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OT: Raise the Jolly Roger: Congrats to the Houston Cheaters on their win

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Empoleon8771 said:
I think it's probably that he doesn't have any clear top pitches, he just has 4 decent to good pitches. Just throwing hard doesn't necessarily mean your fastball is good.
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His pedigree isn’t the best either which makes scouts hesitant in some circles. Dude was a walk on at Sanford. Granted he finished as a top 31 finalist for the golden spikes award.

DocEmrickSkitters said:
Is it verboten to say I'm not impressed with these highlights?

This is lefty stuff that can get absolutely crushed at the big league level.
Hope we're saving $ on this pick to use later.
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He hides the ball well which is worth a couple extra ticks in velocity
 
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Just for fun -- the 5% we can go over of our pool without a penalty is about 685K. Pick 83 has a value of about 770K, which gets you just a hair under 1.5M. Harrington's slot is 2.15 and Barco's is 1.78, so maybe between the two of them, you can squeeze 500K. I think you need Porter to be willing to set his pricetag at 3M, aka be pretty eager to sign. That price got us Chandler last year, who was ranked a little behind where Porter often was, but a lot of this kind of thing comes down to the scouts and their relationships with the player.

I'd be surprised if we shaved a full 1M on Johnson, though there is some chance, given how uncertain his prognosis was after us. Maybe if you get 500K there and then punt both rounds 4 and 5 with a college senior, you end up with the total for Porter. All signs point to him going to college, but I'd be more scared off with a Vanderbilt commit.

I'm of two minds about Barco. It seems like his 2022 early results had him trending upwards, and so it might be just a question of having seen him do it more at the college level in addition to him having a fairly well-established track record. I also think it might be a little bit more of a floor move, as he should have a future in the bullpen with that slider if nothing else. If that's the idea, then I don't hate it, but I also would want to see us then either have something big up our sleeve for 83, or more likely, be able to jump on multiple college guys who might move quick and could be role players.

In general, I've been won over to the basic slot spread strategy, with the class being about quantity as much as a quality player to pin your hopes on. But there's no reason to follow the same script every year, and teams that produce good systems do so by converting later round picks just as much as the first handful. In that sense, I think getting depth options that are partially aimed at coinciding with your timeline is a strategy that makes sense.

In terms of what's now left, the long gap between 46 and 83 has unsurprisingly seen a lot go away: Walter Ford just got sniped, Fabian is gone, a chunk of the college pitching is also gone. There are still some guys sitting there -- I like Trystan Vrieling a lot as a college P, and another option which might make sense if we're trying to target a window is Ben Joyce, as he could be firing 103+mph fastballs out of the bullpen as soon as next year. Barring the bold surprise of us floating Porter this long, I'm kind of in the camp of rooting for more depth, either in the form of one of these college SPs or in the slightly unorthodox form of drafting an RP in Joyce.
 
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DJ Spinoza said:
Just for fun -- the 5% we can go over of our pool without a penalty is about 685K. Pick 83 has a value of about 770K, which gets you just a hair under 1.5M. Harrington's slot is 2.15 and Barco's is 1.78, so maybe between the two of them, you can squeeze 500K. I think you need Porter to be willing to set his pricetag at 3M, aka be pretty eager to sign. That price got us Chandler last year, who was ranked a little behind where Porter often was, but a lot of this kind of thing comes down to the scouts and their relationships with the player.

I'd be surprised if we shaved a full 1M on Johnson, though there is some chance, given how uncertain his prognosis was after us. Maybe if you get 500K there and then punt both rounds 4 and 5 with a college senior, you end up with the total for Porter. All signs point to him going to college, but I'd be more scared off with a Vanderbilt commit.

I'm of two minds about Barco. It seems like his 2022 early results had him trending upwards, and so it might be just a question of having seen him do it more at the college level in addition to him having a fairly well-established track record. I also think it might be a little bit more of a floor move, as he should have a future in the bullpen with that slider if nothing else. If that's the idea, then I don't hate it, but I also would want to see us then either have something big up our sleeve for 83, or more likely, be able to jump on multiple college guys who might move quick and could be role players.

In general, I've been won over to the basic slot spread strategy, with the class being about quantity as much as a quality player to pin your hopes on. But there's no reason to follow the same script every year, and teams that produce good systems do so by converting later round picks just as much as the first handful. In that sense, I think getting depth options that are partially aimed at coinciding with your timeline is a strategy that makes sense.

In terms of what's now left, the long gap between 46 and 83 has unsurprisingly seen a lot go away: Walter Ford just got sniped, Fabian is gone, a chunk of the college pitching is also gone. There are still some guys sitting there -- I like Trystan Vrieling a lot as a college P, and another option which might make sense if we're trying to target a window is Ben Joyce, as he could be firing 103+mph fastballs out of the bullpen as soon as next year. Barring the bold surprise of us floating Porter this long, I'm kind of in the camp of rooting for more depth, either in the form of one of these college SPs or in the slightly unorthodox form of drafting an RP in Joyce.
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I'm a little bit disappointed in this draft, but not majorly so. We got our guy in Johnson.

Hoping we'd grab another 1-2 guys who would immediately slot into our top 10 - like last year with Solo and Chandler who are in our top 5-6 now IMO - was probably always optimistic. Nonetheless Harrington is a viable prospect. TINSTAAPP and all - you can't have enough guys with live stuff and some track record of college success.

Since I'm unclear of what the timeline exactly is at this point, I'll simply root for best signable players available.
 
Pumped about Johnson. Exciting skill set and upside.

Should take away a bit of the stench from past 4th overall picks by us. Brad Lincoln, Daniel Moskos, and Tony Sanchez.
 
td_ice said:
Pumped about Johnson. Exciting skill set and upside.

