[Westheim]

2008 AMATEUR DRAFT

Sunday night, the ABL’s primary slave market event took place, the 2008 Amateur Draft. Hundreds of young men can’t wait to be put under some baseball organization’s yoke.

The Raccoons had the 21st pick in every round, as well as the 14th pick in the supplemental round. We had a list of 13 players that looked most promising, and in fact there were three that according to Whitebread three really stood out, SP Noah Bricker, SS Tyler Gray, and OF Justin Bellows. I obviously don’t have a clue whatever he is talking about, usually, but from looking at some numbers I thought that Ryan Feldman had all the tools a good player needed to have. Yeah, what the heck do I know. I drafted Orlando Lantán in the first round once. Never heard of him? See.

SP Noah “Bloody” Bricker (12/11/13)
SP Michael Colvard (11/13/11)
SP Kevin Woodworth (11/16/11)
CL Chris Spindler (17/13/9)

SS Tyler Gray (14/12/4)
3B Tom Thomas (14/7/16)
3B Mark Abraham (10/7/11)

OF Ryan Feldman (10/15/12)
OF John Kelsey (10/10/17)
RF/CF Chris Macias (10/9/11)
OF/3B Dave Carter (11/9/12)
OF Jason Seeley (9/10/14)
OF Justin Bellows (7/10/17)

The Aces had the first overall pick and selected outfielder Justin Bellows while having all the choice in the world. The Scorpions took Noah Bricker at #2, and another pitcher, Kevin Woodworth, went #3 to the Wolves. Outfielders John Kelsey (Knights) and Ryan Feldman (Condors) completed the top 5. Tyler Gray fell as far as #10 (Buffaloes), but none of the sparkling four came even close to the Raccoons’ first pick, and in fact eight of the first ten picks were from the selections above. Only three of the 13 above remained to hang around at #21: Abraham, Macias, and Seeley.

Seeley was 21, and OPS’ing .975 for Washington, with a weak arm that would most likely keep him in leftfield. But the hitting profile was certainly nice, and he also had some good speed. Abraham, also 21, had a strong arm, but looked like a car accident whenever he had to field anything at third base. Stanford was even playing him some in centerfield, which was totally out of the question in professional ball. He had less power, but perhaps better OBP qualities. Macias, not quite 21, played for MIT and was collecting plants in his spare time, and oh, he could whack a ball quite well. He was good at catching butterflies with a net, too, and less great at catching fly balls coming at his innocent face.

So we drafted Seeley. Macias went 33rd overall to the Blue Sox, while Abraham stuck around. I was not exactly pumped to draft another player that looked very much like Ricardo Martinez (nothing against Martinez! Except his defense. His defense makes gargoyles weep…), but Whitebread was assuring me that he was the best bet. I pointed at another outfielder, Justin Dally, and he said no. Dally eventually went 56th overall to the Loggers as a second-rounder. A testament to the embarrassing crop of catchers: no celebratory backstop was picked until one spot before the Coons’ second round selection, when the Falcons chose Sandy Fernandini, 68th overall in the draft.

2008 PORTLAND RACCOONS DRAFT CLASS

Round 1 (#21) – OF Jason Seeley, 21, from Lakeland South, WA – power prodigy with good eye, range, and quite some speed; the only thing lacking is a good throwing arm, so he profiles as a good defensive leftfielder, or an average centerfielder
Supp. Round (#38) – 3B Mark Abraham, 21, from River Forest, IL – good swing and good eye to not do it every time, generates doubles and home runs, also a good base stealer, too, unfortunately a total train wreck with the glove; may need transplantation to first base sooner rather than later
Round 2 (#69) – 1B Matt LaVoie, 20, from Tulsa, OK – prototypical first baseman with average defense, a big stick, and leaden boots; there is hope for the big stick to carry him to the majors with lots of long balls
Round 3 (#93) – INF/LF Chris Poole, 20, from Chicago, IL – versatile defender with a good glove, who is able to chip singles where the defense ain’t, then take the extra base with his feet rather than the bat; won’t ever hit a notable number of extra base hits, though
Round 4 (#117) – C Alexis Crespin, 21, from Levittown, Puerto Rico – not much of a batter no matter how you twist and turn him, but he is smart and calling a good game; his arm is average at best, though
Round 5 (#141) – SP Chad Royston, 20, from Claxton, GA – four pitches, including a mediocre, 89mph fastball; severe control problems, but there is still hope and a potential that can be tabbed with enough work, which is not something Royston has put in so far, so he will require a lesson by out A-level personnel
Round 6 (#165) – SS Glen Holland, 19, from Auburn, CA – excellent defensive shortstop with no power in his bat, but good legs and better eyes
Round 7 (#189) – SP Ryan Talbot, 19, from West Odessa, TX – right-hander who needs to get that changeup going if he wants to get anywhere close to the majors; his curveball is already very devastating, but he won’t scrape past with just that and his girly 88mph fastball
Round 8 (#213) – 2B/SS Rich Walsh, 19, from Lakeville, MN – explosive speed and sure hands are met with a comically bad approach to an at-bat and an absolute inability to lay off the breaking ball below the zone; also can’t execute a double play pivot properly
Round 9 (#237) – MR Jason McNamara, 19, from Stanford, CA – nicknamed “Walker” since his freshman year in high school, says it all
Round 10 (#261) – SS/2B Travis Leeper, 18, from North Charleston, SC – shows all signs of a good defensive ballplayer, with a bit of clumsiness that could be helped with more regular exercise, and has noticeable contact abilities, but has no power or speed to help his cause
Round 11 (#285) – SP Abel Parker, 20, from Sugar Land, TX – you name a pitch, he throws it, or at least attempts to; perhaps too much work to hew this righty into shape…
Round 12 (#309) – INF/LF/RF Paul Baggett, 19, from Kennewick, WA – quirky guy able to play almost every position in the field, but not blessed with speed or any ability whatsoever to whack a ball

Seeley and Abraham were assigned to Ham Lake right away. They would only get choked in the temporary clutter that is our A-level team in Aumsville. We currently have 13 infielders on that team and will have to axe that down further in the coming weeks. This includes a few rich (in numbers) recent draft classes as well as most of the players from the international complex that weren’t disinherited outright being … infielders. None of them are hitting much, and it is hard to find actual potential in a sea of mediocrity.

Among the players released right now were 27-year old AA-level pitchers Salvador Cardona (2003, fifth round) and Tim Bell (2003, ninth round), 20-yr old 1B Tony Hernandez (2006, eighth round), and 20-yr old RF/3B Dave Peyton (2006, seventh round).

Our system is a bit strange right now. Our AAA team is fighting for a division title, our AA team is about to get disbanded for uncompetitiveness, and the A level team plays roughly .500 ball. The most horror definitely is clogged up in AA Ham Lake. But even if we cull through there, we’d still not know whom to promote from Aumsville for best results. Or in other words: among 20 infielders between Ham Lake and Aumsville, only one is OPS’ing more than .690, and that kid, A 3B/SS Willie Cordero, only has 20 at-bats.