Put me down as not being overly worried about our drafting turning into 'Cleveland North'. If the draft is a pure crapshoot, we wouldn't see certain organizations consistently drafting better than others, we wouldn't see great teams with lower picks consistently drafting well (Boston, NY) and we wouldn't have a run of consistent draft excellence like AA had. Want a sleeper from the really late rounds? Try University of South Carolina-Sumter outfielder DJ Neal (26th), who began his college career as a wide receiver at the University of South Carolina."Ĭlaiming someone objectively had the best draft would be crazy, but the phrase 'crapshoot' is pretty overused. Wake Forest right-hander Donnie Sellers (11th) and Minnesota State-Mankato lefty Brody Rodning (13th) are quality third-day selections. University of San Diego catcher Riley Adams (third) has impressive arm strength and power potential, while University of Maryland shortstop Kevin Smith (fourth) and William & Mary second baseman Cullen Large (fifth) are offensive-minded middle infielders. One of three teams with two first-round picks, Toronto used its selections on the top college shortstop (North Carolina's Logan Warmoth) and the owner of the best fastball in the college ranks (JC of Central Florida right-hander Nate Pearson).Ĭalifornia prep right-hander Hagen Danner (second) can also light up radar guns, and interested some teams more as a catcher. Jim Callis had the Jays having the 5th best draft this year. Evaluators largely like Ritcheson's stuff but feel he should go to college to mature. Despite those promising building blocks, Ritcheson often ran into trouble on the mound because he lost concentration and did not handle adversity well, throwing his glove and shouting obscenities when things didn't go his way. He shows feel to spin a plus breaking ball but is inconsistent. A converted catcher who has only pitched for two years, Ritcheson stands 6-foot-4, 210 pounds and operates 92-95 mph with his fastball out of a high three-quarters delivery, although it lacks deception or plane. Ritcheson experienced a whirlwind spring, rising quickly up draft boards when his previously 88-90 mph fastball touched 95 mph as a senior, but then falling back down after critical reports on his makeup. The fact that he lasted until now suggests it is highly likely he goes to school instead. I trust a front office of Shapiro, Atkins, Cherington, Sanders, etc, a lot more than JP's front office, and we will see if the current regime can develop/draft hitters better than the previous one (it will be difficult for them to match the pitching success).Ģ3rd round Daniel Ritcheson, HS RHP, ranked #187 by BA. Godfrey was also against going overslot so it was a huge mess in terms of infusing talent into the system. Ricciardi's plan was to draft college players exclusively to provide cheap talent at the big league level as quickly as possible (back when the team was operating under a very low payroll). High school players become a lot riskier to draft around this time since they likely hung around this long due to college commitments.Įither way, this is a big change from the previous FO's drafting. I may have missed some, just going by the MLB draft tracker, but that's two front offices that I'd trust with drafting that have followed the same blue print to this point. A quick scan of the Yankees shows that they have also only taken two high school players (2nd and 4th round). That suggests a level of hubris or arrogance that I hope is not true.ĪA's new team, the Dodgers, have drafted two high school players so far (4th and 11th round). I don't know how you prove this but its too easy to assume the Jays are repeating what was done in Cleveland even though that wasn't successful. Maybe HS pitchers have become overvalued and so the value in the draft is in HS hitters and college players. But there is a sense that teams want to pick HS pitchers in particular because they can control their work load and try and prevent catastrophic injuries. I assume its much more even because there is more analytics applied to the draft now. I don't know what the current balance in value is between college and HS players. With more demand for college players the return went down and with less demand for HS players the return went up. That move caused a relative imbalance between the value a team could get between drafting college or HS players. It was the moneyball era and that caused a lot of teams to look to college players. The Jays were prioritizing college players because that was the Oakland way. The Jays drafts under JP Ricciardi were somewhat uninspiring.
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