2019 MLB Draft Day 2 Thread

 

Guess we'll find out soon right?

 

If not this year, and next off season, I don't know when they'd do it.

 

The selection of the Connecticut SS seems to have brought the discussion to a standstill. 

 

Guy has an OBP of about .450 and walks twice as much as he strikes out.  MLB has him listed as a switch hitter and reports seem to say he can field well.

 

Maybe he's a dude that with a swing adjustment generates a lot more power.  Gotta love the bat skills though.

 

If not this year, and next off season, I don't know when they'd do it.

 

Agreed, which is why I said we'll know the answer to that soon enough.

 

Another college shortstop in the 7th round.  I will assume that some of these kids can/will play elsewhere.

 

With all the talk about lack of pitchers being taken, went back and counted how many went in the 6th round.  20 of the 30 picks were pitchers with all but one from college.  Yes, this does appear to be a different draft.

As a Cubs fan, some offices are just better at finding and developing offensive players than pitchers. As far as drafting a college SS, it means little, often they'll transition to 2B/3B/CF

Prato has some swagger:

 

https://www.theuconnblog.com/2019/6/2/18650040/watch-uconn-huskies-baseball-anthony-prato-predicts-clutch-home-run-in-ncaa-tournament

 

more

 

https://www.theuconnblog.com/2019/5/31/18648021/watch-uconn-huskies-baseball-shortstop-anthony-prato-makes-incredible-diving-catch-ncaa-tournament

 

As a Cubs fan, some offices are just better at finding and developing offensive players than pitchers. As far as drafting a college SS, it means little, often they'll transition to 2B/3B/CF

 

Agreed, every org has strengths and weaknesses......like I said, the Vikings refusal to draft OL early led to bad results on the OL, while the rest of the team looked good/great over the last few years. But it's a team game, and teams need to find ways to cover for their own weaknesses. The Cubs are trying to do that by buying FA SPs. 

 

It also led to people saying "see, they take OL" after they took them in round 4 and later, none of whom are all that good (or even in the NFL anymore). 

 

The Twins seem to be good at finding OF and SS. Probably catchers. Hopefully they are doing a good job trading for SP, because the draft looks suspect (outside the guy whose name I can't spell) to me.

Edited June 4, 2019 by Mike Sixel

I'm kind of bummed about the lack of HS kids, though I suppose they can still try to get some later, if they're somehow able to get some of these college juniors to go underslot.

 

I'm less concerned about the power/positional profile of these middle infielders. There seems to be a lot of them so it's likely someone will stick. Also, squeezing power out of the bats seems to be a new talent of this club. If they truly have found a trick to it, then getting guys who everyone else is unsure about developing power is a pretty smart move.

Not much in the way of senior signs so assume not much money for high school players then?  Glad they grabbed a couple light hitters but good hit\onbase guys.  That makes me feel a little better.

How many good/great pitchers do you think get drafted around round 5? 

 

I guess I should bail on the thread, it seems like people only want positive, gushing, posts.

 

Don’t bail. I, like many others here, value your opinions and views. While I may not always agree with you, I do think you bring good insight to the discussions. It’s baseball, nothing’s ever supposed to come easy .

Draft is so hard to judge until a few years down the road. However, I don't have an issue at all avoiding arms early in the draft. TINSTAAPP. Draft bats, draft bats, and then draft more bats. Trade your excess bats for proven pitching. I love this strategy 

 

But it's a team game, and teams need to find ways to cover for their own weaknesses. The Cubs are trying to do that by buying FA SPs. 

 

The Twins seem to be good at finding OF and SS. Probably catchers. Hopefully they are doing a good job trading for SP, because the draft looks suspect (outside the guy whose name I can't spell) to me.

Well the Cubs are draft a pitcher philosophy of late (especially this draft so far), but very little to show for it in the system.  So buying and trading for SP is vital, of course it doesn't help when you trade Eloy Jimenez and Dylan Cease for Quintana, and spend heavy on Chatwood and Darvish.  

 

If the Twins can keep drafting and finding those OF and SS it makes trading them so much easier.  

 

I’m kind of at a loss for words here... this isn’t the NFL (thank god for that), you know full well that it’s takes 3-5 years to truly judge a draft class. Just because the team isn’t drafting off of the list of players you think they need to be taking, does not mean they don’t know what they are doing. And calling folks uniformed for disagreeing with you is rather petty.

 

Hmm I thought it was pretty clear that I was being facetious. The only Twins pick I've ever criticized was Nick Burdi, under the prior regime. I personally don't try to generate an opinion out of thin air, which is all most of us have when it comes to amateurs.

Ugh. I happened to be looking at BPA on mlb's draft tracker. And I saw the DOBs.

 

Ouch.

