[Westheim]

2024 AMATEUR DRAFT

The beauty of being banned from ever touching Canadian soil again was that I wasn't missing anything while attending the annual Amateur Draft that took place on Saturday.

The Raccoons held the #7 pick in every round of the draft, and were focusing on potential two-way terror Omar Lastrade, a pretty highly rated high school prospect that could both pitch AND hit very well compared to his peers. I already mentioned the Double Omar Boogie I had in mind with him and Alfaro (he's gonna break out, he sure will, he's got to, he's all the hope I have…)

There were plenty of "consolation" prizes around should Omar Lastrade not fall to #7, just like Tim Stackhouse hadn't fallen to #4 last season. But this was the terrible part of having a high pick, but not a high-enough pick… your team sucked all year long, and then you still didn't get the shiniest toy. And I probably need some comforting here… (in a room full of other GMs and scouts slowly pulls Honeypaws from a briefcase and hugs him tightly)

The famous hotlist again (players with * are high school players):

SP Omar Lastrade (P: 13/14/9; H: 13/15/10) * - BNN #4
SP Andy Bressner (13/14/12) * - BNN #3
SP Chris Pyles (15/13/12)
SP George James (11/13/15)
SP Logan Bessey (12/13/14) – BNN #10

CL Bronson Wright (19/11/9)
CL Steve Schwellenbach (12/13/12)

C Tyler Johnson (10/10/12) – BNN #9

3B Jim Allen (13/10/10) * - BNN #1
2B Jonathan Huber (10/8/16)

OF Brian Wojnarowski (12/13/14)
OF Abel Madsen (8/9/11)
OF Nate Nelson (11/11/9) – BNN #7

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The first-overall pick and sullied by the raging shame of having to dress up and pose in an Elks uni and cap was poor Brian Wojnarowski, who had been higher on my list of targets if I had a chance to spell his name at all. He would have needed a funky nickname right away, you know, like "Oatmeal" had been a nickname for Jimmy Eichelkraut, except that Woyra- Wonja- … that Brian could actually hit a baseball from time to time. "Slam" came to mind as a nickname, or "Fudge". You know, the noise bat and ball would make on a grand slam swing in a comic book. Alas, it wasn't meant to be.

The Blue Sox took Jim Allen at #2, while the Miners tore out my heart at #3, selecting Omar Lastrade to suck the last bit of life out of the withering husk that was my body.

The next two picks were starting pitchers, Pyles to the Warriors and Bressner to the Indians, and then Nate Nelson went to the up-Garretted and thus forsaken Falcons, giving the Raccoons the next selection. The remaining hitters from the hotlist all looked like solid bets (partly by their college stats like Madsen, who was not scouted very well by either Carrasco or OSA, but was tearing up DI baseball anyway), but the three most promising players remaining were all pitchers: James, Bessey, and Wright. There was concern about Bessey making his third pitch, the changeup, work well at all in a professional setting, and while Wright had the basic profile of a Ron Thrasher, he wasn't throwing 99, probably limiting his usefulness given his limited control. George James had no control issues, and in fact figured to be more of a control pitcher, probably a groundballer, too. He sat around 91 (though was only 20 years old and still could gain a bit) and had four pitches all working reasonably well. He was a *decent* hitter but not a dual threat like Lastrade would have been. George James was really a no-brainer at this point…

Bessey would go at #8 to the Cyclones, followed by the first player not on the hotlist, SP Travis Green to the Thunder. The Stars took SP Ryan Fossum to round out the #10, while the hotlist would be picked from further down the order by the Bayhawks (Jonathan Huber at #12), Wolves (Tyler Johnson at #13), Gold Sox (Abel Madsen at #18), Scorpions (Bronson Wright at #40), and eventually the damn Elks (Steve Schwellenbach at #42). This emptied the hotlist at the start of the second round, thus denying the Raccoons another selection from there and having to console themselves with also-rans from the shortlist.

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2024 PORTLAND RACCOONS DRAFT CLASS

