Does Anybody Care About the Draft?

I read / listen to the postmortems, that's about it.

Ditto.

top 5 are probably gonna be alvarez/beckham/hosmer/matusz/x-factor

truth is this is a v sketchy draft class outside of those first 3, matusz is a sure thing but not a sure ace or anything

braves dont have a first rounder, so my level of not-caring is even more pronounced than usual~

I care, but it's hard to get too worked up about it since the results of it are usually so far down the road.

Neyer has a chat on espn, there's a BP 'roundtable' chat too.

or maybe it's just liveblogging by the staff, I dunno.

curious where Aaron Crow goes and who gambles on the scary good high schooler Odorizzi.

I care, but it's hard to get too worked up about it since the results of it are usually so far down the road.

-- Alex in SF, Thursday, June 5, 2008 10:57 AM (40 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

agreed-- but i follow univ of miami pretty closely so i usually have some interest wrt to that, even more this year since they'll prolly have two first rounders

i know i'm one of the few folks here that supports a team sorry enough to be going in the top five

Don't worry, my team will have a top fiver next year.

Kevin Goldstein (11:20:53 AM PT): And it's official. The Rays do the right thing and select Tim Beckham, and Joe loses out on a story angle.

High School Shortstops selection No. 1 overall: Justin Upton (2005), Matt Bush (2004), Alex Rodriguez (1993), Chipper Jones (1990), Shawon Dunston (1982), Tim Foli (1968)

Matt Bush and Ryan Leaf should hang out.

Kevin Goldstein (12:27:17 PM PT): 13. Cardinals take Brett Wallace, Arizona State.

The Walrus! This guy can totally rake. If anyone think he's a big league third basemen, they are borderline insane. Blue Jays are currently throwing things around the room.

Steven Goldman (1:03:04 PM PT): Brett Wallace looks like a Weeble. I want to see his parents. I can't recall a player who was built quite that way. We've seen the Hack Wilson, Yogi Berra, Kirby Puckett Popeye-style build, big on top, small on the bottom, kind of like an inverted triangle. Even Babe Ruth was a bit like that with those tapered ankles. I don't remember the "pyramid" body type.

http://sports.espn.go.com/photo/2008/0415/ncaa_i_wallace_300.jpg

from the team that drafted "da meat hook" no less

A's fanboards EXTREMELY upset that Smoak didn't fall to them.

I actually watched Smoak a bit last year and he looked good so I'm kind of disappointed too.

bucs drafted a boras dude

A's fans get smoaked!

How many of you guys have actually seen any of the draftees play? I always find it weird that people get worked up about one guy over another when half of the guys are high schoolers, and a large percentage of the rest didn't even play in the college world series. Do people actually follow regular season college baseball, or high school baseball?

I mean, that isn't even considering the fact that the draft is still a crapshoot on a fundamental level.

I have never seen Jebus either.

Well Smoak was different because he was a big time HS player and the A's drafted him two years ago and couldn't come to terms with him. And of course he was great at USC so a lot of A's fans 1) knew who he was and 2) got to watch him play in the CWS last year.

But yeah otherwise I don't know any of these guys and I won't really care about them until they get to the big league squad.

Steve (Blacksburg, VA): So apparently Texas got a steal in Smoak, I haven't been following the prospect ranks.. WHat should I know about this kid?

Keith Law: (2:08 PM ET ) Switch-hitting first baseman with power from both sides, good plate discipline, and a plus glove at first. Someone - might have been Goldstein - called him Teixeira Lite, but I see him as a switch-hitting Adrian Gonzalez ... with more power.

How many of you guys have actually seen any of the draftees play? I always find it weird that people get worked up about one guy over another when half of the guys are high schoolers, and a large percentage of the rest didn't even play in the college world series. Do people actually follow regular season college baseball, or high school baseball?

I mean, that isn't even considering the fact that the draft is still a crapshoot on a fundamental level.

-- polyphonic, Friday, 6 June 2008 16:27 (2 hours ago)

LOL Moneyball (book) to thread

i watched a high school baseball game last weekend for a couple of innings. i forget how small your average 15 or 16 year old is. the high school at the end of my block is apparently a baseball powerhouse in the chicago public school league, they field a team almost exclusively dominican and puerto rican.

LOL Moneyball (book) to thread

Right, so where are the Moneyball-caliber statistical analyses of these players? All I see is your standard scouting junk with some 5x5 stats mixed in, but maybe I'm not reading the right websites?

There are no Moneyball-style statistical analyses of these players available in the public domain, because that kind of shit is super hard to do (i.e. determining quality of the competition across a bunch of different levels, creating comparables, extrapolating to MLB level in any sort of meaningful way, etc) so it's probably only being done by a couple of teams (or by a company or two that's supplying the info to a bunch of teams) and they sure as hell ain't sharing. Plus even that kind of stat-work is meaningless if your team intends to take a dude and completing rework his swing/mechanics/footwork/pitches/etc (hi my name is Projectability!)

I was referring to the passage in Moneyball where DePodesta (late-round) drafts a dude based on his WHIP and K:BB ratio sight unseen.

Did that really happen? Are you talking about "The Creature" guy? Cuz the scout signed him sight unseen, DePodesta just ask the scout to take a look at the dude!

DePodesta does joke at some point about choosing players based only college stats, but I got the impression that was just a joke.

i lied... it's a trade scenario, not a draft scenario. but it was common-stat-driven/sight unseen according to the book.

Is that Chad Bradford? I think AA/AAA stats are a little different from college or high school stats.

I do agree that a common meme in the book is that baseball stats can be used to determine who is worth scouting.

MLB proposes 10-round international draft

latin american trainers (and their players) are boycotting upcoming showcases in response

good luck, because

MLB’s goal is not competitive balance -- otherwise they could have simply given every team the same bonus pool and had them compete on an even playing field -- it’s about controlling costs so owners keep more money.

On the other side of the table in the CBA negotiations, the players’ association doesn’t care about international amateur players as anything more than a bargaining chip. It’s nothing discriminatory against foreign players, it’s just that the union looks out for players on 40-man rosters. So international players, draft picks in the United States and minor leaguers who make less than $10,000 in annual salary get their rights sold out by the union, which in exchange can negotiate items like a higher major league minimum salary, adjustments to the Super 2 rules or modifying draft pick compensation attached to free agent signings.