[Westheim]

2012 DRAFT POOL PREVIEW

The draft is only a few days away, so it’s time to throw an eye (better two) on the draft pool to see what’s in store for the Raccoons, who will have the #18 pick, but no supplemental round picks and will not come up again until #68 after that.

The 2012 draft is going to have a very peculiar mix, with a lot of things in short supply. One thing are catchers, of which we could find only two decent specimen (and Greg Elliott below is not included, he’s clumsy as heck, but he has some gear, apparently), and infielders are also underrepresented. A few stereotype first basemen, a few stereotype shortstops, yeah, but no immediately identifiable future star third baseman or so. (Still grumpy about losing out on now-almost-22-years-old Travis Bahner last year, who has a .837 OPS for Riverside, the Miners’ AA team)

What’s plenty in supply are highly rated pitchers (of which we have omitted those with routinely low pitch counts and little stamina on the Hotlist), and powerful corner outfielders, but if you’re looking for a centerfielder, you’re again out of luck. The 2012 draft – a draft of brutes. Also a draft of high schoolers, as almost all of our preferred picks are high school players.

The famous Hotlist (Players with * are in High School):

SP John Blankenship (13/11/15) *
SP Matt Gossen (14/12/9) *
SP Kyle Wiliams (11/12/9) *
SP Troy McCaskill (11/14/14)
SP Brian Leser (11/13/16) *
SP Josh Laraby (13/15/10) *
SP Jeff Magnotta (12/11/16) *

1B/C Greg Elliott (9/12/13)
1B Ryan Muse (9/13/12)
INF/LF Steve Dykstra (10/7/12)

RF/LF Nate Ellis (11/13/8) *
LF/RF Preston Asbridge (9/12/9)
RF/LF/1B Miles Greene (10/12/10)
RF/LF Brian Skinner (12/10/11) *
OF/1B Jose Avila (12/13/11) *
LF/RF Andrew Cooper (10/12/14) *
LF/1B/RF Tom Brown (10/14/12) *

Getting the first choice, I might pick Blankenship, a slight right-hander with the ability to hit a fly in the eye with his slider, also a groundballer. The chance for him to stick around until #18 however are about minus seven percent…