2062.38 Charlotte drafts pitchers with first four picks

[Krathan]

As detailed in a previous article, the Charlotte Flyers selected right handed starting pitcher, Emilio Carrillo in the first round of the 2062 amateur draft. Now that the draft has been completed, we have some information on the other players taken by the club. Twelve of the team's 20 selections in this year's draft were pitchers, including each of the players taken in the first four rounds.

The team's second round pick was John Miller. Miller is another right handed pitcher. He was originally drafted in the first round of the 2058 draft by the San Antonio Outlaws as a high school graduate. San Antonio was unable to sign Miller at that time and he went on to play college ball with the Apple I-Team. At the end of the 2061 college season, Miller was once again drafted in the first round, this time by the New Orleans Crawdads. Miller once again went unsigned and returned for another year of college, this time with the Aflac Ducks. As I mentioned earlier, Miller fell to the second round this year, and was selected with the 53rd overall pick in the draft.

Miller is currently rated as a 30 pitcher with 45 potential. His current ratings are 5 stuff/5 movement/4 control with potential ratings of 6 stuff/7 movement/5 control. Miller throws 5 pitches, including a fastball and slider with good potential, and an average or slightly better changeup, sinker, and splitter. Miller is a ground ball pitcher who tops out around 96-98 mph. He had a 55 FIP- in high school and a 63 FIP- in college. Miller's HR% and ERA were both higher than normal this season and the team hopes that he can bring those numbers back down. His stamina is currently rated as a 4. It was previously rated higher. It will be interesting to see if it stays a 4 or goes back up at some point.

The team's third round pick was also a right handed starting pitcher, Bill Johnson. Johnson played one season with the Asia Suns in the International Finishing Consortium. Pitching statistics can be pretty ugly in the IFC, but Johnson was 1-1 with an ERA of 4.93 in 8 starts. His FIP- for the season wass 87, signaling that he was an above average pitcher for the league. Johnson's current pitching ratings are 4 stuff/4 movement/5 control, with potential ratings of 6 stuff/5 movement/6 control. He has 8 stamina and a 4 pitch mix, including a sinker and splitter with good potential, a slightly above average fastball, and a below average changeup. Johnson throws in the low to mid 90's as an 18 year old but still has time to add velocity as he grows and fills out. His current overall rating is 25 with a potential rating of 45.

Rumor has it that the San Fernando Bears also held these three pitchers in high regard, and were hoping to draft each of them until they were selected just a few picks earlier by Charlotte.

The team's fourth round pick was right handed relief pitcher Virgilio DalSoglio. DalSoglio has seen a dramatic jump in velocity since late February. At that time, his fastball averaged 93-95 mph. In the most recent report, his fastball is listed as 96-98. Much of his positive development happened after his recent season in the International Finishing Consortium. He struggled in his 12 games with the Africa Monarchs in the IFC, finishing 1-2 with an ERA of 9.82 and a FIP- of 145. The postseason development creates some reason for optimism, but his 10.8 BB% combined with a 10.8 HR% were not a good combination with Africa.

In the fifth round the team broke away from the mound and selected a catcher, Cipriano Martinez, who played in Africa with DalSoglio.

[BaseClogger]

I had the unfortunate habit of putting together my list right before you picked every round.