[Westheim]

2026 AMATEUR DRAFT

The ABL insisted on holding a draft the Monday after our little world had all but collapsed. The world is cold, and unloving. Nobody loves me, anyway. No Raccoon anyway, and definitely no Elk.

Chad, stop wiggling that dastardly disgusting Elk toy thing or I will take your arms clean off.

The Raccoons had the #16 pick in every round in the draft, but no extra picks due to their prolonged stretch of not having any high profile free agents, which might have its roots in every good player coming to Portland to die, but let's not get any deeper into the mysteries of the universe right now, and straight to pickings. There was still this hotlist to mull over:

PORTLAND RACCOONS HOTLIST (*indicates HS player)

SP Brandon Nickerson (12/14/9) – BNN #4
SP Justin Osterloh (12/13/13) – BNN #1
SP Sean Fowler (12/13/12)
SP Steve Younts (13/12/12)
SP Dale Mazie (12/13/10) – BNN #8
SP Jamie O'Leary (11/13/13)

SP* Chris Henry (13/12/13) *
SP* Nate Burleigh (11/16/13) *

CL Andy Hyden (19/14/7)

INF/CF Jose Cruz (14/7/13) * - BNN #9

RF/LF Mike Plunkett (9/12/13)
OF Billy Jennings (9/10/12)

As we had established earlier, there weren't many really promising position player types in the pool and there were many promising pitching selections instead. The Raccoons were rather certain to pick a pitcher in the first round, given that the nine above were far from the only interesting options. There was almost another dozen that I would happily take with no questions asked.

The Baybirds had the first pick in the 2026 draft thanks to their rotten previous season and selected the most interesting position player right away, taking Jose Cruz with the #1 pick. The Blue Sox selected Sean Fowler, the Falcons took Nate Burleigh, the Rebels picked Brandon Nickerson, and the Stars made it five with the choice of Justin Osterloh. Not that the other teams were done with dismantling our hotlist at this point; the Wolves took the #6 pick to take Steve Younts. On it went: Mike Plunkett to the Indians at #7, Dale Mazie to the Warriors at #8, and only the Knights selected somebody not on the hotlist with the #9 pick, taking SP Bob McClung.

The hotlist was reduced further when the Cyclones took Andy Hyden at #13, leaving only three players by the time the Coons got to make their selection. With doubts about the value of Chris Henry as a starting pitcher due to the utter lack of a third pitch, and Billy Jennings looking a lot like one of those Chris Beairsto types with 16 homers and a .216 average, the Raccoons almost defaulted to Jamie O'Leary. Hey, he's a lefty! Lefties are good.

Chris Henry went #23 to the Scorpions, and Billy Jennings dropped to the supplemental round, taken #29 by the Knights. That cleaned the hotlist long before the Raccoons got another pick; when their time rolled around again, Miguel Carrasco was quick to pick out a quirky second baseman from Illinois who didn't have the best numbers in high school, but who he thought had huge room for growth.

After that we always found an easy pick to make, too. It was easily the least controversial draft for us in a long time. The exception was maybe the fourth round when there were about four pitchers Carrasco ranked similarly. In that case, the OSA reports broke the near-tie in favor of our pick Guttormson.* The shortlist emptied over time, with the last batter taken off the shortlist being OF Jared Parker to the Cyclones with the #207 pick, while we emptied the pitching side of the shortlist ourselves with our 10th round pick.

2026 PORTLAND RACCOONS DRAFT CLASS

Round 1 (#16) – SP Jamie O'Leary, 22, from Aurora, CO – southpaw with strong control and a groundball tendency; good mix of pitches with a cutter, changeup, and forkball to keep hitters off balance.
Round 2 (#58) – 2B George Burke, 17, from Oak Brook, IL – great range for a middle infielder and a solid contact bat; with room to grow he is expected to add some pop, and he also has good speed to swipe bases in the double digits.
Round 3 (#82) – OF/2B/1B Dillon Barkley, 19, from Livermore, CA – could be a well-ranged, quick corner outfielder with a murderous throwing arm if only he could find power in his bat; should bat for contact and avoid K's alright…
Round 4 (#106) – SP Pat Guttormson, 21, from Potomac, MD – 91mph cutter, curve, and circle change for a fairly decent arsenal, but there is somewhat of a flyball tendency to him
Round 5 (#130) – CL Nick Bates, 20, from Long Beach, CA – California surfer boy that is right-handed and can't really locate the 94mph heater. Nasty slider, though.
Round 6 (#154) – RF/LF Bobby Houston, 17, from Seattle, WA – a bit of a wild pick here, because he is not really showing power, but our scouts think he has it in him; also really not much of a defender – hit the ball right at him for extra base glory.
Round 7 (#178) – INF Marco Diaz, 20, from Bayamón, Puerto Rico – let-handed batter and strong defender with good speed, no power, and he probably needs glasses, too…
Round 8 (#202) – C Ryan Clark, 22, from the Bronx, NY – intelligent and knows how and where to touch pitchers to get the best out of them; unfortunately he can't hit a lick.
Round 9 (#226) – SP/MR Brett Morgan, 20, from Lafayette, IN – righty throwing 93, with a curve and a splitter and decent stamina; could be a starter or a reliever, but given his lack of control over any of those pitchers he will probably toss batting practice in independent ball before he's 30…
Round 10 (#250) – MR Mike Joy, 20, from Middletown, NY – right-hander with little stamina and even less control
Round 11 (#274) – MR Jason Gurney, 21, from Yale, OK – this year's obligatory left-hander in the 11th round can pitch all day, and maybe he will find the zone at some point even; 90mph fastball, and he has a slider, too
Round 12 (#298) – OF John Richard, 20, from Clinton, CT – here we asked ourselves who of the remainders liked to aim for the fence. Well, Richard aims. That doesn't mean he gets it there.
Round 13 (#322) – 2B/SS Bob Bayer, 18, from Dayton, TN – mediocre in all aspects even my rural high school standards

Jamie O'Leary was assigned to Ham Lake right away; the remaining players started the professional careers with single-A Aumsville.

We also released a handful of players, including a few that were notable largely for being peculiar picks, including Nick Brown Memorial Pick Joe Ashe (2022), who was running up a 9.49 ERA in Ham Lake shortly before turning 25 and wouldn't ever figure out where the zone was in his lifetime. The same was true for 27-year-old Josh Hill, our 2020 fifth-rounder in St. Petersburg.

Also gone were 2022 eighth-rounder OF Scott Bahl, last year's eighth-rounder MR Jimmy Powell, and 2022 amd 2023 runts of the litter (13th rounders), MR's Steve Lehman and Nick Brill, as well as a few international players that had been in the blazing spotlight of the lower rounds of the amateur draft. All of those had been in Aumsville and way past their bedtime.

Speaking of Aumsville – the Beagles have a 14-43 record at this point. They are wholly gruesome.

Including the DL's, we have 124 players in the professional part of the system and some two dozen in the international complex.

*The Loggers would then jump in a swipe up another one of those pitchers (in fact all three were taken before our next pick came up) who I would have sworn had entered under a fake name, but apparently he is indeed named John DePasse. It is not a porn name, I am being told. Maud insists.