Draft Day

One of the best days of the year (if not The Best Day of the Year) is SLUBA Draft Day.  And this year we were celebrating our 30th draft.  Amazing!  Here's a photo of Our Glorious Founder, J Michael Kenyon.

Several surprises happened prior to Draft Day this year.  The minor leagues produced three big leaguers that I hadn't expected.  Jose Fernandez made the Marlin opening day roster (he was going to be the Flemingo no-brainer first round pick in our minor league draft, Aaron Hicks was one of the darlings of spring training and made the Twins roster as an outfielder, and Brad Peacock was named a starting pitcher for Houston.  I had hoped to have all three of these players on my minor league roster (at $3 each) at the end of the day - but now it was far from a sure thing, since I would have to bid on all of them.

The Flemingos went into the draft with a simple objective.  Get Pedro Alvarez.  Regardless of the cost.  I had six openings - third base (Pedro's spot!), shortstop, outfield and three pitching spots.  Looking over the available free agents I was depressed by the players that might fill those positions.  Third base and shortstop especially looked poor - lots of "great glove and hopefully he'll be able to hit enough to keep his job" type players.  So Pedro Alvarez was The Man.

I also have players who might fill some of the other spots arriving soon from the minor leagues.  Zach Wheeler from the Mets would take a pitching spot.  Christian Yelich of the Marlins would fill the outfield spot.  And maybe Jurickson Profar at shortstop.  All of them probably in the next couple months (we'll see...).  So basically, I wanted to fill the third base opening with Alvarez, pick up a $1 shortstop and outfielder, and see what pitchers might be available for two of the three openings (and fill the other one with a $1 pitcher that I could toss aside when Wheeler arrives).

It was a simple plan.  Easily executed.  And, ultimately, doomed to failure.

When people named their 11 keepers the flaws in my plan became evident.  Third baseman Will Middlebrooks from Boston was tossed into the free agent pool.  And shortstop Elvis Andrus from Texas was also now available.  Suddenly my sole focus on Pedro Alvarez was getting to be a bit of a fuzzy focus... Alvarez, Andrus, and Middlebrooks were now all on my third base/shortstop radar.

Using the "Bill Kinsella Plan" I was not going to name any of these players - I would let others bring them up and then bid on them.  Early in the draft I planned to name players that the other owners would covet and let them spend their available funds - we all started with about the same amount ($25-$35).  So when it came around to me I named that darling of spring training - Aaron Hicks and bid $1.

 I sat back to watch the bidding.  Silence.  Going once.  Silence.  Going twice.  Silence.  Sold to the Flemingos for $1.  Hmmmm...  That wasn't what I expected.

So now my only outfield spot was filled and I would have to name either a shortstop, third baseman, or pitcher.  I didn't want to name either of those infield spots - so I would be naming pitchers from then on.  It certainly cut down on my flexibility.

A bad start.

Pretty soon Will Middlebrooks' name came up.  I joined the bidding and knew that I had Pedro Alvarez to fall back on if I couldn't get Middlebrooks.  In the end I prevailed.

Middlebrooks put on a Flemingo Pink Jersey and will be paid $9 this year.

I was happy.  I came into the draft targeting Alvarez and came away with Middlebrooks (who CBSSports.com had listed as the ninth best third baseman with Alvarez as their number eleven).  So mission accomplished.

When it was my turn again I named Jose Fernandez who was supposed to be my first round minor league pick before the Marlins made the stupifyingly bizarre move of adding him to their opening day roster.  I had a  top price of $5 for him.  I figured that if I had picked him up in the minor league draft his salary would have been $3 and it would increase to $5 in a

couple years - so if I could get him for $5 or less it was the same as drafting him #1.  It's an odd thought process, but it's what I came up with...  Plus, I don't have much hope this year for a player that's only 20 and has never pitched above A ball...

The bidding on Fernandez wasn't very spirited and eventually I got him for $5.  OK.

The only remaining target now was Elvis Andrus, the
best shortstop still available.  I had $10 left and could make a top bid of $8.  The only other team needing a shortstop was the Skillets and Bob had $12 left to spend and could bid more than I could on Andrus.  And I knew he would if necessary.  So I sat back and hoped that Bob would find another player that he liked enough to give me the hammer in the Andrus bidding.

