2009 MLB Draft

[OilCan]

Didn't see a thread for this yet, soooo.......

 

Living here in Austin TX, there are some good players this year in the Big 12.

Here's one to look at: 1b Brandon Belt for UT.

 

Link: http://www.texassports.com/sports/m-basebl..._brandon00.html

 

Has a closed-stance that you rarely see. Sweet swing, has some power potential.

Maybe we can start posting prospectives for the White Sox in this year's draft.........

[Cali]

I would LOVE the Sox to go after a Power College Arm with their first pick. I dont want to see the phrase "Low 90's fastball" in the guys scouting report...

 

And for the most part go after pitching. They have some great position players in the minors, but the pitching is quite bare. They need to go back to the drafting philosophy they had back in the late 90's-early 2000's, but hopefully with better results haha

[BearSox]

Personally, I want us to bring in a high school catcher with a lot of potential. It's not that I don't like Flowers, I'm just not sold on him being a big league catcher. With all of the talent we have in the minors right now, I think we can afford to go with the risk of taking a high upside high school player. Usually, I prefer to take the safer, more developed college players, but I think we are at the point where we can take some risks early.

 

Right now, I'm a big fan of Luke Bailey. High School catcher out of Georgia, has big time potential. Has some big pop, great arm, solid fielder, above average speed. I'd love to see him taken.

 

Also, icing on the cake, we have 4 picks in the top 75. Talk about a total revamp of our minor league system in just 2 years! I'm so pumped for the future. Our picks this year are:

 

23

38 (supp for Cabrera)

61 (from A's for Cabrera)

71

 

Some useful links:

 

MLB.com Draft Reports. They add about 10 new scouting reports each week of the top prospects of the draft. They give the best analysis and give a nice little video to if you're too lazy to read the whole scouting report.

 

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/events/draft/y2009/...ts.jsp?content=

 

This is the home page of Perfect Game USA. If you are not similar with it, it's basically the game where all the top high school talent goes to, and it gives good analysis and videos of the players.

 

http://www.perfectgame.org/

[SoxFan562004]

hopefully with the extra picks they take a flyer on a huge upside or hard sign guy

[daa84]

i think we'll go pitcher heavy as usual, plus thats where our system has its biggest need...dont care if its college or high school, but i would liek to see the best arm available taken, regardless of slotting

[danman31]

Kyle Gibson and Aaron Crow are in the draft as 2 power arms. Crow won't make it to the Sox, but Gibson might/should. Both are Missouri guys, Crow is a Boras guy but didn't sign last year with the Nats so he has less leverage.

[Ozzie Ball]

Here are some prospects that I like that I wrote about for another forum I use:

 

The first two, at this point, look like they should be available when we pick.

Rich Poythress, 1B/3B, Georgia

Former team mate of Beckham's, Poythress is a big first baseman measuring in at 6-4, 240, which will probably restrict him to playing 1B (where he won a gold glove last season). He's on fire at the plate and appears to be hitting his way into the first round batting .430/.528/.852 through 135 AB's with 16 home runs and a 26/18 BB/SO rate. He did miss five months of his freshman year with an ACL injury would could be a red flag.

James Paxton, LHP, Kentucky

Paxton has a big 94-97mph fastball with heavy sink and a great frame at 6-4, 210, he also throws a nasty sluvey curve in the 80-83mph range and has been working on a change up. He's been hit hard in his last two starts which has inflated his ERA and overall on the season in 37 IP he has a 6.08 ERA, 1.43 WHIP and a phenomenal 55/8 K/BB rate.

PGCrosschecker thinks Paxton could go in the high first round but most other publications have him more in the late 1st/supplemental 1st or even 2nd round range.

 

And the third could/should be available a little later on.

Tony Sanchez, C, Boston College

The top collegiate catcher in the draft, he's off to a fast start hitting .385/.474/.738 through his first 130 AB's although he'll probably be more of a doubles guy than a home run threat at the pro level. He's an aggressive hitter with a short compact swing which will probably mean he won't walk or strike out at high rate at the next level. He's a decent receiver with average arm strength. Upside is limited due to lack of home run power or elite level defense, I wouldn't spend more than our supplemental 1st on him at this point but I would be all over him in the 2nd round. Baseball America think he could slide into the end of the first.

