[Westheim]

2002 AMATEUR DRAFT

The Raccoons had the seventh pick in every round in the 2002 draft, but no supplemental round picks, and to be precise no compensation picks of any kind.

Vince had carefully prepared a shortlist of 73 players to have potential of some sort or other, with the following on the shorter shortlist (shorterlist?):

SP Bob Bowden (11/14/10)

RP Helio Maggessi (20/16/14)
RP Tommy Wooldridge (18/15/12)
RP Adam Riddle (18/11/11)
RP Jason Long (15/14/13)

C Rodney Gibson (19/5/20)
C Aaron Case (12/19/13)

SS Ieyoshi Nomura (20/6/16)
INF/LF Dave McCormick (16/13/9)
1B/3B Pedro Reyes (13/12/14)

LF/RF Stanton Martin (16/16/7)
LF/RF Rodrigo Lopez (16/8/16)
RF/LF Clint Phillip (10/16/13)
OF Orlando Sanchez (11/12/12)

With the first overall pick, the Pacifics selected SP Brad Smith. Brad who? Vince. Who? Where is he on our list? He’s not …? He’s not on our list?

Well, the next players were on our list for sure. With the next picks, Stanton Martin (Crusaders), Rodrigo Lopez (Knights), and Bob Bowden (Aces) went off the board. The Canadiens took SP Scott Spears, before the Capitals picked up Aaron Case. That narrowed down our choices a bit. I was bothered by the fact that Rodney Gibson didn’t show up *anywhere* on the BNN and OSA reports. We were inclined to take Tommy Wooldridge in the first round – and if he had been a left-hander, I would have done it. But he was a right-hander, and I made a different choice, the effects of which might not be seen for years, or maybe soon, depending on how Ieyoshi Nomura would bat in A ball in his age 18 season.

Wooldridge went 14th overall to the Scorpions, Maggessi 16th to the Indians, Reyes 18th to the Stars, Phillip 21st to the Loggers, McCormick 22nd to the Scorpions, and only ONE of the players on the shorterlist lingered until the Raccoons had their next pick. The next four players were all from the shortlist, before Vince started making the picks because I was bored by all the non-potential.

2002 PORTLAND RACCOONS DRAFT CLASS
Round 1 (#7) – SS Ieyoshi Nomura, 18, from Maebashi, Japan – excellent ability to reach base, with a knack for hitting doubles; hardly strikes out; not very fleet in the field, and he might not be best put at shortstop after all
Round 2 (#64) – MR Adam Riddle, 20, from Barnstable Town, MS – 97mph fastball and a changeup for this promising right-hander
Round 3 (#88) – LF Joe Spivey, 22, from Iselin, NJ – claims to play all three outfield positions well, which Vince does not confirm; solid contact bat, but not much power
Round 4 (#112) – MR Tony Rodriguez, 18, from Maracaibo, Venezuela – left-hander, throws a screwball that if it would screw properly wouldn’t be taken for a lot of yardage so often
Round 5 (#136) – OF Mathew Page, 18, from Groveton, VA – while he can actually play all three outfield positions and a pair of quick legs, he can’t bat a lot, with no power at all
Round 6 (#160) – 1B Gilbert Eldridge, 18, from Fresno, CA – prototypical first baseman, just not very good at it
Round 7 (#184) – MR Sadahige Nakano, 17, from Kanazawa, Japan – righty working on a slider, not exceeding 90mph on his fastball
Round 8 (#208) – 1B Leonard Wyatt, 19, from Blue Ash, OH – another prototypical first baseman, even worse at it
Round 9 (#232) – INF Tom Ingram, 20, from Camden, NJ – adept with the glove, has yet to swing a bat in anger
Round 10 (#256) – C/1B Victor Petersen, 22, from Selma, AL – not much to see here, neither offensively, nor defensively
Round 11 (#280) – OF Melvin Webb, 18, from Camp Swift, TX – nice range and glove, great speed; if there just wasn’t that get-on-base issue…
Round 12 (#304) – MR Cesar Cuevas, 21, from Maracaibo, Venezuela – well… he’s a left-hander, that was good enough in the last round

Not thrilled with this draft. Besides Riddle, there is nobody where you can be 90%+ sure that they will make it to the majors. 18-year olds are always hit-and-miss (sometimes hit-and-run), and we might well have drafted nothing at all. At least we spent just a bit over $1M on the draft, of which $620k alone went to Nomura.

No picks were assigned higher than A ball.