[Westheim]

2055 DRAFT POOL ANALYSIS

We had reached the end of May, which meant that the annual amateur draft was about two weeks away. The Raccoons would have the #21 and #38 picks, and four picks in the top 100 in total.

132 players made the shortlist out of the 360-strong draft pool, with one player in there that we had listed both as a pitcher and position player. And of course, there was also a hotlist (*denotes high school player):

SP Miguel Romero (11/16/11)
SP Alfonso Calderon (11/14/10)
SP Tyler Chilcott (13/12/11)
SP Mike Bell (11/13/14) *

CL Adam Harris (17/12/15)

SS/3B Ben Stine (17/10/7) *
1B/LF/CF/2B Steve Anderson (15/13/15) *
SS/2B Jason Turner (11/13/16) *
INF Matt Kilday (13/1/13) *

OF Chad Cardwell (15/14/16) *
RF/LF Austin Gordon (14/14/7) *

A weird set, with all the position players on the list being high-schoolers, but all but one of the pitchers being in college. Was there much point in musing about them after all? The Raccoons only had the #21 pick (but rings that were still warm, so I wasn’t crying), and while I’d like us a plus-defensive infielder with a .330 stick and some power like Ben Stine, there was no reason in hoping for him to fall to us.

One word should be lost about some oddities; the first being that player we had listed both ways, 3B/RF/1B/MR Armando Suriel, who was a strong defender with a murder arm (duh), but had a rather mediocre stick (switch-hitter, though!). He threw a 90mph heater and a slider, though, which still made him a mediocre righty reliever at best, but you’d get two lottery tickets for the price of one at least.

The other curiosity was a 21-year-old right-hander, Carlos Torres, from Santiago, Chile. Stuff was good, control and stamina not so much, but he had a chance at least to make it to a major league rotation at some point. Maybe not on an overly ambitious team. We had him rated 12/10/8. There’d be worse, say, fourth-round picks to make.

There had been only two Chilean ABL players in history, none in this millenium. The most of a career between those had been had by INF Diego Mendoza, who was a bench player for the Blue Sox between 1986 and 1993, never making it to 300 PA in a season and hitting .283 with just two homers and 86 RBI. The other Chilean on record was an outfielder named Leonardo Hernandez, who made 17 appearances, all of the bench, with the Canadiens from 1980 through 1982, and went 0-for-10 with the stick, and somehow also managed to go 0-for-2 in stolen bases.