[Westheim]

2060 AMATEUR DRAFT

After a Monday off day, the boys played in Nashville on Tuesday, but I took my little brown suitcase and Honeypaws and head scout “Banjo” and buggered over to New York for the annual draft, for which the Raccoons had prepared a shortlist with 122 names, and a hotlist with a round dozen names of young players that we wanted to dig the claws into.

Here’s the hotlist with the dozen-or-so most promising talents again (* high school player):

SP Jeff Applegate (14/12/11) – BNN #3
SP Gabriel Rios (13/13/9)* – BNN #5
SP Nate Nilson (11/14/12) – BNN #2
SP Melvin Lebron (11/13/10)*

CL/C Case Hayden (14/16/11)
CL Joe Toth (18/13/9)

C Ryan Marty (20/17/10)* – BNN #7
C Steve Varner (14/10/8)*

INF Adam Yocum (17/1/7)*

OF Jonathan Merrill (14/5/10) – BNN #1
LF/RF/1B John Bentley (10/11/10)
OF Nate Marazzo (10/11/10) – BNN #8

Picking 19th in every round of course meant that we were by no means guaranteed a selection from this list. As the ********* team of 2059, the Cyclones had the first selections and went straight for Ryan Marty, which was sort of predictable, but Adam Yocum going as high as #2 to the Stars was a bit more surprising. The Loggers took Jonathan Merrill with the #3 pick. Steve Varner was the #4 pick by the Elks, and it just kept going with Nate Marazzo going #5 to the Aces. The Blue Sox’ #6 pick was the first one off the hotlist, as they took C Tommy Guitreau, which, yes, made for three catchers going inside the first six picks.

No pitcher was selected until the Indians took Gabriel Rios with the *eighth* selection, which looked somewhat unique in the history of the draft. Double trouble Case Hayden went to the Wolves at #10, followed by the Gold Sox’ #11 turning out to be Nate Nilson, and the Caps’ #12 pick being Jeff Applegate. At that point we had just three hot boys left and still six teams picking ahead of us – five of which did not select off the hotlist, but the Pacifics couldn’t help themselves and snatched Melvin Lebron away from under our pokey black wet sniffy nose with their #18 pick.

That left lefty closer Joe Toth and corner guy John Bentley, not the easiest comparison; it was always easier picking one of two pitchers or one of two batters. I also like to complain a lot. If Toth had had a few more pips in control, I probably would have gone that way, but since “Banjo” and OSA were relatively even on their wildness assumption, I swerved over to the potential everyday player, and totally not because the Brooklynite Benton was something I could snatch away from under the nose of the Crusaders, in smelling distance of whose ballpark he had grown up in.

Toth wound up taken at #24 by the Buffaloes and the hotlist could be put aside. Annoyingly we also didn’t get the knuckleballer Kevin Butte, who was also snatched by the Capitals at #28.

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2060 PORTLAND RACCOONS DRAFT CLASS

Round 1 (#19) – LF/RF/1B John Bentley, 20, from Brooklyn, NY – looks like a solid left-handed bat with good contact, power, and patience at the plate, but not much going on in terms of speed, and his range wasn’t overwhelming in the field.
Round 2 (#59) – SS Jonathan LaGreca, 21, from Wichita, KS – adept defensive shortstop with a killer arm that might be even better suited at third base and a singles/OBP bat that probably allowed more for occasional power, but he could also steal a dozen bases or two.
Round 3 (#83) – C Tom Johnson, 18, from Whitehall, OH – ordinary catcher with ordinary potential in all the ordinarily important categories for catchers.
Round 4 (#107) – SP Tony Shadwick, 18, from Bethesda, MD – left-hander with a nice slider and an 88mph fastball that can still fill out a bit; of concern are the rudimentary changeup and the low stamina.
Round 5 (#131) – SP Matt Schmieder, 18, from Tuscaloosa, AL – right-hander throwing 90 and mostly dead straight, but with a neat curveball and a lot of stamina; second pitcher in a row we drafted with a rather rudimentary changeup for a third pitch
Round 6 (#155) – CL Trevor Seitz, 22, from Greenville, MS – left-hander with a nice curve and throwing 88 and also mostly dead straight, but at least he had no plans to ever throw a chummy changeup…!
Round 7 (#179) – OF Marquise Early, 19, from Shreveport, LA – taking this right-handed outfielder with enough laziness to wait out ball four twice over, but neither speed nor power, in an attempt to pack all the Deep South states into a single draft
Round 8 (#203) – CL Tim Morris, 20, from Atlanta, GA – “Banjo” was very much confused by this selection of a right-hander with a cutter/slider combo and no command to speak of, but I had my paws in the Deep South cookie jar now
Round 9 (#227) – CL Mike Wind, 21, from Tallahassee, FL – actually throws three pitches, primarily a 90mph heater and a changeup, but has very low stamina and can’t competently start games; he can keep painting the map though
Round 10 (#251) – 2B Chase Schmitt, 21, from Roaming Shores, OH – light-hitting second-sacker with good defense and quite a bit of speed that would be more useful if he ever got on base, ever
Round 11 (#275) – SP Scott Covert, 20, from Houston, TX – this southpaw fit just too perfectly into all the boxes that needed ticking as a Nick Brown Memorial pick and also a Deep South kid; oh yes, he was throwing 88 and had a slider and a please-spare-me-this changeup, like everybody else these days…


…and then, with the #293 pick, the Bayhawks drafted C John Larsen, which made the entire house of cards collapse into itself. Larsen was the last player from South Carolina left in the pool. Once again, my life’s work – in ruins!!

Round 12 (#299) – LF/RF Josh Allison, 21, from Copiague, NY – had some pretty interesting ratings in his scouting report for a contact/OBP bat, and also at least three red stickers that he was the laziest piece of **** in the entire draft pool. But nothing mattered at this point, so why not…
Round 13 (#323) – [2B] Andy Marullo, 19, from San Antonio, TX – entered in the draft as a second-sacker, but with rather shoddy infielder ratings. He was however throwing 93 and fooling around with a slider, so we’d convert him into a right-handed reliever.

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All draft picks were assigned to Aumsville. Purges were taking place at the same time, with undoubtedly the oldest victim being 35-year-old catcher Deshawn Beard trying to hang on with the Alley Cats after playing 17 games with the Coons in 2059.

Other position players sent home included: INF Logan Sexton (2054, 7th round), who had been briefly in AAA last year, but was now back in Ham Lake and doing nothing of note as a 25-year-old; LF/RF Cody Friedman (2056, 13th round), who had clearly hit a wall batting .136 in Ham Lake; INF Dan Roberts (2058, 12th round), consistently pushing a low .500s OPS in Aumsville;

Among pitchers, we released – among others – Jason Slayton (2056, 5th round), stuck in Ham Lake with terrible control and almost 25 years old; Josh Wittrock (2059, 9th round), walking absolutely everybody in Aumsville and going on 23;