This is the first major opportunity to acquire some young talent to develop through my farm system. As one of the two expansion teams, I have the first overall pick in each round of the draft.
I will use my custom spreadsheet to evaluate players in the draft pool more comprehensively than their overall rating or custom filters. Below is what the top 25 players in the draft pool look like.
Round 1, Pick 1
The top players appear to be fairly balanced with several highly rated prospects. It was an easy decision to pick SS Danny Flores (20, college) with the first overall pick. He has incredible potential with the bat and could be an average or slightly below average shortstop. His $6 million demand is 2/3 of my budget for signing picks, but he should be worth it. His player summary reads: "The kind of player you could build a franchise around. Superstar potential."
Round 2, Pick 1
As much as I wanted to add a pitcher, CF Freddie Robson (17, high school) showed too much batting potential to pass up. One caution on Robson is that my scout is higher on him than OOTP. Like Flores, he will likely be average defensively in center field and could be moved off to a corner. His player summary reads: "Consensus premium talent. This guy should go places."
Round 3, Pick 1
At this point, I feel I have two plus potential hitters, but the pitching quality is not very enticing to me among the remaining available players. I decided to pick SS Jon Chris (19, high school). I expect he will stick at shortstop and he has the profile of a high average, no walks, and very little power hitter.
Round 4, Pick 1
I'm not sure if I've ever taken batters with each of my first four picks before, but that is the case here as 3B Cole Philhower (21, college) is the top player on my board. As he has an impossible demand, it is likely he would be drafted in the next two rounds. His player summary reads: "Has superstar potential, but there are enough flaws in his game that he probably won't quite get there." After drafting him, I feel lucky that his demand is only $270,000.
Round 5, Pick 1
Really feeling the need to get a pitcher now, I found SP Josh Carnes (18, high school), another impossible demand player. While my scout rates him highly with a potential repertoire of three plus pitches, his control is all projection at this point and his OOTP control potential is only 2. This is the epitome of a high risk, high reward high school arm. After signing him, his demand is $2.4 million. This will push me just beyond my $9 million budget.
Rounds 6,7,8; Picks 1
CF Bob York (19, high school) already has some position flexibility between middle infield and outfield. He is average across the board offensively with plus speed and defense.
SS Josh Young (22, college) can play all across the infield and projects average across the board offensively with plus defense and speed.
CF Nick Schwartz (18, high school) can play all three outfield positions with above average defense. He profiles similar to Chris, my third round pick as a high average, little power, and no walk style hitter. He also has plus speed.
Draft recap:
Overall, I am happy with how the draft went and am very excited about all the offensive talent joining my organization. While I might feel a little better with more pitching upside, the results fit my preference to pick for who I think is the best talent available (though not necessarily the top player on my draft board) rather than for position. Additionally, even though I leaned more towards younger players, several of them already have solid current ratings.
As I start to include prospects in more of my updates you can expect to hear more on the progression of these players in particular.
Next, we will see if the Expos are able to rebound from their very poor showing in May...