Charm City 2056.3 - Draft and Welcome to the Show!

[DaveB]

The Draft:

1st Round:

The 2056 draft came and went. We had the 33rd overall selection in the draft this season due to our recent success story. When you're drafting this far back in the draft it's a real dilemma. Do you draft the best player available in your eyes, do you draft the player with the highest outfield/infield range who can hit and pray to the OOTP gods for a talent increase, or best pitcher available regardless of whether or not they look like a potential back of the rotation guy? With the 33rd pick I went with what I felt was the best player available, even though he's a 1B. I selected 1B: Henry Arthur. Arthur is a guy who if he reaches his fullest potential and doesn't develop could possibly be a solid platoon 1B/DH type who will draw a lot of walks and his 10-20 homers. I was drawn to him because our scouts noticed an uptick in his contact, power, and eye in recent seasons and we're hopeful that trend will continue.

2nd Round:

Ideally I'd like to take a pitcher and hitter in the first two rounds. This draft the pitching really didn't appeal to me. So I went with another hitter. We selected OF: Carlos Macerino with the 69th overall selection. Macerino right now projects as a 4th outfield type who with some luck will develop. He should play some steady defense which will help his value and if you squint might be able to look not terrible in CF.

3rd Round:

We finally added a pitcher. SP: Rafael Cedeño was the 105th player chosen. I honestly thought about taking Cedeno with the 69th selection, but his injury scared me away from him. Apparently his current bone spur in the elbow injury scared enough teams away to have him drop to us in the 3rd round. Even with a fragile injury history I think he might be a sleeper in the draft due to an uptick in stuff recently. I believe had he been uninjured he wouldn't gone early in the 3rd round possibly even in the 2nd round.

One to Watch:

This little piece is more for me to look back on in the future. I'm interested in seeing what happens with 3B: Elvin 'Butter' Cade. Cade is a guy who I think will be fun to watch develop and root for because he's a player who I'm expecting to learn just about every position on the diamond except catcher and pitcher. He's a switch hitter so if he gets any kind of contact increase while he develops he'll be a very nice depth/utility guy in the future. We selected him in the 4th round.

Welcome to the Show!:

Our injuries that have piled up have been documented by myself and others. While injuries suck they do allow for a good amount of players to possibly re-establish themselves in the majors, or to make their major league debut. With the recent season ending injury to MR: Wayne Dorsey, I decided to promote MR: Lev Lutsenko. Lutsenko is the 50th rated prospect in the game and our #2 prospect according to OOTP metrics. He really earned a look. In 24.2 innings in AAA he's amassed a 1.46 ERA in 24.2 innings of work while striking out 28. It's probably going to be a cup of tea in the show as MR: Clarence Pritchard is nearing his return date from the IL. It's still a well deserved promotion and a long journey for Lutsenko, who was drafted in the 7th round of the 2049 draft by Cairo of the GBC (Then UMEBA). He signed with us as a minor league free agent in 2053 for 230k.

Hope everyone enjoyed the read and have a good rest of your day.

[Trebro]

Looks like Cedeno got hurt practically right out of the gate. ugh