Thursday, June 09, 2005
DA DRAFT RECAP
Overall, the Sox did well with their top six picks and great with their seventh selection. If you aren't going to have a Sanchez on the club, so the term “dirty s” can thrown out now and again, then drafting a Blue can be considered a consolation prize. "Blue you're my boy!"
Anyway, Craig Hansen falling to the Sox was good fortune. It was surprising to see the MFY pass on the righthander from the City at 17. It is understandable that the other clubs would look elsewhere being a Scott Boras client, even though Baseball America ranked him the ninth best player in the draft. The selection of Hansen made this draft (I fully expect him to sign and quickly for Ryan Wagner, Chad Cordero money plus a few hundred thousand or $1.75-2.00 million.)
Hansen has been compared to Wagner. He made the jump to the Show the same year as he was drafted. Wagner contributed in his first year with the Reds and the Sox could certainly use a strikeout pitcher in the pen. We could see Hansen with the big club in September.
Ellsbury, Buchholz, and Lowrie are all solid picks. They are all college players with strong backgrounds. After these four, the Sox went with two high schoolers. The second, Jonathan Egan, is a catcher from Georgia. Egan has played tough competition and likely scouted by the highly regarded Rob English. Since catchers usually take a longer time to develop than other position players, getting an 18 or 19 year-old in the system could have him the bigs by 23 instead of 25 if the Sox went with a college catcher selection. As far as high schoolers go this looks like a solid choice too. The other seems questionable on the surface.
What I think happens is, between the ages of 18 and 21, a large number of pitchers are going to hurt their arms during the process of learning to pitch. If they go to college, they'll hurt their arms in college. If they enter pro ball, they'll hurt their arms in pro ball.
I found the above quote from Bill James a day before the draft. Hence, it was surprising to learn that the Sox drafted a high school pitcher, Michael Bowden, with a supplemental first round pick. James did go on to state that the Sox “look for a clean delivery” when evaluating high school pitchers. So did the Sox take Bowden down to Alabama to be evaluated by Dr. James Andrews? Will Bowden be the exception to the rule? Damn, I hope so. In Theo, We Trust.
Overall, the Sox did well with their top six picks and great with their seventh selection. If you aren't going to have a Sanchez on the club, so the term “dirty s” can thrown out now and again, then drafting a Blue can be considered a consolation prize. "Blue you're my boy!"
Anyway, Craig Hansen falling to the Sox was good fortune. It was surprising to see the MFY pass on the righthander from the City at 17. It is understandable that the other clubs would look elsewhere being a Scott Boras client, even though Baseball America ranked him the ninth best player in the draft. The selection of Hansen made this draft (I fully expect him to sign and quickly for Ryan Wagner, Chad Cordero money plus a few hundred thousand or $1.75-2.00 million.)
Hansen has been compared to Wagner. He made the jump to the Show the same year as he was drafted. Wagner contributed in his first year with the Reds and the Sox could certainly use a strikeout pitcher in the pen. We could see Hansen with the big club in September.
Ellsbury, Buchholz, and Lowrie are all solid picks. They are all college players with strong backgrounds. After these four, the Sox went with two high schoolers. The second, Jonathan Egan, is a catcher from Georgia. Egan has played tough competition and likely scouted by the highly regarded Rob English. Since catchers usually take a longer time to develop than other position players, getting an 18 or 19 year-old in the system could have him the bigs by 23 instead of 25 if the Sox went with a college catcher selection. As far as high schoolers go this looks like a solid choice too. The other seems questionable on the surface.
What I think happens is, between the ages of 18 and 21, a large number of pitchers are going to hurt their arms during the process of learning to pitch. If they go to college, they'll hurt their arms in college. If they enter pro ball, they'll hurt their arms in pro ball.
I found the above quote from Bill James a day before the draft. Hence, it was surprising to learn that the Sox drafted a high school pitcher, Michael Bowden, with a supplemental first round pick. James did go on to state that the Sox “look for a clean delivery” when evaluating high school pitchers. So did the Sox take Bowden down to Alabama to be evaluated by Dr. James Andrews? Will Bowden be the exception to the rule? Damn, I hope so. In Theo, We Trust.