As the 2064 draft got underway, the Valencia front office prepared itself looking over the prospects and coming up with a plan. The Stars have the second pick of the draft. A bittersweet situation to be in as it put Valencia in a spot to pick anyone from the pool except one player, but it also meant that the team had fallen on hard times the previous two seasons.
Hoping beyond hope, the front office was wishing for the Long Beach Surfers to pick anyone but Guillermo Gonzales, a starting pitcher with immense potential and fairly developed at 20 years of age. With the other players at the top of the draft board, he was the only one that played a position where the Stars are in desperate need of help (with the possible exception of shortstop Alfonso Mercado). Unfortunately, the probable happened, and GG went to the Surfers with the first pick.
Now the front office had to turn to Plan B and determine who the second pick was going to be. The short list was really down to seven players after Gonzales was selected. Two of them were closers and the bullpen is probably set up as well as any portion of the Stars team. However, we all know how Greathouse loves the closers as he picked Juan Evans with the fourth overall pick last year.
Catcher David Lopez was on the short list but with Bernd Helwich and Bradley Russel along with a few others in the farm system, that was not a critical need.
Shortstop Alfonso Mercado and third baseman Roderick Hochstetler were given same real thought as those two spots could use an upgrade. Hai Wu was also thought about as well, but the emergence of Gabriel Bacaloglu seems to make the Stars GM feel first base is in capable hands at this point.
In the end, the front office decided to go with who they felt was the best available talent as they selected leftfielder Bartolo Fernandez. While the corner outfield slots are already crowded with capable players, Bartolo could give the Stars a legit leadoff hitter. With an overall rating of 60, the development is already there but also are some of the tacky intangibles that will likely get some attention in the off-season along with same dev lab plate discipline or defense. With an infield range of 7, do not be surprised if they try to figure out a way to have Bartolo learn second base as well.
Below is a snapshot of Bartolo's ratings according to the Valencia scouts:
