Sticking Points 2035.5: Three Lost In Expansion Draft

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Sticking Points 2035.5: Three Lost In Expansion Draft

Post by aaronweiner » Wed May 30, 2018 10:22 am

The Rockville Pikemen expected to lose the maximum number of players in the expansion draft. Turns out they were righter than they thought. With 70 players chosen, the third Rockville player was gone by pick 39, more or less the top half of the draft. Rockville lost 2B Richard Beran, swingman Armando Rasquilha, and last year's starting left fielder Chet Gabriel to the new teams.

"We are disappointed to lose solid young talent like Richard, Armando, and Chet to other teams, but we had to prioritize which players to keep and we did that by whatever means we felt were necessary," said Pikemen GM Aaron Weiner. "We really just had too many players we had to keep."

Beran is considered to be the biggest loss for the Pikemen. A former S2 pick, Beran spent most of the year in the majors last year, but had fallen behind in the depth chart to superior defensive players Santiago Morales and Chip Puckett. While Beran might have had the starting job in two years, he'll now likely be the starter for Boise.

"I'm thrilled to be getting the opportunity from Day 1," said Beran. "I know I was buried on the depth chart here and I won't be there."

Rasquilha is a bit of a sad story, as the righty had fought hard to make himself into a prospect out of a 17th round draft pick. Unfortunately, he was deemed less valuable than some of the other Rockville arms despite his age (22) and the ability to start in a jam.

"We didn't see Armando as a permanent fixture in the rotation, so we left him exposed," said Weiner. "We hope he gets a shot in Wichita."

The last draft pick, Gabriel, was a bit of a surprise to Pikemen fans. Gabriel was coming off of his best season at age 26 and looked to be on the upswing, with a .300 average and almost an .800 OPS last year. Unfortunately, the quick rise of Chip Puckett meant that the Pikemen would be shuffling and Gabriel no longer had a starting job. As a lefty and an average defender at best, this also meant that Gabriel might have started the year in AAA.

"He was a really hard guy to lose, but we might already not have a lineup spot for Gabriel Delgado with this Lorenzo Palacios kid," said Rockville manager Chet Rouse. "The front office did the best they could with what they had."

A few of the names both in and out of the protection list were surprising. Valeri Kharlamov was left exposed because of his contract (8th highest in the BBA) despite winning a Golden Bat in 2034. Rafael Mata has been a lifelong member of the team but has the highest contract in the bullpen and is over 30. Marko Efremov was protected primarily because he's been total death on lefties for the last two years. And the aforementioned Morales was protected for his defense despite not having quite as strong a bat as Beran.

"We had a lot of tough choices, but we made them, and we're happy about it," said Weiner. "We think we're still a strong ballclub going forward."

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Re: Sticking Points 2035.5: Three Lost In Expansion Draft

Post by RonCo » Wed May 30, 2018 4:43 pm

My guess is that those are going to be three pretty productive players in the Tater Field.
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