA level. Everybody else was assigned to A. For a moment, that put the roster of the Aumsville team at 48 players, but we culled that down a bit.

We released a total of seven players (and a few more may follow), including our two top picks from 1995, outfielders Manuel Villa and Cory Stanford. Villa had been concussed in 1996 and had never regained his swing after that. Stanford had sucked for three full years at the A level.