AL South Season 7 Draft Review

Florida Cottonmouths

The Cottonmouths possessed the 19th pick in the draft, however, and a large scouting budget they had limited draft resources with only $8mm budgeted for signing prospects. Florida choose to emphisis pitching, specificly young arms as they selected hurlers with 12 of their first 13 selections with the first three being teenagers. With the 19th pick in the first round the Cottonmouths selected tweener (low stamania SP) lefty softtosser Carl Winn. Winn signed quickly for slot and has pitched solidly in rookie league. Winn has good command and a plus fastball, above average slider and a decent secondary offerings. With only average health and makeup Winn was a bit of a risk, but represented very good value as this commentator only had one pitcher on the board of similar merit when Winn was selected.

In the second round the Cottonmouths selected Turner Carroll, a righthanded who is somewhat similar to Winn as neither throws with any kind of velocity. Carroll has a very good movement on his fastball and a solid change combined with a curve which projects to be league average. Carroll, is a fierce competitor with a clean delivery, the only question is how long it will take his arm to bounce back from outings. He signed for slot and represents both a good risk and a good value as Carroll is very likely to be a championship caliber ball player.

In the third round the Cottonmouths selected Rusty Rollins, JuCo lefty who is similar to Winn, but just worse as one would expect based on their relative draft positions. Rollins projects to be a fringe pitcher who will need to get used to riding the shuttle between AAA and the Majors. He won't collect a pensions.

The last noteable pick Florida made was Tony Fernadez a highschool player out of Yoder Wyoming who was the only position player drafted in the first thirteen rounds. Yoda signed at for about double slot and projects to be a corner outfielder. Fernadez has a lot of development to do, however, if he reaches his potential he could be a strong sideplatoon player, though his plate displine may be problamtic as his batting eye is below average and his ability to consistently make contact is major problem.

No other players look to contribute at the major league level, and the lop sided nature of the draft will cause some problems for Florida down the road as they were not able to pick up many minor league filler type position players in the middle to latter stages of the draft. The top of the draft was outstanding though, as Florida picked up good value while paying slot, however, with the 8th highest scouting budget in the league I feel they should have found more value in the draft, and that kept Florida out of the A range.

Grade: B

Richmond Roustabouts

Going into the draft Richmond had the 7th overall pick, and a supplemental pick in the first round (37th overall) and a large prospect war chest ($16mm). Despite that Richmond largely under spent in scouting with a budget only a mid tier scouting budget with $26mm dedicated to their cause.

With Richmond's first selection Sherry MacFarlene fell into their laps. MacFarlane the top power hitter in the draft signed for slot and will play a top notch defensive right field for the Roustabouts while hitting for tremendous power, though only solid onbase skills. With their supplemental selection Richmond selected Dustan Allen, another of the drafts top power hitters. Allan, a lefthanded hitting first baseman will be championship caliber ball player for some time to come, and while Allen wasn't the best player on the board at the time of the selection, he was very close and possibly the second best.

In the second round Richmond selected Phillips Combs, a solid glove man who will have a good career as a major leaguer though will likely never be more than a rotational player as his bat won't play as a starter, though he represented solid value. With their third round selection Jayson Gray a switch hitting high school right fielder. Gray will make contact and hit for solid power. His control of the strike zone and batting eye are his best attributes coupled with great speed and baserunning instincts. Gray again represents solid value, and will likely have a fringe career as a major leaguer.

Richmond was able to continue to add good value throughout the majority of the draft and did a nice job of building minor league depth. Couple that with the getting the two power bats with their top two picks despite a limited scouting resources resulted in an excellent draft for Richmond.

Grade: A

Nashville Twangs
Nashville entered the draft with the 25th pick in the draft, a limited prospect budget ($8mm) and bottom quartile spending on scouting. The Twangs focused on adding hitting depth as eight of their first ten picks were position players nearly all who signed for at or below slot (one above).

With their first selction Nashville selected Ken Petrov, a lefthand hitting power hitter who should develop into a league average leftfielder. Petrov looks to have good power versus both lefthanded and righthanded pitchers, but whose onbase skills project to be league average. Petrov is a good athelete who should be a high percentage basestealer, and play solid to better leftfield. Petrov has no real holes in his game, and represents a solid all around player and but offers no relative value relative to other players drafted around him.

In the second round the Twangs selected highschool second baseman Juan Gonzalez, and then agreed to his over slot contract demands. Gonzalez, will likely not get signifigant playing time at the major league level on a seasonal basis, as he projects more as a utility player, due to his solid and broad skill set: sure hands, solid range; speed, baserunning and making contact. However, his batting eye likely won't translate to league average and his ability to hit for average is somewhat questionable and he has no power at all. There were many better players on the board, and better middle infielders. The Twangs didn't deliver with this pick.

The Twang walked away with one more player who will likely make the show in Ken Pickford a third round selection out of the University of South Carolina who has tremendous power and looks to probably have more MLB at bats than Gonzalez as a strong side of a platoon at the left of the defensive spectrum. Pickford's game is fairly one dimensional, as his power develops so will he. Solid value for the third round.

The remainder of the draft was filled reasonable value players, and unsigned selection. Overall, the Twang left draft day a slightly improved organazation on absolute terms, however, a step back relative to its competitors.

Grade: C-

San Antonio Sting
The Sting, enetered the draft with the 12th overall pick and second round pick in the possesion of Oklahoma. The what the Sting did have going for it was a large scouting budget, $33mm despite having only 8mm allocated to signing prospects, which I thought was an unusual strategy considering it didn't have a second round pick, and considering it had 13mm (max drop) allocated to Internation Scouting but no real budget to bring in a players (which predictably they didn't sign). If I was running the club I might have allocated my budget differently, to try and get some value out of the internation budget.

Anyway without a second round pick the teams draft success is going to be highly dependent on the quality of its first rounder, who in this case is thirdbaseman Raul Basco. Basco, a Juco power hitter has above average power and above average disipline at the plate. He will hit from both sides of the plate, though he will struggle to put the bat on the ball. He will play enough defense to be able to hold down the hot corner, though he won't be an asset there. He has a good make, up and has projects to be fairly healthy so he has a good chance of reaching his potential, though without improved conditioning he will tend to wear down. A strong pick.

With the 93rd overall pick the Sting went with Mel Sorrano who is a good enough hitter to play in the league, but his glove doesn't play at most positions, considering his lack of power. He will likely ride the AAA-ML shuttle for a few years, but not collect a pension. The Sting, made a noble effort to recoup some value by going above slot signifigantly in a couple of places namly in the 4th round for Buddy Hermanson (1.85mm) and in the 11th round for Bill Carpenter (750k), unfortuantly the early returns are that neither of these picks will get more than a cup of coffee.

Grade: B-