The Brewster

Successful First Round For Des Moines?

Roh Rindfleisch, Des Moines Register

After last season’s draft debacle where the Kernels swung for the fences and drafted CF Chris McFadden despite obvious warning signs that his bonus demands were astronomical. McFadden broke off negotiations swiftly, before the Kernels realized how much this greedy see you next Tuesday wanted.

Desperate not to fail signing first rounders two drafts in a row, the Kernels spent a little more time thinking about what each prospect’s demands were. Armed with an extra pick due to the McFadden debacle, the Kernels look like they’ve come out even or maybe a little ahead as a result.

GM Webb’s philosophy is the right one, draft the best player available, not what you think the organization needs. Once you have that, you have your currency to shape your franchise.

With that in mind, the Kernels used their 6th overall pick to draft Deron Alexander. This 18-year old out of California (don’t hold it against him), features a four pitch repertoire dominated by a fastball-slider combo. Its his splitter that tipped the scales for the Popcorn Men, who like the prospect of a groundball pitcher (provided Alan Williamson never plays SS for them again). To round out his arsenal, is a changeup that he struggles with still, but if he can develop that, watch out.

With the 8th overall pick, GM Webb stuck with the draft the best player available philosophy, but this time it merged with the club’s needs. For this pick, the Kernels went with Dave Butler, a 19-year old catcher out of Colorado. With no real plan for Catcher after Luis Barrera moves on, having a young player in the hopper is a good thing. Butler projects to be average to above-average defensively, but should be an above-average BBA batter.

With building a competitive org the main goal of Webb, these picks should be quite helpful in achieving that goal.

I like both of those picks.