When it was my turn to name a player again I chose Wily Peralta, a pitcher with Milwaukee whose first name I liked (sometimes these drafts aren't all science...).  I got him for $1.  And I must admit that he looks wily in this photo.

Then a catcher named Willin Rosario was tossed into the ring.  Fortunately, the Skillets needed a catcher and Rosario was by far the best available.  Bob was in the bidding!  Eventually, as I held my breath, Rosario went to the Skillets for $7.  Now the most Bob could bid on a player (uh, let's say Elvis Andrus for instance...) was $4 and I could go as high as $8.  I had The Hammer(tm)!

I named Elvis Andrus at my next opportunity and the bidding went as expected - my $5 bid over the Skillets' $4 bid put the Texas shortstop on the Flemingo roster.

Elvis looks very happy.





I then picked up Brad Peacock for $1 and I was done.  $96 of my $100 pool of funds spent.

Like Elvis, I was happy too.

We then went to the minor league draft.  I had 5 picks in the 5 rounds (having been less than successful in last year's playoffs, I had the first pick in each round).  My strategy was to trust the people at Baseball America - they've been experts on the minor leagues since back before SLUBA started and certainly know more about minor league players than I do.

I had a copy of their Prospect Handbook where they rate the top 30 minor leaguers for each major league team on a weird 20-80 scale (a scale that baseball scouts invented a century ago).  Their book included only 1 player with a 75 rating (Dylan Bundy who was already on the Fungoes' roster).  There were 15 players with 70 ratings.  Ten of those fifteen were already on SLUBA rosters and one was in the majors (Jose Fernandez who I successfully grabbed earlier), so that left just four 70-rated players still available for this draft.  In order of their Baseball America overall ranking they were, Byron Buxton, an outfielder from Minnesota; Carlos Correa, a shortstop from Houston, and Kyle Zimmer, a pitcher from Kansas City, and Lucas Giolito a pitcher with Washington (who is possibly out this entire season after having Tommy John surgery).

There were another 6 players (not already on SLUBA rosters) who Baseball America rated 65 and they would be my targets after the 70-rated players were all picked.

I selected Buxton with my first pick.  While I have a plethora of outfielders, he seems like a player with great skills and I'll find room for him if he develops like expected.

In the second round I chose one of the 65-rated players - Javier Baez of the Chicago Cubs.  He's a shortstop (I had only outfielders and pitchers (except for Jurickson Profar, who might end up as an outfielder too) on my minor league roster and needed some infielders).  Correa had gone second in this draft right after I had picked Buxton.  And Addison Russell of Oakland, another shortstop, was picked just before me by the Suns.  So Baez was the best available shortstop at the time and appears to be an excellent hitter.  We'll see.

In the third round I was happy to see that Kyle Zimmer was still available.  Maybe he wasn't on many of the other draft lists.  I don't know, but I picked him up with hopes that he'll develop into the ace pitcher that some people predict.

Fourth round was a surprise as I picked up Lucas Giolito, the last of the 70-rated players He's recovering from surgery, but might be another ace according to Baseball America.  We'll see.

In the end I selected 3 of the 4 "70" rated players and 4 of the top 5 on my Top Secret Draft List!  Nice!

And for my final selection, I went with personal scouting.  Last year at a couple Everett Aquasox games that Bob and I attended, the portly Dan Vogelbach hit 4 home runs and pretty much demolished the Aquasox singlehandedly.  A newspaper report sums it up.  After seeing those homers, I decided to make him my final minor league draft choice this year.

After the draft Bob and I headed downstairs to the baseball card shop in the Third Place Commons.  I told the guy running the shop that we had just had our draft and I wanted cards for all my players.  He said he bet that his league had been around longer than ours.  I doubted that and told him so.  I was wrong.  He started in 1982.  WOW!  We had a discussion about the early days of pen and paper statistics from USA Today and how things have changed. He's going to pull the cards for me and I'll pick them up sometime in the future.

Overall this was one of the best SLUBA drafts I remember having.  We had a relatively quiet room all to ourselves, the bidding was spirited, and a good time was had by all.

Go Big Pink Machine!