[Westheim]

I hate it when the draft falls into the middle of the week. Basically, in three days I haven’t been able to work my around this draft week, and instead of waiting til tomorrow to finish the week’s games, here shall be the draft, which takes place on Tuesday, *after* two games against the Blue Sox.

I know I suck, no need for you to say it.

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2032 AMATEUR DRAFT

The draft began with me resting my head face down on the table, next to my scout. I trusted him to puff me when our spot came up. But I needed a moment with myself.

And here is a repeat of that good ol’ hotlist, though not as hot as we’d like it to be… (* indicates high school player; ^ indicates SP with only two promising pitches):

SP Brandon Williams (13/12/12) * - BNN #4
SP Joe Feltman (12/13/10) – BNN #7

SP^ Damon DeOrio (12/14/12) *
SP^ Tariq Staggers (10/15/12) * - BNN #10

3B/2B Dusty Mahaney (9/10/10)
1B Justin Hatcher (8/11/11)

OF/2B Justin Nelson (10/12/11)
OF Mike Dahl (9/10/9)
OF Ryan Phillips (10/8/16) *

The draft began with the Aces, who had given their best to lose the very most games in 2031 and thus had the first selection. They made that Justin Nelson, who had also been a firm candidate for my first selection, but what did it all matter after all… the next two picks were pitchers, SP Ryan Bedrosian to the Rebels and SP Joe Feltman to the Falcons. The damn Elks then took Ryan Phillips at #4, and with the Blue Sox’ pick of Mike Dahl at #5, all outfielders from the hotlist were gone already.

Pick #6 was 1B Geoff Lark by the Cyclones, which was a bit of a surprise to us given how he not only wasn’t on our hotlist, he wasn’t even on the shortlist …! The same thing happened with the #8 pick, outfielder Jessie Vaughn to the Gold Sox. He also was not even on the shortlist. In between another outfielder, Gary Souza, had been picked by Sacramento, and with that, the Coons were up and I got puffed. Without much hesitation we went straight for Brandon Williams. There was not much not to like about him, and this was an easy pick. (We’ll talk in four or five years about whether it was a good pick, or whether we should have used more than 1% of our five minutes’ allotment on this first-round pick…)

As far as the hotlist was concerned, four players remained on it after our premier selection. Of those, Damon DeOrio was taken #15 by the Indians. The Knights took Tariq Staggers with the next pick after that, but the others were left for our supplemental round pick (compensation for the loss of Rich Hereford). I saw potential for a Matt Nunley sort of player in Dusty Mahaney, so we went there over the one-dimensional Justin Hatcher. Have we EVER drafted a useful first baseman?

Will we this time? Maybe we should have taken it as a sign, but Hatcher remained available until the Raccoons were no deck again. I bet the other 23 teams had found out something that we had missed, like him doing drugs, or drowning kittens in a barrel for enjoyment. But it didn’t help, we didn’t know who else to draft at this point, either…

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2032 PORTLAND RACCOONS DRAFT CLASS

Round 1 (#9) – SP Brandon Williams, 19, from Soledad, CA – left-hander with groundball tendency, a rich mix of pitches and goodish projections for stuff, movement, and control. Hardly anything here that looked like it was working against him. I am sure we can beat the laziness out of him, too.
Supp. Round (#28) – 3B/2B Dusty Mahaney, 20, from Boulder Hill, IL – good defensive third baseman with a contact bat and some power potential. May or may not be a Matt Nunley nostalgia signing.
Round 2 (#50) – 1B Justin Hatcher, 21, from Sanford, ME – stereotypical first baseman’s profile, not fleet of foot, not agile, not a high-average hitter, but with a solid dose of thump.
Round 3 (#74) – OF/2B Cory Cronk, 18, from Jacksonville Beach, FL – quirky, quick, and agile player with a contact bat and good plate discipline, but not so much in terms of power.
Round 4 (#98) – OF Jonathan Bearden, 20, from Washington, DC – good defensive outfielder with a solid contact bat, but not much in terms of power. Can run like all hell though.
Round 5 (#122) – SP Drew Byrd, 19, from Woodhaven, MI – 91mph fastball, sinker, curve, and some serious control woes, but at least he’s still a young right-hander. Stamina is rather low, which is probably also not going to be helped with age.
Round 6 (#146) – MR Sean Shortall, 20, from Dana Point, CA – fastball, slider for this right-hander, who could become much more interesting with a third pitch…
Round 7 (#170) – C Jeremy Larson, 20, from Commack, NY – looking for anything remarkable about this kid, but I can’t find anything except that he might be the slowest catcher in the history of catchers. A dead duck would out-run him to first base. Nice arm behind the plate though, and not a too terrible hitting profile.
Round 8 (#194) – INF Gabe Tyler, 17, from Compton, CA – grew up in sort of a bad corner, which is why he has a good throwing arm and won’t take **** from anybody, including his GM. Not very fast, but can make good contact. Also has lewd tattoos, I hear.
Round 9 (#218) – CL Scott Milano, 21, from Aloha, OR – right-hander with a 92mph fastball and a decent curve, but the heater is also dead straight, and he might maybe make for a closer in Sunday-after-Church League.
Round 10 (#242) – 2B/LF/RF Pete Wallace, 17, from Upper St. Clair, PA – defensively, he is a bit of a horror show; at the plate he is mostly a singles slapper; and in the clubhouse, he shines with a big mouth.
Round 11 (#266) – MR Matt Westberg, 20, from Orinda, CA – this year’s Nick Brown Memorial Pick has a fastball/slider combo, decent stamina, and otherwise he’s rather bland, but then again Nick Brown’s draft report also read “lefty with a slider” and little else.
Round 12 (#290) – 1B Justin Julien, 19, from Long Beach, CA – originally we weren’t going to draft another first baseman, or lazy bum, or California beach boy, but there is some power potential here and we’d like to see a bit of him never hitting a homer in Aumsville…
Round 13 (#314) – SS John Martin, 18, from Picnic Point-North Lynnwood, WA – his birthplace is a mouthful, and he’s a bit of a woodchuck at short, too; but he has also pitched for his high school team and we’ll try to turn him into a right-handed pitcher; throws a cutter and a curve, with control the most glaring deficit right now.

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We also made some room throughout the system. Nobody of particular importance was culled right after the draft, but besides the odd scouting discovery and trash heap signing we also released a few late-round picks from previous year, like from the 2030 season, 1B Justin Cooper (10th round), INF Brady Hagstrom (12th round), and MR Dan Menz (13th round).

As an aside, the 2030 Nick Brown Memorial Pick, Jon Hass, was not released, but rather promoted to Ham Lake. As was last year’s #15 pick, Will Luna, joining Manny Fernandez, the #5 pick, who had already been moved there a week earlier.

We currently have on average more than 30 players per minor league level, so a bit more trimming will be necessary further down the road.