 

What I'd be looking for from our early picks in this draft is high upside college starting pitching and big college bats at any position other than middle infield. Our system took big strides forward over the last year but even still I don't think we're in a position to take unnecessary risks on high school players in the early rounds.

[ThunderBolt]

Kyle Gibson and Aaron Crow are in the draft as 2 power arms. Crow won't make it to the Sox, but Gibson might/should. Both are Missouri guys, Crow is a Boras guy but didn't sign last year with the Nats so he has less leverage.

Gibson has great stuff, but considering he's probably a top 3 to 4 pitcher in the draft, i doubt he'll slip to us.

[FedEx227]

I think I can speak for most Sox fans when I say we'd like to avoid drafting an LF/RF/1B/3B types.

 

I'd love to see us go after some power arms or a catcher, those are likely our two biggest holes in the minors right now. I love Flowers, but I'm not sold on him being a long-term option at C.

[maggsmaggs]

I think the Sox will take with their first pick a college reliever. There is clearly a lack of bullpen arms in the system and ML team minus our current top 4. Wouldn't be surprised if they drafted a college closer and he was up in September in middle relief. The other 2 picks will probably be spent on pitching, as it should. The system is solid position-player wise, but there is a glaring weakness of ML-ready arms. Poreda is the only one close.

Edited April 16, 2009 by maggsmaggs

[BearSox]

Kyle Gibson and Aaron Crow are in the draft as 2 power arms. Crow won't make it to the Sox, but Gibson might/should. Both are Missouri guys, Crow is a Boras guy but didn't sign last year with the Nats so he has less leverage.

I'd love it if Crow fell to us, but that's highly unlikely. Crow was the one pitcher I would have minded us taking in the 1st round last year.

[caulfield12]

You never take a pitcher with the idea of them being a reliever to start off with...it's like taking a punter or kicker in the first 3 rounds of the NFL draft.

 

We made that mistake once with Royce Ring, and it was a waste...unless someone has just an extraordinary arm, and Ring doesn't qualify on that count.

 

It's much better to find someone like Poreda who might be missing a secondary pitch but at least, if coachable/teachable, has a ceiling as a 1-3 starter. The bullpen is WAY too much of a crapshoot to think you can draft someone who will automatically be successful in that role, there are just too many unknowns.

[BearSox]

Even though he is a 1B/3B/LF player, I would love to see us draft Bobby Borchering (whether it might be at 23 or 38). Something about a young switch hitter with great bat speed and plus-plus power from both sides of the plate is too intriguing to pass up, IMO.

[BearSox]

You never take a pitcher with the idea of them being a reliever to start off with...it's like taking a punter or kicker in the first 3 rounds of the NFL draft.

 

We made that mistake once with Royce Ring, and it was a waste...unless someone has just an extraordinary arm, and Ring doesn't qualify on that count.

 

It's much better to find someone like Poreda who might be missing a secondary pitch but at least, if coachable/teachable, has a ceiling as a 1-3 starter. The bullpen is WAY too much of a crapshoot to think you can draft someone who will automatically be successful in that role, there are just too many unknowns.

Come on now, there have been several relief pitchers taken in the 1st round. You just have to choose the right one. If you got a college closer who pumps it up at 97+ with some movement and a nasty slider, and they project to make it to the bigs quickly... why the hell not?

[caulfield12]

Sure, take someone like Huston Street who's close to major league ready to 40, or in the 3rd round...but you don't have to use your first round draft pick.

 

The pitchers with the truly "plus-plus" arms aren't going to be available (if they are refined at all) in the first round. You just have to hope you can unearth a diamond in the rough like Nathan Jones or find someone in Asia or Latin America (like Mo Rivera or Carlos Lee).

[Ozzie Ball]

Come on now, there have been several relief pitchers taken in the 1st round. You just have to choose the right one. If you got a college closer who pumps it up at 97+ with some movement and a nasty slider, and they project to make it to the bigs quickly... why the hell not?

Because the value of even the best relievers is so much less than the value of a solid starter. Even if the college closer because the best closer in all of baseball he'd still only be worth 2.5-3 value wins per season, whereas there were roughly 60 starters who were worth 2.5 value wins or more last year including 4/5 of our rotation (it would have been 5/5 of our rotation of Count didn't get injured). In the first round I think you have to draft a pitcher who at least has a chance of being a starter a la Poreda, and then if he doesn't develop as planned you move him to the 'pen. Building for the future and drafting college relievers in the first round are contradictory statements in my opinion and personally I'd lay off the relievers until at least round 3.

