[Westheim]

The draft takes place on Tuesday in the upcoming week, and I’ll just slip it in here after the opener of the Critters-Wolves series. That week will be posted tomorrow.

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2066 AMATEUR DRAFT

Thankfully I could escape the depressing duel of two teams in last place in runs scored in their league that was going on in Oregon and head to New York for the annual draft with actual designs on drafting a two-way player with the #5 pick. Because why fail once with a #5 pick if you can fail TWICE with it!?

The annual hotlist contained only two such multi-talented players, and only one that was really efficient on defense, although you could always hide Steve Dunn at first base, perhaps. It was worth a try? (*denotes high school player; ^two-way player):

SP^ Steve Dunn (12/13/13) *
SP Jasper Madsen (13/11/10) *
SP/OF^ Chris Rawlins (13/12/10 // 11/16/9)
SP T.J. Herbert (11/14/10)
SP Bill Logalbo (14/14/10)

CL David Wright (16/13/15)

C Ken Flaminio (10/10/15) *

1B Danny Huckaby (11/14/14) *

LF/RF/1B Mike Eggert (12/9/14)
OF Jack Hamel (10/13/11) *

Barring Dunn or Rawlins I wouldn’t be entirely mad to draft a position player with power potential. The good news were that there were enough such players on offer that the Raccoons would at least get *something*.

Leading off the draft, however, were the Wolves. They went with a pitcher, but selected Bill Logalbo. The Indians, however, right away dug into my preferred players and drafted Chris Rawlins with the #2 pick, and right after that Steve Dunn went #3 to the Capitals. (sigh!) FINE. No two-way fun for the Raccoons…!! (looks like a moping little girl, arms crossed in front of his fuzzy chest)

Since the Miners used their #4 pick on not-hotlisted pitcher Jimmy Cockrum (yes, actually), the Raccoons still had plenty of power bats on offer. It was really between Huckaby and Hamel here, and the Coons ended up opting for the more versatile defensive option with Canada’s Jack Hamel, who besides being the stud on the baseball team had also delivered a graduation speech and had been voted most popular boy in town every year since his family moved to California from Manitoba. This time nothing could go wrong with our top pick!

The Gold Sox helped themselves to another pitcher in Jasper Madsen with the #6 pick, before Ken Flaminio went #7 to the Aces. T.J. Herbert was made the #8 pick by the Buffos. After that a few picks passed, but then the Pacifics took David Wright with the #13 pick, while Mike Eggert fell all the way to the #22 selection, made by the Crusaders. That still left Danny Huckaby, who fell all the way into the second-round proper and into the Raccoons’ paws. That should be reason for concern, but when has it ever stopped me? Hot potatoes are delicious.

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2066 PORTLAND RACCOONS DRAFT CLASS

Round 1 (#5) – OF Jack Hamel, 19, from McCreary, Canada – can play all three outfield positions and can also hit the ball over any fence in addition to good contact potential and some speed. Also a natural leader keeping his team in order.
Round 2 (#47) – 1B Danny Huckaby, 17, from Indian Hill, OH – not a defensive expert, but he can wait out the garbage until he gets a fat one to thunder across thee entire ballpark, and that sort of left-handed power should be able to play at all times.
Round 3 (#71) – SP Matt Burgan, 22, from Huntsville, AL – spoiled only-child, but with a 98mph heater and at least two workable side offerings, a slider and a forkball; and we’re not above fostering right-handed power pitchers with an attitude…
Round 4 (#95) – CL Tom Michael, 20, from Prairie Village, KS – right-hander with three promising pitches including a 94mph heater, but unfortunately not enough stamina to be an efficient starter; also has two given names and maybe that can additionally confuse batters…
Round 5 (#119) – C/1B Bobby Kymer, 19, from Las Vegas, NV – a singles-slapping catcher with ordinary defense and a good head on his shoulder; he could actually hit for a high batting average and be valuable in that regard
Round 6 (#143) – INF/LF Frank Ruggerio, 21, from Victorville, CA – Gold Glove level of defense at three infield positions and considerable speed on the base paths, but he doesn’t really hit for a lot
Round 7 (#167) – OF Charlie Langohr, 18, from New York, NY – smoking outfielder that so far still has great speed and a good eye at the plate; his surname means “long ear” in German, whatever that can be worth on the field…
Round 8 (#191) – CL Dave Drake, 21, from Plantation, FL – right-hander with a fastball/slider combo and serious control issues
Round 9 (#215) – 3B Nate Jones, 18, from Plano, TX – our scouting department says he’ll hit for power, a stance with which they’re pretty much alone in the league
Round 10 (#239) – MR Zach Clemens, 20, from Naples, TX – in the draft as an infielder, but he actually throws a nifty slider we want to see more of, so he’ll be turned into a righty reliever
Round 11 (#263) – SP James Swink, 18, from San Diego, CA – this year’s mandatory left-hander is a starter with an 86mph fastball and a complementary curve and changeup; no there was not a lot on offer in terms of left arms anymore
Round 12 (#287) – 2B Jonathan Maxey, 20, from Philadelphia, PA – left-handed hitting second baseman with next to no throwing arm so that he has to carry the ball to first base, and no speed, either; also lazy.
Round 13 (#311) – LF/RF Josh Koths, 18, from Lewisville, TX – some guy that sat next to our scout swore on the Bible that his brother-in-law once saw Koths’ father hit a ball 450 feet, and he’s gotta have at least half those genes, right?

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All picks were assigned to single-A Aumsville, except for Burgan, who went straight to Ham Lake.

For novelty, not a single pitcher was disposed of from the minors at this point, since there were a total of nine pitchers on the various DL’s and some of them were not going to come back any time soon. We did cull position players, though, and some of them were even known by name.

Jonathan Parfet (2064, 12th round) was hitting nothing as catcher in Aumsville and was let go, as was the 12th-rounder preceding him, 3B Casey Pederson. Last year’s last-rounder INF Brian Poppe was for some reason getting a lot of playing time in Aumsville, hitting .171 in 112 games since being drafted 12 months ago, and I was gonna put an end to those shenanigans. 1B Bob Scarce (2064, 7th round) was scarcely hitting in single-A as well and was made redundant.

For outfielders we split ways with Puerto Rican outfielder Jorge Moreno, who was 29 and hitting nothing in AAA. He had two cups of coffee with the Critters, batting .212 with 9 RBI across 59 games; also the odd scouting discovery here and there.

As another notable move we promoted 17-year-old SP Crispino D’Urso from the international complex to Aumsville. He had been signed for $590k last July as international free agent and looked like he was on the fast track up the ladder.