[Westheim]

2046 AMATEUR DRAFT

While the Critters were to open their Indians series on Friday, I had gone off to New York with Pat Degenhardt to select some fresh meat for the minor leagues, and the younger the better, and the better the merrier. There were 110 players on our shortlist of personnel we could actually imagine to work with, and these ten that were on the hotlist (* denoting high school player):

SP Steven Stevenson (13/12/12) * - BNN #4
SP Chad Schultz (11/15/9) *
SP Rich Morrall (12/14/9) – BNN #9
SP Chris Ferguson (11/12/13) – BNN #3
SP Josh Lones (10/10/9) *

C Mike Ater (8/13/13)

3B Bobby Anderson (13/11/12) – BNN #5
1B Nate Ward jr. (10/13/17) – BNN #1

OF/1B Adam Samples (9/8/11) *
LF/RF Matt Cox (9/12/11)

I’d still take Bobby Anderson from the selection, but with nothing but the #21 pick in paw, it was wishing upon a star, and in the end Anderson went at #3 to the … well, Indians. Ah, the baseball gods! Always up to the task of rubbing it right under my pointy black nose and whiskers!!

Ahead of Anderson the Wolves took Chris Ferguson with the #1 pick, with SP Ryan Moore to the Buffos in between. The Capitals and Titans used their top 5 picks to select Chad Schultz and super utility Jason Lettner, respectively, with another third-sacker, Reed Ottinger, going to the Condors at #6. The Loggers took Steven Stevenson after that at #7, Morrall went to the Scorpions at #9, after which a long break in hotlist selections followed, only to end suddenly when the Stars selected Nate Ward jr. with the #17 pick, followed by the Miners taking Matt Cox immediately after.

That left C Mike Ater, lefty Josh Lones, and OF/1B Adam Samples on the hotlist, and the Raccoons went with the latter one. A first-round pick for a catcher with power in the stick seemed like a good offer, but Ater wasn’t exactly sterling behind the plate, and Lones was rather dismissively treated by other sources, including OSA, and even our own head scout. OSA f.e. gave Samples two thumbs up for power potential, and I was a sucker for power potential. Actual power would be even better – but he looked like a well-rounded deal, except for a lack of speed.

Nobody drafted a catcher in the first round proper, it turned out, and Ater also remained the last guy undrafted from our hotlist, with Lones falling to Sacramento with the #28 pick. Ater ended up going to the Stars with the #33 pick.

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2046 PORTLAND RACCOONS DRAFT CLASS

Round 1 (#21) – OF/1B Adam Samples, 18, from Santa Ana, CA – lefty hitter with a keen eye and some say tremendous power potential that can play a solid corner outfield with a strong throwing arm. The only thing really absent would be speed, but he wasn’t an obvious double play menace either.
Round 2 (#62) – INF Chris Sowards, 18, from Charlotte, NC – high contact potential but no power in this kid, who instead comes with some speed and good range and a thunderous throwing arm on the infield, and could make for a really good defensive third baseman
Round 3 (#86) – SP Matt Dixon, 21, from Woonsocket, RI – right-hander throwing a 92mph fastball with a curve and a change, but needs to work on both keeping the ball in the park and out of the batter’s uniform…
Round 4 (#110) – LF Trevor Gillespie, 17, from Toronto, Canada – this one was on the scout, who really rates his contact and plate discipline highly, in addition to good speed and decent defense, even though his high school stats don’t show anything special.
Round 5 (#134) – 2B/SS Loren Decker, 18, from Langley, Canada – imagine a totally stereotypical second baseman. That’s the best case scenario for Loren Decker.
Round 6 (#158) – MR Reynaldo Soto, 20, from San Juan, Puerto Rico – there wasn’t anything special to the 90mph fastball on this left-hander … but the curveball was a sight to behold! Big control problems, though.
Round 7 (#182) – SP Jim Larson, 19, from Bellaire, TX – right-hander, throws 89, but is soul-searching for a third pitch, and a guide to the fringes of the strike zone.
Round 8 (#206) – C Matt Gross, 22, from Syracuse, NY – slow-running catcher, decent work behind the dish, and even a hint of power potential… and of a foul mouth.
Round 9 (#230) – 1B Kent Walrath, 21, from Shelby, MI – not much of a defender, and certainly not a runner, this guy seems to have bigger potential as a walker than as a batter.
Round 10 (#254) – SP Vinny Ellis, 18, from Tallmadge, OH – left-hander with a flyball tendency on both his 87mph fastball and his curve, which is all that he throws besides tantrums when the batter has hit another one out.
Round 11 (#278) – SP Xavier Brown, 18, from Federal Way, WA – just over 50 years ago, the Raccoons had decent results with drafting a guy named Brown in the 11th round – and that is most of what this specimen, an 86mph groundballer, has going for him.
Round 12 (#302) – 3B/SS Danny Rodriguez, 18, from Vieques, Puerto Rico – speedy, far-ranging infielder with no apparent qualification as a hitter, now or in the future.
Round 13 (#326) – SP Andy Morgan, 18, from Fresno, CA – righty, throws 86 with a slider and changeup as a complement, and is also lazy as heck.

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So that was the crop. Normally there’d be a big release orgy now as well, but the Raccoons were sort of thin in the upper minors with a rash of injuries, and only 27 players left on both the AAA and AA teams.

In single-A though we culled a number of players, most of them having been resident there for a number of years without producing anything worthwhile, except maybe the paper trail. These included pitchers Israel Chavez (2042 July IFA signing), Dustin Ramsey (2045, 13th Round), Hiroshi Arai (2043, 13th Round), and also position players INF Daniel Castro (2040 July IFA signing), 2B/RF Oscar Jennings (2044, 12th Round), LF/1B/RF Jaime Sanchez (2042 July IFA signing), and RF/LF Daniel Wright (2043, 3rd Round, oy!).

The IFA players had cost under $60k combined, but axing a third-rounder without him getting out of single-A sort of stung.