 

[BearSox]

I think the Sox will take with their first pick a college reliever. There is clearly a lack of bullpen arms in the system and ML team minus our current top 4. Wouldn't be surprised if they drafted a college closer and he was up in September in middle relief. The other 2 picks will probably be spent on pitching, as it should. The system is solid position-player wise, but there is a glaring weakness of ML-ready arms. Poreda is the only one close.

I don't disagree, but who? The top two I have heard about are Jason Stoffel (Arizona) and Ben Tootle (Jacksonville St.).

 

From what I've read about Tootle, he sounds a bit too risky. He can pump it up there apparently (95 usually, up to 98-99 at times) and has a really good breaking ball, but he has a small frame (6'0" 170) and kind of a funky delivery with a lot of flying parts. His frame and likely high stress delivery has me worried about injury problems. But then again, I've never actually seen him pitch so I don't know.

 

Stoffel on the other hand sounds pretty interesting. He was the closer last year for Arizona, but the impressive thing was that while he was the closer, he had two first round picks in Schlereth and Perry (remember, we saw him the other day) setting up for him. From what I have read, Stoffel can get it up to 97, but sits around 93-95 with very good late life. He also has a plus curveball that is used as his out pitch. He could also potentially start, but he hasn't shown a change (either because he didn't need it as a closer or it just ins't good). He should also be a fast riser as he is also a "pitcher" and can locate. Again though, I haven't seen him pitch. But he does sound like an interesting prospect, and someone I wouldn't mind taking early on.

[BearSox]

Because the value of even the best relievers is so much less than the value of a solid starter. Even if the college closer because the best closer in all of baseball he'd still only be worth 2.5-3 value wins per season, whereas there were roughly 60 starters who were worth 2.5 value wins or more last year including 4/5 of our rotation (it would have been 5/5 of our rotation of Count didn't get injured). In the first round I think you have to draft a pitcher who at least has a chance of being a starter a la Poreda, and then if he doesn't develop as planned you move him to the 'pen. Building for the future and drafting college relievers in the first round are contradictory statements in my opinion and personally I'd lay off the relievers until at least round 3.

Yeah, but relievers have the best chance of contributing soon.

 

It all depends on who is available, but I would not be opposed to drafting a high upside reliever with plus stuff who can rise quickly.

[danman31]

Gibson has great stuff, but considering he's probably a top 3 to 4 pitcher in the draft, i doubt he'll slip to us.

I'm not sure I would put Gibson that high. He has a sick slider, but his fastball is still kinda straight. It has gotten a ton better this year though. I think in the range the Sox will be picking at it's ok, but top 10 for Gibson is pushing it IMO.

 

The Sox are in a nice spot because they don't have any hitters they know they are locked into at a position for more than a few years. Sure, they have a lot of prospects but we don't know who is going to actually make it. The Sox can take the best available player and shouldn't worry about hitter/pitcher or what position they play.

[GoodAsGould]

the last 3 "stud" college RP's coming out of the draft is Craig Hansen, Huston Street, and Chad Cordero. None have been particularily all that great, despite some early success for Street and Cordero. I know the mariners drafted I think Joshua Fields a RP this last year, dont know how well he is doing. But, given the track record I dont want anything to do with a relief pitcher in the first few rounds.

[FedEx227]

What people mainly mean is you don't draft a guy as a reliever only. Look at most of the top-tier relievers in the game, they typically are drafted and developed as starters but eventually get turned into RP based off lack of a secondary pitch or whatever.

 

Thus, there's no reason to draft a reliever-only unless he's REALLY a plus-plus and can contribute right away. Otherwise you can get a power arm and see how he develops.

Edited April 17, 2009 by FedEx227

[daa84]

the last 3 "stud" college RP's coming out of the draft is Craig Hansen, Huston Street, and Chad Cordero. None have been particularily all that great, despite some early success for Street and Cordero. I know the mariners drafted I think Joshua Fields a RP this last year, dont know how well he is doing. But, given the track record I dont want anything to do with a relief pitcher in the first few rounds.

and casey weathers who is out for the whole year with TJ surgery...also royce ring worked out horrible for us...even though we dumped him on the mets for alomar

Edited April 17, 2009 by daa84