Should take away a bit of the stench from past 4th overall picks by us. Brad Lincoln, Daniel Moskos, and Tony Sanchez.
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Moskos was probably the guy that finally got DL fired.

The '09 draft was an interesting strategy by NH but totally botched.
Still I think Tony Sanchez was an interesting cautionary tale of drafting a glove-first guy at catcher.

The glove turned out to only be average by ML standards and you simply don't know if a catcher's lower body can hold up to 100+ games a season.

Speaking of catchers, where are we at on the Davis/Endy catcher of the future thing? Endy is quietly but easily in our Top 10 prospects for me and I definitely see him at least platooning at catcher. Davis has been so injured that it's hard to tell exactly what's going on, but I think he's more of a 1B/RF/DH once he gets here.

I think in 2 years we are looking at Endy/a vet catcher duo.
 
I still want to see how thing play out on Day 2, as there are a couple different directions things could go in. I think with some of the HS arms, there's a little bit of a game of seeing them slide and then calling the bluff in terms of the number they put out on Day 1. If that number changes for Day 2, then they might be available depending on how your slot pool is playing out, which then has further consequences for what you do with the next picks -- instead of adding some other potential developmental projects or college depth guys, you might have to punt several in order to make sure you can get enough money for your third round pick.

It's hard to know, but just for example, that could be what happened in terms of getting Chandler last year, though in that case, it seems like we had more of an idea that he was part of the strategy as it was unfolding, instead of him becoming a possibility based on how everything unfolded. Brock Porter is also a Clemson commit, but his high school is in Michigan, so not sure what the Pirates presence is there (the scout who was at all of Johnson's games is the same scout who was close with Chandler).

I'll be surprised if Porter is in play for us, but I think we can stretch and give him 3M if he's willing to take that number. Longenhagen mentioned that he thinks Harrington and Barco could be underslot, though he didn't think Johnson would. Even if Johnson is right at slot, I think there's still some wiggle room to get to 3M, especially if one of the other two really cut a deal to save 1M or so.

The obvious question in general is if a team is positioned to get Porter or if he'll go to school. But there are plenty of other ways to add some more quality players here, and ultimately I'm of the mindset that this class will be a home run with Johnson leading it off. Barco seems like someone who is a little bit divisive, with not a lot of love for his fastball, and I see mixed things about his changeup. Longenhagen mentioned that post-injury, he may throw more splitters which he did in high school, but I look at the delivery and see a reliever. I lean towards saying that I would rather have seen us go with Porter and then punt picks #3-5 for slot purposes, but it's possible that Porter's number has stayed high and he'll just go to college, and in any case it's too early to have too strong of opinions about anything.
 
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DocEmrickSkitters said:
Moskos was probably the guy that finally got DL fired.

The '09 draft was an interesting strategy by NH but totally botched.
Still I think Tony Sanchez was an interesting cautionary tale of drafting a glove-first guy at catcher.

The glove turned out to only be average by ML standards and you simply don't know if a catcher's lower body can hold up to 100+ games a season.

Speaking of catchers, where are we at on the Davis/Endy catcher of the future thing? Endy is quietly but easily in our Top 10 prospects for me and I definitely see him at least platooning at catcher. Davis has been so injured that it's hard to tell exactly what's going on, but I think he's more of a 1B/RF/DH once he gets here.

I think in 2 years we are looking at Endy/a vet catcher duo.
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Moskos was abysmal. Imo what got DL fired was Rajai Davis for Matt Morris. YIKKKKESSSS LOL

Theyre going need to tell Davis to stand off the plate a bit. Or at least stop crowding it. Dude got hit twice in a game for five straight games.
 
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Cool video. If I could sign Cruz up for Pedro '12-'15 numbers, I'd do it.

I also think 2015 was a solid offensive season for him and wished we didn't let him go.
 
NewAgeOutlaw said:
RE: Cruz

High strikeouts, rolling over and popping up alot= flying open too early

This is where a competent team would help him in fixing mechanical issues. I guess we will see what happens.
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I can’t judge him off of 98 at bats. But, like you, I am reluctant to trust that the coaching staff will develop him into a MVP caliber player which is his ceiling.
 
DocEmrickSkitters said:


Cool video. If I could sign Cruz up for Pedro '12-'15 numbers, I'd do it.

I also think 2015 was a solid offensive season for him and wished we didn't let him go.
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Hahaha, I just saw that thumbnail a minute ago. That title is hilarious.

I'll have to watch it.

Funny, when listening to Altoona Curve guy interview on our prospects, every single one had the same issue, according to him. And that was they all needed to cut down on the K's.
 
td_ice said:
Hahaha, I just saw that thumbnail a minute ago. That title is hilarious.

I'll have to watch it.

Funny, when listening to Altoona Curve guy interview on our prospects, every single one had the same issue, according to him. And that was they all needed to cut down on the K's.
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I'm not sure how much the issue is the hitting really.

The pitching is so absurd these days - see the scouting report of Harrington yesterday with a grade of a mid-rotation upside - that batters can't help but K.

I read somewhere that now really expensive pitching machines can actually mimic big league stuff and randomness. If Bobbo invests in anything, let's get 20 of those for this organization.
 
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Pirates take Jack Brannigan, 3rd round pick.

2 way player from Notre Dame. (3b/pitcher)

Mlb guys think Porter will be Texas in 4th round, or not picked.
 
We're moving at warp speed now lol.

Brannigan has some intrigue -- do you keep him a reliever/two-way player or try to have him focus on starting? He was announced as a two-way player, which is a good indication that we'll keep him there.

Without having any knowledge of much of the pool at this point, I'm hoping we go lots of college options with maybe a prep arm or two dotted in.
 
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