Round 1 (#7) – SP George James, 20, from Ft. Walton Beach, FL – control pitcher (and decent hitter) with four well-developed pitches. The right-hander throws 91 with room for improvement and according to our staff looks to be built like a sturdy horse with a solid delivery that should make him more durable, too. Probably no serious 200 K threat, but a frontline starter if he can develop all of his stuff.
Round 2 (#48) – SP Trevor Draper, 18, from Calumet Township, MI – left-hander throwing 88mph with a good range of breaking stuff and knowledge how to use it and fool the hitters. Also generates lots of groundballs with the cut fastball.
Round 3 (#72) – 2B/SS Nate Martin, 17, from Indian Hill, OH – curious creature; not exactly an excellent fielder and probably not suited for the left side of the infield at all, and instead hitting for power while still possessing impressive speed.
Round 4 (#96) – SP Rich Gomes, 18, from Grand Prairie, TX – right-hander with a flyball tendency when he hangs his slider over the plate. Throws 89 without much variation in direction.
Round 5 (#120) – SS Steven Standing, 18, from Thornton, CO – his range and cannon at work at short makes you blink; amazing defensive talent, and the good news is that his bat is not entirely hopeless.
Round 6 (#144) – 1B Sean Gustafson, 18, from Bloomington, IL – some power potential, if he ever manages to make contact with the ball, which does not happen often enough even at the high school level…
Round 7 (#168) – OF Ben Wasikowski, 19, from Portage, PA – some contact potential and a keen eye, good defense, good speed, but no power whatsoever; he has to consider himself lucky to even find a gap with a batted ball, but could make for a centerfielder with this makeup.
Round 8 (#192) – CL Luke Scoggins, 21, from Collingswood, NJ – wipeout curveball that is nigh unhittable; the issue is more the complete lack of control on both that and his 89mph heater…
Round 9 (#216) – 2B Sam Cass, 18, from Cutler, FL – taken at the insistence of our head scout, this player at first look offers nothing much, just another bland powerless, above-average defensively second baseman…
Round 10 (#240) – LF/1B/RF William Menchaca, 18, from Schenectady, NY – some power potential, but not much in reliable contact or even defense.
Round 11 (#264) – MR Justin Sherman, 21, from Pensacola, FL – this year's Nick Brown Memorial Pick is a scruffy left-hander with a decent changeup in addition to his 91mph fastball, who unfortunately can't hit a barn from the inside.
Round 12 (#288) – SP Bill O'Toole, 18, from Plymouth, MN – he lobs it at 86, confusing batters as to how he can't throw it any harder, and that is already his main weapon!
Round 13 (#312) – SP Justin Sheehan, 18, from Summerlin South, NV – there is the slightest chance that he will make it with his 86mph fastball and erratic slider… into the press box, after six years spend in futility in the low minors.

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The Raccoons had lofty goals for George James and assigned him to AA to start his professional career. All other players were assigned to single-A Aumsville.

Of course, there was also going to be a round of culling going on after every draft. The most prominent victim was surely Ryan Nielson, clinging on to a dream in AAA at age 31, but pitching to a 6+ ERA for the second straight year. No more of that, Ryan, over there is the door. He had made 68 appearances (46 starts) for the Coons over the years since being drafted in the second round in 2014, pitching to a 14-18 record and 4.45 ERA. He was not the only player on the wrong side of 30 in AAA to go; INF Guillermo Aponte was released as well, batting .141/.218/.197 for the Alley Cats. He was a career .232 batter in the majors in 285 at-bats collected between the Loggers and Raccoons.

Also released, among others, were 2021 Nick Brown Memorial Pick Tommy Burris, who walked the world in the low minors at age 23, an identical diagnosis to right-hander Nelson Verduzco, also 23, who had cost the Coons $122k in the 2018 IFA period but was a complete control wreck and pitching to a 6.43 ERA in Aumsville this year.

Further gone: AA OF Danny Torres, 24, a 2016 IFA signing, Aumsville corner guard Ron Pietsch, 23, a 2019 seventh-rounder, A RF/LF Corey Caraway, 21, a 2021 ninth-rounder, and a few others that were mostly plucked from the jungle and were likely never mentioned here before.

An odd word or two on some other prospects, sterling and otherwise: platinum grade shortstop Alberto Ramos, 18, was promoted to Ham Lake after posting a .750 OPS in Aumsville. This was also in part do remove him from the huge roster in Aumsville and give him regular exercise with the AA team. We'll see whether it's too early entirely.

Our 2022 first-rounder, 3B/SS Butch Gerster, has been promoted to AAA again. Butch is 23, and made a brief appearance in St. Pete last September, batting only .125 when he filled out the roster there. This season he batted .235/.403/.380 in Ham Lake, which is a very odd line for sure and hints at some rotten luck in getting balls to fall in. The sky is probably the limit here. He does have excellent defense and speed, all he needs is hitting…!

There is a scouting discovery from a while back that was promoted to AA. 22-year-old Dominican lefty Felipe Delgado, inked in 2018, had posted a 1.74 ERA in Ham Lake in his ten starts this year, whiffing 9.1 per nine innings. Given that he hadn't been on the radar much for five years after being signed, this is a significant development. While lacking Tonerian vigor on the fastball, this kid has a rich arsenal with a 95mph heater and four different breaking balls.

And anyone remember that curious ninth-round selection we made in 2022, drafting the Colombian switch-hitting centerfielder out of the Jewish New York high school? He's batting .275/.394/.377 in Aumsville now! At 20 years old, it is not too late for Juan Magallanes to become one of those stupid draft miracles.

You know. Like Brownie.