Sticking Points 2060.5: 9th Pick

[JimSlade]

The Doors' "The End" plays as a drunken, naked Rockville Pikeman GM Jim Slade is seen thrashing about, wrecking his hotel room.

The 9th pick…shit. Still no higher than the 9th pick. Every time I think I’m gonna pull this franchise out of the morass we're back at the 9th pick. When we were still on the fringe of competing, after taking over an aging, perennial playoff contender, it was worse. Our pick at 24 would come up and there’d be nothing. Nowadays, that shortstop we were hoping might fall...gone! When I was here, I wanted to be there; when I was there, all I could think of was getting back into the upper reaches of the draft. I’m here a week now…waiting for our first pick…getting softer. Every minute I stay in this room, I get weaker, and every minute Nashville watches the long-term prospects fall, they get stronger. Each time I looked around the walls moved in a little tighter.

I'm face to face with my worst nightmare: selecting a first baseman. A lefthanded one, no less. I was a lefthanded first baseman. I never made it past Babe Ruth. I was 17 when my coach asked me to shag flies in left. It wasn't a sign of trust in my versatility, but a death sentence. Lefthanders don't get promoted around the field the way righthanders can. That stud shortstop in high school gets moved behind the plate in college. Suddenly he's the "coach on the field." He's got a path forward. A lefty reliever can get an all-access pass to the bottom of a team's roster, but a friggin' first baseman either stakes his claim to the tepid corner or starts updating his resume for a future as a hitting coach.

OK, or let's say that first baseman's gone and I'm left with a possible middle-of-the-rotation starter. Nothing to sneeze at, I'm sure, but a half dozen potential middle-of-the-rotation starters will drop to the back half of the draft. If you strike out there, no biggie. Your fanbase gets it. Striking out on a #9 overall pick doesn't go down as easy.

There are some relievers I like and I'm a big believer in drafting for the best talent available, but a reliever at 9? That's harder for me to swallow than settling for a damn one-dimensional first baseman.

Shortstops who were born to play second base. A third baseman who may hit 15 HR. I'm trying to land some transformational talent with this top 10 pick, and I'm not feeling it.

Oh wait...corner outfielder! Yeah, that's the ticket! I can take a corner outfielder at 9 and let him duke it out with the half dozen other corner outfield prospects we've got coming up. I can see this working out. The best prospects win jobs in Rockville. The runner-up can learn to play first.

[Trebro]

That's a great description of the 9th slot. you need to hit a home run but it's usually a double.