Bandit Post, Vol 3.11, 1997

[aaronweiner]

Birmingam Draft Recap

Birmingham Upbeat About Draft

Birmingham was thrilled about their first three draft picks, Larry Crawford, Alex Porter and Tom Rivers. However, as the draft has gone on, the Bandits seem very happy about the rest of their draft as well.

"We think that all the guys we drafted are very promising, hard workers, lots of skills," said GM Aaron Weiner in a rare moment of exuberance. "We concentrated on players with solid major-league skills and good intangibles rather than try to draft the absolute highest-ceiling player at every position, and we think that a lot of these kids are going to make it."

Birmingham's fourth pick, RP Ryan McCutcheon, is considered one of the smarter pitchers in the draft. Questions exist about his control, but he has two effective pitches and tremendous bite on both of them.

"We see Ryan's ceiling as Rob Dibble," said Weiner. "And Dibble was pretty good for us last year. If Ryan has that kind of effectiveness we feel like we've got ourselves a pretty good pick. He was the biggest reach pick we made but we think the world of Ryan."

The Bandits' fifth pick, SP/RP Josh Oliver, is also a very smart pitcher with very solid skills. Scouts insist that he'll be better off learning from professional coaches rather than going to college, since he's already fairly advanced for 19 years old.

"The thing we like best about Josh is that he's very coachable and he's very well-conditioned," said Weiner. "He's a very smart player who will be able to do a lot on the diamond. We just hope his demands aren't too high, because we'd really like to have him in the organization."

Birmingham took Hector Molina with their sixth pick. Molina has some injury issues and a cigar-smoking habit (his grandparents were one-legged Cubans), but there's little question he loves to play baseball and wants to be a major leaguer.

"Hector's got a strong immigrant work ethic - that's what he calls it - and he sometimes overdoes it," said Weiner. "He really needs to be in a minor-league system so that some college doesn't overuse him and wreck his arm, because we think he'll be a good pitcher. He's very, very advanced for his age."

With their seventh pick, Birmingham took intriguing two-way player Carlos Gonzales, one of the few players in the draft who clock in both at the plate and on the mound.

"We're pretty excited about Carlos, because we're not sure whether he's a pitcher who can hit or a hitter who just happened to pitch," Weiner said. "He's got some potentially major-league skills in both areas and he wants to come in and work hard."

With their eighth pick, Birmingham chose a center fielder who is really more of a pitcher, Todd Kramer. Kramer had the second-highest control rating of anyone in the draft, and while his infield defense isn't really up to par, Kramer will undoubtedly be a pitcher rather than a hitter.

"Todd understands that we'll probably use him strictly on the mound, especially since he's a lefty, though we'll let him hit," said Weiner. "The fact is that we think he's going to be a fairly solid LOOGY some day, and we won't have to pinch-hit for him much either. He's also good enough on the basepaths that we can use him as a pinch-runner. That's a nice plus."

With their ninth pick, the Bandits selected Jesus Ramos, an intriguing swingman-type. Ramos reminds some Bandit scouts of James Randolph, the team's closer.

"We think that Jesus has a real chance to make it, even from the eighth round," said Weiner. "He throws very hard for a 19-year old and he's got a number of major league quality skills. If he works hard he'll have a really good shot."

Birmingham believes that all of their lower picks can become major leaguers, even if they don't have the pedigree of the guys drafted ahead of them. At any rate, there's little question that the flagging Birmingham farm system has gotten a serious shot in the arm with this draft. There are still players left on Birmingham's war room list, but anyone they could draft at this point would be a long shot for the majors at best.

"We really needed this draft to get us on track," said the GM. "When we inherited this team we inherited Roberto Hernandez, and while we intended to build our future around Roberto, that hasn't been working as well as we hoped. So to get players like we've taken in this draft is a serious boost for the depth and strength of our organization."