[Westheim]

2055 AMATEUR DRAFT

While the Raccoons were busy in Colorado, I had to make the trip to New York with head scout Eric Hartwig, who grumbled that the trip wasn’t worth it all the way across three time zones, for the annual draft. The Raccoons came armed with the #21 and #38 picks, which wasn’t much, but I also liked the shiny new ring the team had won last year, so I pretended I was fine with not being able to make a selection (probably!) from our annual 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) *

The first pick was with the Condors, who went with outfielder Chad Cardwell at #1. With Austin Gordon going #2 to the Blue Sox, we could already crumble up the sheet with the hotlist outfielder and toss that at the damn Elks’ GM’s head, then point at some sod on the other side of the room. #3 was Steve Anderson, taken by the Cyclones. Matt Kilday to the Indians and Mike Bell to the Titans completed the top 5. The Buffos took Miguel Romero at #6, and the other teams hadn’t missed one off our hotlist yet.

The Bayhawks did, drafting Patrick Zehe at #7, but then it was Ben Stine to the Aces at #8. The Caps selected Tyler Chilcott at #12, and Rebels picked up Jason Turner with their #18 pick – no relation to the old Coons starting pitcher Jason Turner from the 80s/90s, by the way.

Two remained: SP Alfonso Calderon and CL Adam Harris. Now, Harris looked like a bullpen beast in the making. Left-handed groundballer with a cutter and forkball, intelligent, charming, what was there not to like? A future major leaguer for sure, at the back end of somebody’s pen. The sole question here was whether we thought we’d get more out of Calderon, a right-hander sporting four pitches, but none really dominant, and at 22 his control was still an issue. OSA’s scouting report looked a bit better than ours (13/14/12), but while Harris was charming and intelligent, Calderon answered interview questions in three-word sentences and looked annoyed while doing so. Probably not affecting his pitchcraft negatively, but… well, Hartwig hated him, but Hartwig hated everybody. Nevertheless, the Raccoons threw their first-round pick at the sure thing this time and drafted Harris.

The Pacifics were delighted about our selection there, taking Calderon with the very next pick, #22, and that was it for the annual hotlist. Only down to the shortlist now, which had a whopping 136 players on it regardless.

The Coons were trying to stay away from infielders for the most part in this draft, because there was already a glut of them still stuck at Aumsville, but I also had a hard time making up my mind which of them to cull. Not more than one infielder in any case for us. This would be with an asterisk, because we did pick up that two-way guy Armando Suriel in the fifth round, and his basic position was third base, but he could also be converted to a reliever. But I wouldn’t go out of my way to pick another infielder from there on forwards.

Towards the late innings I got a bit antsy, because for a while it seemed like we’d run out of left-handed pitchers to take in the 11th round, the traditional Nick Brown Memorial Pick. In the end, only *two* southpaws remained on the draft board when our #289 pick rolled around, and they both looked like future dog food. But traditions are traditions, and we got into this situation in the first place by drafting a pitcher charitably described as “lefty with a slider” 60 years ago precisely.

It got weirder from there; by our round 12 pick, there were only three pitchers of *any* description left in the draft class, all of them infielders that were also side-hustling in pitching. The Scorpions took one of them (Brad Koski) with the #332 pick, but the other two would remain on the board.

2055 PORTLAND RACCOONS DRAFT CLASS

Round 1 (#21) – CL Adam Harris, 21, from Escondido, CA – left-handed groundballer with a 94mph cutter and a darting forkball, he looks like a sure thing to make it to the end of a major league bullpen soon.
Supp. Round (#38) – SP John Marshell, 18, from Palmdale, CA – left-handed starter with four pitches, who also keeps things on the ground; bit low on the stamina side, but otherwise looks highly promising
Round 2 (#73) – LF/RF Tyler McGovern, 18, from New York, NY – looks like a switch-hitting on-base pest with power, though not much speed, nor range in the outfield, so very much looks like a defensive liability in the making
Round 3 (#97) – C/1B Corey Crawford, 20, from Pekin, IL – above-average defensive catcher with a balanced if average hitting profile; works and parties hard.
Round 4 (#121) – SP Curt Therien, 21, from Surrey, BC, Canada – left-hander with four pitches and control issues, which could describe half the average draft class
Round 5 (#145) – 3B/RF/1B/MR Armando Suriel, 20, from Camden, ME – if he can hit his way there, he could be a Gold Glove third baseman, but also usable on all the corners; if he can’t hit his way there, he could still make it as a right-handed reliever, throwing 90mph with a fastball/slider combo
Round 6 (#169) – SP Travis Glovinsky, 18, from Rio Grande City, TX – right-hander with two-and-a-half pitches and control problems, but at least we’re only taking him in the sixth round, so he’s not likely to violate my “no more Travises, ever!” rule any time soon.
Round 7 (#193) – SS Randy Paul, 18, from El Paso, TX – entered in the draft as a shortstop, but not given any positional rating by Eric Hartwig, we didn’t see his future there at all; with a murder arm and not much lateral range, he looked more destined for the rightfield job, but unfortunately didn’t possess much power. Good speed. Weird player.
Round 8 (#217) – CL Bryan Erickson, 21, from Manhattan, NY – basic righty with basic 90mph fastball and a curve, low control and even lower stamina
Round 9 (#241) – 1B/LF/RF Jose Aguirre, 17, from San Juan, Puerto Rico – looks basically doomed as a switch-hitting singles slapper with no power whatsoever, being physically limited to power positions; weirdly enough can steal bases, and has bad table manners going for him, so there’s that.
Round 10 (#265) – OF Ben Morris, 17, from Cary, IL – good defender, fast runner, even a good singles hitter, but also no power, and no patience at the plate
Round 11 (#289) – SP Ben Schaar, 22, from Gates-North Gates, NY – southpaw with three pitches, none of them good, and no control to boot
Round 12 (#313) – LF/INF/RF Jon Bean, 20, from Lee, NH – super utility with a singles bat, but not enough of a hitting profile to get anybody’s hopes up for becoming a Swiss Army knife for the major league team
Round 13 (#337) – C/1B Lance Stephens, 19, from Carollton, TX – meek hitter, casual defender, glacially slow runner, but the board was nearly empty, and we weren’t allowed to pass…

+++

Adam Harris was assigned to Ham Lake right away. The rest of the new draft picks were all going to Aumsville.

Of course, with 14 new players also came a number of departures, none of them voluntary. Ignoring the odd scouting discovery and trash heap signing that didn’t make news before and doesn’t have to make news now, the Raccoons culled these players in particular:

For pitchers, Dusty Ferber (2053, 8th Round), Bobby Spisak (2054, 10th Round), and Matt DeFusco (2053, 11th Round) were escorted out. Among position players, we escorted out C/1B Jonathan Rhodes (2049, 4th Round), C/1B Kevin Tissue (2053, 7th Round), INF/RF Todd Stuebe (2052, 7th Round), SS Seth Pavlick (2052, 9th Round), and LF/RF Justin Bartnick (2053, 12th Round).

Most of the removals had still been hanging around the Aumsville Beagles roster, although Rhodes had reached AAA in 2053, but had never hit anything at the level.

We also promoted OF Felix Ayala to Aumsville from the international complex at this point. He had cost $32k in last year’s IFA window, and had made some progress in the complex.