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DRAFT ROUNDS 2-4
ROUND TWO
I have a pair of picks in round two thanks to the trade with Toronto. I am selecting 2nd (18th overall) and 6th. My pitching is awful but my head scout Rube Carter seems to think every pitcher in this draft is crap. Now Carter is rated good across the board including amateur scouting so I don't know if the draft pool pitchers are that bad or Carter is that bad. I looked to hire a scout with better talent assessment rating but when I looked there were none better that were unemployed, so far better or worse Rube Carter is my guy.
Still, I need pitching so I am going to take one with one of my second round picks. I had 3 or 4 guys in mind but the one I liked best was Bill Dengler. Carter thought he could be a spot starter for me....which is the highest opinion he had on any of the pitchers. Dengler, 21 and coming off a 5-4 season with a 3.13 era in 18 appearances for Maryland (50 game NCAA schedule in the feeder league) fanned 108 batters while walking just 17 in 97 innings. He allowed 2 homers but did give up 101 hits. He is a groundball pitcher with average velocity and his personality is focused. Good enough, I decided Dengler is my man and took him with the 18th pick.
He was the fourth pitcher taken in the draft and two of them were not even on my radar, which I think is a great testament to playing stats-only. Will be interesting to see how they pan out as the years progress. The two other guys I was considering along with Dengler were Lou Martino, a high school pitcher taken 2 picks ahead of me by the defending champion New York Stars and William Jones from Purdue. Jones went to the Philadelphia Sailors in the third round and I was very close to taking him with my third round pick but decided to go another direction. Again, to me it just seems like there is so much more to consider in the draft when you don't have ratings to look at.
My other second round pick was high school third baseman Dave Bristol. Rube Carter loved the guy. He had him ranked 15th on the scout's list but claims he is a future .330 hitter with plus power, outstanding defense and a laser-like arm. (Not sure if lasers were a thing in the 1920's but Rube Carter may be ahead of his time)
ROUND THREE
I didn't necessarily want more outfielders but when it was my turn in the third round I felt I had no choice but to take Lynn Randall from LSU. Carter thinks Randall is a steal here as he was #5 on my scouts overall list. I got him with the 34th pick which either makes my scout really good or really bad. Overall at this point about 2/3 of the players on my scouts top 30 had been taken so I am (optimistically perhaps) leaning towards Carter being pretty good at assessing talent.
As for Randall, he started two seasons in the outfield at LSU and helped lead them to a College World Series title this past summer. He hit .326 in 23 playoff games after hitting .320 in the regular season. He is easy to sign for Brooklyn just like my first rounder Lightbody, which is always a plus. Carter says Randall has the tools to become an extraordinary contact hitter with a great eye and the power to hit 20 homers.
ROUND FOUR
In round four I have two more picks, 50th and 54th overall. At number 50 I take another player who was ranked high on my scout's draft board. Catcher Tom Aiello was 8th on the board (the highest guy remaining on the list of 32 my scout gave me). As a side note for anyone who doesn't know - I discovered it by accident - you can get your scout to give you a list by selecting the draft list tab from within the draft pool screen.
Anyway, back to Aiello. He actually played 4 years at New York High School and was drafted by Cleveland in the 5th round a year ago but failed to sign with the organization (this was before human GM's.). Scout Carter says he has excellent defensive abilities, a smooth righthanded swing and 20 homer power. Carter says he would be a productive regular on a contending team. His stats bear that out with 7 homers and a .296 batting average in 38 games, a good defensive ZR and he threw out nearly half of the would be base stealers (46.2%) with just 2 passed balls in the 38 games behind the plate. He CERA was the second lowest among those who played at least 25 games out of over 60 high school teams.
After Aiello, I figured I better start looking at more pitching. Again my scout is little help on pitchers but I decided to take another LSU player in 21 year old righthander Milt Nelson. All Carter says about Nelson is he thinks he can throw strikes but is not sold on him being more than a spot starter. I see he is another groundball pitcher with decent velocity, has good leadership skills and went 2-0 with a 1.07 era in the College World Series, striking out 34 while walking 7 in 25 innings. His regular season numbers were similar. He was actually a 12th round pick by Detroit out of high school and spent one season in A ball before being released and enrolling at LSU. His A-ball stats scare me, but that was 3 years ago when he was 18: 3-12 with an 8.40 era in 110 innings. Gave up 142 hits including 20 homers while fanning 120 and walking 79. I am hoping he has developed a lot in the past 3 years.
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