37.7. Four Draft Picks in the Books (Rounds 1 and 2)

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37.7. Four Draft Picks in the Books (Rounds 1 and 2)

Post by agrudez » Sat Jan 05, 2019 10:13 am

After failing to sign their 1st and 2nd round draft picks last season, the Phantoms entered the 2037 draft with 4 picks in the first two rounds. When pressed about their failure to lock up last year's picks - and whether or not the team had adapted for this season - GM Stever had this to say:

"Last year's draft class was exponentially better than the year's before, so players - as you might imagine - had much higher demands. After going all in on IFA last season prior to the draft, this shift really caught us unawares. In the end, our budget allowed us to either sign our 1st round pick and no one else or spread that money over our later round picks. We decided the latter route precisely because we knew that we'd get another pick this year - and have budgeted accordingly so that mistakes of the past don't repeat. I can't imagine us, at the end of this process, not having all of these 4 guys playing in our minors come the summer."

Reassured by the GM's response, fans collectively exhaled and begin to dig into the young players that the team acquired with said picks: SP Timo Dooley, SP Raul Jaramillo, RF Luis Gonzalez and RP Dani Rubio.

The team's first pick, Dooley, should come as no surprise to a fanbase due to his talent set. An extreme groundball pitcher with a +sinker, Dooley projected (thanks to a +split vs. RHBs) to have the 2nd best aggregate MOV in the draft pool for legitimate SPs. At 17 he's raw, but reports indicate that he has world class intangibles - with some speculating that he could have the makings of a team captain in him - and the talent is undeniable. When asked candidly where Dooley had been on his 'big board', Stever said that he had been '4th for pitchers and easily top 10 overall'.

The team's second pick, Jaramillo, caused some in the fan base to scratch their heads as reports indicated that his repertoire wasn't deep enough to be a legitimate SP and that his best role moving forward would be as a reliever. When presented with this, Stever smiled and shook his head - assuring us that Jaramillo was going to be a SP and telling us pointedly to 'Not worry about it - it's a done deal. We saw the cutter he has been working on in our private workout and it's well on it's way to being a great offering with a bit more training (SP conversion).' This statement certainly eased minds and caused some to wonder if Jaramillo (whose overall potential nearly mirrors Dooley's - especially if the addition of a cutter mitigates his current, small -LHB split) might be good value after all at the spot. Stever nodded and offered that 'He was the 5th pitcher on our board. Very excited to have gotten him with such a late pick.'

Moving on to the second, the team took their first position player with Gonzalez. His less than stellar OF range left many thinking he was a 1B going into the draft, but Stever quickly shot down that notion. 'He's going to be a RFer from day 1 to day 10000 in our organization. We think his bat has the potential to be tremendous at that spot and the glove today is more than adequate enough to hold its own - and still has plenty of time to improve on the hand of a 17 year old that works as hard as he does. Any time you have the opportunity to get a bat like David Hall that can actually play the field - even if nowhere near a GG level - you take it... that's my philosophy.' And the comparison he makes to Hall is, imo, rather apt. As with most batting prospects the team targets, Gonzalez is a LHB with +power and a +split vs. RHP - just like Hall. In fact, Gonzalez projects to be a bit better overall offensively if he develops (IF - always the biggest factor when talking about a prospect).

And, lastly, with their final second round pick the team went back to pitching with Rubio. Apparently the team was disappointed that they had to "settle" for '8' MOV in their first two picks, so they doubled down and took a '9' in the second. At present, Rubio projects to be a lock down reliever, but has a similar profile to Jaramillo that Stever indicated could also lend itself to trying to work him into a SP role instead, down the line. The GM did offer, though, that while Jaramillo was a lock for the conversion, Rubio was still a bit up in the air. "We have had some internal discussions about whether Rubio's stuff will be too 'junk-balley' as a SP and if he might be better off as a 100+ inning reliever instead. Either way, we like what we get in him - it feels like there is no wrong answer from where I sit today."
League Director: Kyle “agrudez” Stever*
*Also serves as chief muckraker
-Ron, 2025 media guide

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