To be a fan of the Major League Baseball First Year Player Draft means that you can derive enjoyment in the process of team building over the long term, and are just not seeking the immediate gratification that comes from the football and basketball drafts. The MLB draft rarely produces players who will play in the major leagues during the season they are drafted.
It's kinda like gardening, where teams sweat and toil to find the right seeds, then work the next phase to properly tend to those seedlings to have them grow to full fruition. Unlike gardening, the baseball development process takes years rather than months. Unlike football and basketball, the players taken in the MLB draft are generally not well known because viewership of college and high school baseball is a lot smaller than viewership for SEC football games or Big East basketball games.
So, that just makes me a rare breed, an individual fan who loves the process of mining for talent.
So, what do we know about this process? Well, we know that every player taken in the first evening, sixty in all, have impressive pedigrees, and arguments can be made as to why each of these players will be successful at the major league level. We also know that some of these players will fail, for one reason or another. Some will fail because they lack the mental toughness to endure and succeed through a brutal initiation in the minor leagues. Others will not stay healthy, falling aside to broken bodies or body parts. Others will just not develop they way their evaluators thought they would.
Of the ones who matriculate to the Show, another round of natural selection will take place, with some becoming stars, others just a guy, some making up to a third of a billion dollars, others never more than your average dentist.....
As the media types gush over every selection, they all seem primed to have a plaque at Cooperstown, and indeed, they all hope to have one.
But here, I will put into posterity my thoughts on some of the selections made tonight:
Gerrit Cole, #1 to the Pirates.....This kid stiffed the Yankees in the first round three years ago. Now he gets to pitch for Pittsburgh. I hope he really enjoyed the college experience at UCLA. He'll get a lot more money now as a #1 overall selection than he would have 3 years ago at the tail end of the round. He does throw 100 miles an hour, but his results weren't as good as his teammate, Trevor Bauer, the #3 selection of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Bauer truly resembles Tim Lincecum, and he better pitch like him, because the Arizona ball park is a launching pad in the tradition of Cape Canaveral.
The #4 and #7 picks were a pair of high school pitchers who hail from the Tulsa area, Dylan Bundy, considered the best high schooler at 4 to Baltimore and Archie Bradley, an Oklahoma football QB recruit, at #7 to Arizona. It was cool to see them watching the draft together and sharing their friendship and development. Both appear to be studs, and they come from a state and metro area which puts a lot of resources into the development of young athletes. A football area like Oklahoma is likely to develop tough minded young players, so I like both of the players' chances to make it and fulfill their promise.
Favorite pick of the night went to the Kansas City Royals picking at #5. They had to pick local high school legend Bubba Starling. Now they have to sign him away from playing QB at Nebraska. To do so they will have to pay the young man a king's ransom because he has enlisted Scott Boras as his advisor. And the Royals HAVE to do this because of something they failed to do when this kid was in kindergarten....draft Albert Pujols from their own back yard. Good thing this kid oozes 5 tool ability, and even better that the current Royals minor league system is loaded with future stars AND the major league team has some good young players, too. The Royals finally have a future worth looking forward to.
The Cardinals fans are already all over the message boards complaining about the pick of Hawaii second baseman Kolten Wong. Initially, I was not impressed by the idea of St. Louis selecting another smallish middle infielder. I have seen enough of those over the years, and having seen the tiny stature of their Midwest League team from Quad Cities a week ago, I was thinking this just satisfies a fetish...
However, it didn't take me long to find enough opinions of this young man to change my mind. The interview with him after his selection showed a level of passion and maturity that I am liking. Former major league General Manager John Hart described Wong as a total winner. His college coach said he was the second best player he has ever coached...to Mark Teixeira. However, it was what he accomplished last summer in New England that impresses me the most.
Wong was the MVP of the prestigious Cape Cod League during the 2010 summer season. The CCL is a long established circuit which draws elite college talent, and routinely produces future stars in the major leagues. Wong, who is from the big island of Hilo, won the MVP over 7,000 miles from home at the age of 18....playing in a league of mostly 20 year olds. That tells me the kid produces key at bats, makes plays in the field, plays smart, and executes winning baseball. If all works out well for the Cardinals, he will likely be on base when Albert Pujols gets his 3,000th hit in about 6 years.
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Anthony Weiner....really? Are you kidding me?
Even the Democrats are bailing of his ship. Might wanna cross party lines and call ex-governor Schwartenegger to get a referral for a divorce attorney. At least Arnold has an alternate career he can fall back on.
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Someone do Mike Quade a favor and throw him a life jacket. His Cubbies are taking on water, and there is nothing he can do about it. If the Cubs are going to rejoin the National League, they should just stick with Quade through thin and hope he will reward them once the talent level improves.....
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Do any of my readers have any suggestions on how to get rid of moles? Darn thing has burrowed on one side of my driveway, and the last few days' oppressive heat have killed the grass which has no roots. I have heard chewing gums works, but how do I know where to put the gum?
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