). The most prominent of this crop are clearly their first 2 picks: Reyes and Shacklady. They are both very raw (aged 18 and 17 respectively) which is generally not what we strive to take in the draft, but this year's pool left us no choice, unfortunately. In Reyes, we love his +split vs. RHB showing (which currently projects for 8/9/8/5 against RHP - very reminiscent of Chris Klein whom is tearing it up in Huntsville's LHB heaven this season [.979 OPS]). We also like that despite his rawness, he already projects to at least be a passable OF defender (his profile having shades of David Hall whom is - a little incredibly - actually a +1.2 ZR through 35 games this year... though we can't imagine that holding up over a full season). This was a stark contrast with many of the other interesting LHBs in the pool and a big reason why we leaned towards Reyes. Sure, we can hope for some defensive bumps across the board with all prospects, but if they are starting at 4 range, you're stuck hoping and praying they go from unplayable to bad. In Reyes, we're hoping he goes from below average to average (or, in a perfect world, even better than that). In my league mock draft I had Reyes 10th, but in the end I liked his level of development at a tender age over the rawness of others whose potential I may have been a slight bit more intrigued by (like Pacy).
In Shacklady, we get a guy at 40 that we had projected in our mock going 29. He is hyper raw (1/2/1/1/1 overall) at 17 so that is concerning, but with a pick in the 2nd hoping on potential felt like a find move as opposed to looking for a safe floor. He currently projects (like Reyes) to already be passable defensively (again, unlike much of the rest of this class) - with some surprising flexibility, too. Currently, he has a below average 2B profile (6 range, 5 DP), and a good LF/average CF profile (8 range). Just with how our prospect pool shapes up in general (much more OF heavy than IF) we will likely play him at 2B and hope for some range bumps (or offensive bumps), but the fact that he can fall back on the OF defense (or, perhaps bump that instead) as another developmental option is great. In the end, he might end up as more of a bench/platoon piece than a full time starter, but even so - I love the defensive swiss army knife aspect for that role.
The rest of the draft was simply me going down the list of the draft pool and sorting by OF/IF range and contact and then only taking LHBs and SHBs with 5 CON or better.
With picks 3-10, we grabbed 5 corner OF projectables (ie. OF ranges in the 6-7 range), 1 IF projectable (8 range) and 2 CF projectables (8-9 range). Of that, the most exciting is Jose Tobias from the 3rd round. Currently, his bat kind of stinks, but the fact that he is almost completely developed (just 2 points of EYE) at 19 with off the charts intangibles makes him look like a solid bumper candidate. Couple that with 9/5/10 OF ratings and 10/7/9 run ratings and you could see some real potential there - if the bat gets some bumps. We also sneaky like our 8th round pick Miguel Duran whom is already completely developed at just age 21 - another thing we like to watch for in bumper hunting.
With picks 11-17, the gloves with a 5 CON LHB dried up so we ended up with 5 clear 1B/DH projectables and 2 hope and pray corner OF projectables (4 range). As you might expect, their bats look much better than picks 3-10, but the positional inflexibility and lack of value on that side of the ball make them clearly inferior prospects - and much more dependent on big swings in their batting potentials to be viable major leagues (for example, Jose Tobias might make the majors with 2 bat bumps in the right places [ie. CON or EYE], but someone like Chavez needs at least 3 or 4). Most of these guys all bleed together ratings wise (5s everywhere with a stray 6 here and there), but of the lot Chavez is our favorite. At just 20 years old he is fully developed and showing a big split delta. If he were to eek out some bumps, the latter shows that they would disproportionately go towards his +RH split - which is exactly where we want them.
All in all, the class wasn't very top heavy (we like Reyes, but admit he was an underwhelming pick so high in the draft), but it actually ended up seeming pretty deep. We have some minor internal concerns about how we'll get all of these projects some playing time, but releasing all of our RHBs in the system probably isn't a bad start.
