[Westheim]

2065 DRAFT POOL ANALYSIS

The draft was still almost a month away, but the Raccoons were already preparing to take in a good haul with their selections, which included the 19th pick in every mound, a supplemental round pick, and the eighth pick in the second round, the latter two parts of compensation for the loss of Tyler Riddle – and what could Tyler Riddle have done to fix the current roster mess?

The Raccoons put 132 players on the annual shortlist, and of those there was of course a dozen or so players on the annual hotlist for the most interesting young talent in the country (*high school player):

SP Brian Jones (14/13/13) * – BNN #2
SP Eric Stengel (13/12/13)
SP Eric Langan (13/12/12) – BNN #3
SP Jeremy King (12/12/9) * – BNN #5

CL Matt Guadagno (19/13/12)
CL Josh Carrington (17/13/11)

C Chris Willhite (9/14/17)

INF/CF/RF John Katzman (14/12/17)
SS/3B Phil Townsend (14/15/9) – BNN #6

OF Jake Ward (14/13/11) – BNN #1
LF/1B/RF Miguel Sandoval (10/15/8) * – BNN #7
OF Josh Phelps (10/14/12) – BNN #9
OF/SS Dan Moore (14/12/10)

Kind of surprised that John Katzman was not on the BNN list of top prospects. The right-handed better was also widely praised by OSA, and looked like a total monster in the #3 slot, hitting for average, power, and drawing lots of walks. He also had some speed, enough to steal 20 bags for sure, and while his defense was probably not enough to merit Gold Gloves galore, he wasn’t going to embarrass himself or his team in the field.

Of course, with the #19 pick you didn’t have to harbor major hopes to get that right-handed bat into your fold.