Which of these two players would you draft?

[james17]

I'd go with the Center Fielder. He has the potential to be a star whereas the pitcher looks like he just has mediocre potential. Pitching is important no doubt but in my opinion the batter here wins out. Plus he plays every day.

[Germaniac]

I would go with the pitcher

Has solid stats against great competition, has high work ethic (something I always look for), already has three good pitches ... he'd be my choice

[Clavette]

Pitcher. Outfielders are a dime a dozen in my leagues

Except for one where there was a massive shortage in right handed hitting outfielders..

[texasmame]

It's all about the starting pitching, yo.

[zdubbya13]

I'd go with the batter, but only by an eyelash.

[mmarra82]

I'm going pitcher, he threw well against a high level of competition. Just be sure to offer him enough in order for him to sign.

[GmOfTheYear]

lol crazy it ended in a 8-8 tie so no consensus. Here are screenshots of them after 2 years. TCR is something else lol. Looks like both are busts:/

[texasmame]

TCR?

Also, it's just two years. I'd wait a couple more until I gave up on either.

[GmOfTheYear]

Originally Posted by texasmame

TCR?

Also, it's just two years. I'd wait a couple more until I gave up on either.

Talent Change Randomness.

[NoOne]

that's a toughy. i typically go with a SP over a batter unless superstar potential -- ie 80contact or better future with power.

the sp has low movement, but that's an incredibly inaccurate rating at the time of the draft. stil a major concern that will either hurt his performance with you in MLB or reduce what you can get in return from a trade.

positional depth in my system would sway my thoughts as well as who i think i could get more in return -- tpyically a sp, but a defensive CF that can also hit ~decently carries a lot of weight too.

i wouldn;t make plans around either of these guys as far as a all-star hitter or a #1/2 SP. so i'd let context dictate. more likely the SP.

positive: both college kids and both more likely to be accurately rated. so, you got that going for you.

edit: after reading the "2 years later" post.

scouting accuracy more likely than TCR hitting both players so hard. draft is a crapshoot. (test this by shorltisting "better" prospects in draft pool by 100% accuracy, then view with normal accuracy and see where the capitalized names are -- likely scattered from 21-80 potential with only a weak correlation to displayed potential rating.)

tcr defintely occurs.. .but it's not affecting a bunch of your players in a significant way each year. scouting on the other hand is guarnteed to be really really bad at young ages... and time corrects it over 2-3+ years in your system. by AA you pretty much know what you got.

the CF is serviceable -- either a great bench player for 3 years at 550k/year or a stop gap defensive CF regular. may stil lhave trade value.

if i am unsure of an SP that i draft, i am looking to trade them ASAP -- like the movement concern on this guy. i'd rather trade while some teams inaccurately scout him then be stuck with a pud 2-3 years later once scouting improves.

[Whoofe]

ugh, the pitcher looks awful now with that poor control and mediocre stuff. great movement tho. I don't think I'd even trust that guy in my bullpen tho, with 21 control


the CF at least would be a serviceable player. in another year, he probly could play CF cheaply and well enough until you find something better, or be a good 4th OF at the very least. not an ideal 1st round draft pick but a useful player

[Timofmars]

The CF is putting up good WAR numbers since being drafted. 2.7 the 1st year and 4.3 the 2nd year.

[malor]

2 years later...
CF is putting up OK numbers and can easily become an MLB backup.
SP is putting up so-so numbers. Time to change him to an RP and see if he can survive 1-2 innings at a time instead of 5-6.

[GmOfTheYear]

Got a nice update here. I thought the pitcher was dead and the CF was the right play looks like its turned around quite a bit.

[edapes]

Always a pitcher middle of round 1. Build your pitching deep and you can always acquire bats.

[Clavette]

A sp prospect tends to bring back at least an equivalently rated position prospect but not vice versa

[GmOfTheYear]

It's interesting pitching is valued so much. When I look in my league position players tend to have higher career wars than pitchers so I wonder why pitchers are viewed as more important. I've also read an article that tried to settle the pitcher vs hitter debate and a top hitter is more valuable to a team than a pitcher so i dont understand.

[Timofmars]

Originally Posted by GmOfTheYear

It's interesting pitching is valued so much. When I look in my league position players tend to have higher career wars than pitchers so I wonder why pitchers are viewed as more important. I've also read an article that tried to settle the pitcher vs hitter debate and a top hitter is more valuable to a team than a pitcher so i dont understand.

I think it's just that teams pretty much always can use another SP unless they somehow have 5 top rated pitchers already. So they probably look at the trade and compare it to their 5th worst pitcher, who is quite likely a 20/80 player or so, and say "wow, what an improvement your pitcher would provide!"

But for batters, a random position player will probably be compared to just to the starter at the positions the player can play, and teams are more likely to have better than 20/80 players for that. I think part of that is because they are more likely to share any decent backup players with other teams through trades, since they really can't get much use out of the backup. But they rarely have so much SP depth that they have a decent 6th pitcher as backup they can let go in a trade.

[GmOfTheYear]

Well I have some sad news to report. The CF retired and never was able to make it past AA ball. The SP was able to make the bigs but only as a spot starter and mostly reliever for us.

I think the biggest thing that hurt the CF was he wasnt developed as much as he shouldve for his age and had a potential that he couldnt reach because he was underdeveloped for his age and didnt have enough time. If he was 20 like the sp was this couldve been different.

[GmOfTheYear]

This was fun though guys hearing all your opinions and draft strategies.