[Westheim]

2069 AMATEUR DRAFT

The Raccoons brought a good set of draft picks, but probably not a lot of a clue in general to this year’s Amateur Draft, but let’s see how much damage we can do to ourselves with three top 50 and six top 100 picks.

As a reminder, this oddly rated bunch was our hotlist for the year (*high school player):

SP Omari Hopwood (12/13/12) *
SP David Brunson (11/13/11) * – BNN #8
SP Gabe Croley (12/12/12) – BNN #7
SP Brent Shaw (14/15/11) * – BNN #10

CL James Bilodeau (19/14/13)

SS Dan Mammen (7/15/15)
1B Justin DiMartino (11/9/12)

OF Mike Pick (10/9/11) – BNN #3
LF/RF Josh Field (11/15/11) * – BNN #6
OF Landon Collins (9/9/10) – BNN #5
RF/LF Isaac Bishop (8/13/14) – BNN #4

The first selection of the draft was the Buffaloes, and they went with the pitcher Brent Shaw, the one with just two-and-a-half pitches. Bless their little hearts. The Gold Sox then made Omari Hopwood the #2 pick, followed by … not a hotlist selection. Infielder Jimmy “Wacko” Williams went to the Aces at #3. The next three were outfielders taken by more CL South teams, as the Condors took Mike Pick, the Falcons selected Landon Collins, and the Baybirds took non-hotlist Brandon Ward.

No further hotlisters were taken until Josh Field went to the Loggers at #10. Dan Mammen followed immediately, to the Blue Sox, and then David Brunson to L.A. at #12. The Miners grabbed Gabe Croley with the #15 pick, and this left the Raccoons to select between the closer James Bilodeau, first-sacker Justin DiMartino, and outfielder Isaac Bishop. We went with the latter one, buying into the power potential and begging the baseball gods that his contact would improve. But I could see Oscar Semchez shaking his head.

Bilodeau went on to be taken by the Capitals with their #24 pick at the end of the first round, but DiMartino fell to the Raccoons in the supplemental round.

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2069 PORTLAND RACCOONS DRAFT CLASS

Round 1 (#18) – RF/LF Isaac Bishop, 21, from Hopewell, VA – left-handed batter with considerable power potential and questionable contact and patience, but, oh! The power! The power!
Supp. Round (#37) – 1B Justin DiMartino, 20, from Baytown, TX – right-handed batter with a balanced and promising contact and power profile, actually some speed, and some defense to show at first base.
Supp. Round (#44) – SP Mike Pavan, 22, from Thousand Oaks, CA – left-hander with four decent-to-good pitches, and pretty good control for a 22-year-old, but his stamina is a bit of a concern
Round 2 (#66) – INF Justin Montgomery, 17, from Mishawaka, IN – perhaps not enough arm power for third base, and not a lot of home run power, but he was agile and fast, and had a keen eye at the plate, maybe one of those quirky middle infielders batting at the top of the order
Round 3 (#90) – SP Kevin Beane, 22, from Sarasota, FL – left-hander throwing 91 and adding a curve and splitter with decent control, but also not with a ton of stamina
Round 4 (#114) – LF/INF Ron Robinson, 18, from Visalia, CA – versatile infielder or leftfielder with a patient approach and a knack and desire to wear the pitcher out; also some speed, but not a lot of power
Round 5 (#138) – SP Omari Campbell, 19, from Baltimore, MD – right-handed groundballer with a 92mph fastball and a sinker, but only a mediocre changeup on top of that
Round 6 (#162) – SP Joe Cameron, 21, from Richmond Hill, Canada – left-hander with four pitches but low stamina, and tell me whether you’ve heard that story recently
Round 7 (#186) – CL Rob Greenfield, 20, from Kyle, TX – right-hander with a good curveball, but little else going for him
Round 8 (#210) – 2B/SS Conner Sepkiechler, 17, from Richmond, Canada – very adept defensive middle infielder with some speed and not a lot of hitting prowess at all
Round 9 (#234) – LF/RF Gates Wooldridge, 19, from Winnipeg, Canada – if you saw him in the field, you’d call him a stick-first corner outfielder, but if you see him at the plate…
Round 10 (#258) – MR Adan Gonzalez, 21, from Guaynabo, Puerto Rico – right-hander with 93mph heater and a slider, and not much in terms of a clue where any of that was going
Round 11 (#282) – MR Aaron Heppe, 22, from Montgomery, AL – the obligatory 11th-round left-hander, also offering a fastball and slider, and nothing in terms of control and clue
Round 12 (#306) – 2B/SS Jamie Schwartz, 18, from Austin, TX – switch-hitting middle infielder, but without power from either side, and without much speed, and the throwing arm was also rather average
Round 13 (#330) – SP Russell Dares, 19, from Toronto, Canada – left-hander tossing 86, and offering a curve that doesn’t curve a lot

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That’s definitely been a draft with too many Canadians. (raises paw) Re-do! (looks on with bewilderment as all the other teams keep packing up and leaving the draft room)

Isaac Biship and Mike Pavan were assigned to AA Ham Lake, while the rest of the crowd went to Aumsville to begin their pro careers.

The Coons then also parted ways with a number of players, starting with left-hander Sean Thomas, long ago signed as minor league free agent, who had seen occasional and disastrous use as reliever in the majors and had posted a career 9.88 ERA in 38 games in Portland. We also cut loose former $310k investment in the July IFA signing period, Australian Glen Vankrimpen, who was in his SIXTH year in Ham Lake, and still couldn’t get a good K/BB value down. Walks, walks, walks! Enough of that. He had once been a #62 prospect. The list also included Mitchell Dougherty (2065, 8th round) and Brian Keener (2068, 13th round).

On the batting side, the organization parted with catcher Bobby Kymer (2066, 5th round), 3B Jake Spakes (2067, 8th round), outfielder Jeremy Simonds (2068, 12th round), and in general hoped for better times…

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There’s a new NASCAR game coming out on PC tomorrow (consoles already got it, with mixed reviews…), and I'm jaded and can't like things anymore, but I'll put some paw prints on it and if I find it tolerable at all, the Raccoons might only resurface on the weekend…