Bob Breum, who conducted the draft for the team, said that he felt that the draft pool was well stocked with pitchers but had few impact hitters. The impact hitters that were available were primarily first basemen or poor defenders, and Breum felt that the team's early draft picks were best used to target starting pitching. Of course, he was not alone in this evaluation, and the premium starting pitching was gone by the end of the first round, causing the team to alter course and take two corner outfielders and two relief pitchers with their next four picks in rounds two and three.
Zaccaria Condulmaro
With the second overall pick, the Monarchs selected starting pitcher Zaccaria Condulmaro, a 17-year-old right-hander from Italy. His bread and butter pitch is a great cutter, with three other pitches in the mix, including a plus splitter. He is also working on a changeup, but hasn't shown any ability to command it yet. Scouts project him as a future back-of-the-rotation starting pitcher, but club officials cite his high intelligence and strong work ethic as reasons why they hope that he will surpass that projection. Condulmaro will start the season with the Monarch's A affiliate, the Ulaanbaatar Battalion.
A team source, who asked to remain anonymous, stated that selecting players who have demonstrated a strong work ethic was very important to the club, and that they believe nine of these players fall into that category. They said that there were misgivings in this regard for just one of their late round picks, who will probably only serve as institutional filler unless he changes his ways.