(Edit because FML that was too tall)

 

Hmm I thought it was pretty clear that I was being facetious. The only Twins pick I've ever criticized was Nick Burdi, under the prior regime. I personally don't try to generate an opinion out of thin air, which is all most of us have when it comes to amateurs.

Fair enough. Apologies for misunderstanding.

Casey Legumina, RHP Gonzaga, Jr

 

That's 8 College Juniors in a row and 8 of 9 in the entire draft...Huh!

Edited June 4, 2019 by goulik

A pitcher of legumes. Interesting...

He appeared in 2 games in the Cape Cod League. 9 shutout innings. 10 hits in 9 innings. Gonzaga reliever. Started the 2 games in the Cape.

College Juniors market inefficiency? Maybe the seniors are overvalued because of their sign-ability.

Legumina was previously drafted by the Indians as a late round selection.

Nice to see us pick another pitcher, but I’d still like to see us pick atleast one protectable HS arm like Gavin Collyer, Alex McFarlane, or Sebastian Keane.

 

Casey Legumina, RHP Gonzaga, Jr

 

That's 8 College Juniors in a row and 8 of 9 in the entire draft...Huh!

 

As a Gonzaga alum, I approve.

A big lefty pitcher!!!!!

From MLB.com

 

LHP Headrick, Brent

 

6' 6 227lbs
DOB:12/17/97

 

Headrick has helped lead the Redbirds to success in 2019. The 6-foot-6 lefty mixes his fastball that tops out at 91 MPH with his breaking ball. Despite having relatively average offerings has been able to miss bats. Headrick eclipsed the century mark with a team-leading 101 strikeouts for Illinois State this season.

Edited June 4, 2019 by SwainZag

Someone mentioned the Astros draft. If you look at it you will see that Houston has drafted 4 center fielders and just 2 pitchers. 

 

The Twins have been drafting SSs and the Astros have been drafting CFs. There is a parallel of sorts here. I am not sure who mentioned Houston's draft earlier, but I am glad that the person did mention it. 

 

You know whose draft looks a lot like ours right now?  The Houston Astros.

 

New wave analytics are putting aside a lot of the old conventions.  I'd encourage people to read the Ringer article on the Astros that was recently posted.  

 

I would be wary of relying on what traditional scouting tells you about a player's strengths or weaknesses and just trust the process for now.

 

That is an awesome article.  It is very promising to see some of the concepts and practices being used here, and the results are obviously showing.

I did read the Ringer article the other day. I agree that it is awesome reading. The part on Castro

is fascinating: not good at framing/blocking. They worked with him on these areas, and before long he is 

recognized as being quite good in this skill set. The part on Pressly is more in-depth.

From the previously mentioned Ringer article, “When I came there and saw our player-development goals, I was like, oh my word. This is stuff you can’t work on,” Fast says. “It was stuff like, ‘Improve your command.’ How’s a pitcher supposed to go into the off-season and improve his command? He needs a drill. He needs to know how to measure if he’s getting better.”  This, this, and this!  Maybe it's the educator in me but I never (ok, maybe not never, we all have to learn) understood the idea that players could, essentially, "just develop".  And it came down to 1 simple word, "how?".  That's the big reason analytics have taken hold and been successful, by addressing the "how are we going to reach our goal?" question.  My big frustration with the previous regime and the reason I'm very happy with the, kinda still, new guys.

 

 

The primary risk with almost all prospects is that they just aren't good enough. If they don't have the tools to make a difference, who cares if they have a mechanically sound swing?

 

You can try to fix mechanics much easier than you can improve athleticism. That's why teams have a minor league infrastructure, to hone players' skills and get the most of out their tools.

 

A good swing is basically all that matters.  You can have all the athleticism in the world and if you can't hit the ball you are a black hole on offense.  You don't need a ton of athleticism to play 1st, 3rd, Left field, DH and maybe even 2nd Base.  You can hide that if you find guys that hit.  Arraez is a good example.  He has no above average tools except his bat and yet he is more valuable than say a Pedro Floriman type player who has good speed, good arm, good defense but a horrible bat.  Arraez can still play decent defense and can help the offense.

 

While I agree you can't teach speed and arm strength teaching someone how to hit is no easy task either. Ask Bechtold, Pearson and Celestino.  Lot's of players never learn to do it well enough to make it.  Even guys with excellent approaches have trouble I'm thinking Lamonte Wade.  I just think that guys with better hit tools have a greater chance to make it because offense is so important.  Defense can only take you so far.  If you can't hit you can't move up.  If you can't move up you can't make it.  Hit tool is the most important thing then defense\athleticism.

Edited June 4, 2019 by Dman

Baseball America on Casey Legumina

 

 

 

Legumina is a 6-foot-2, 195-pound righthander who was drafted in the 25th round by the Blue Jays in 2016 and then selected in the 35th round by the Indians in 2018. This season hasn’t gone as planned for Legumina, who moved from the bullpen to the Bulldogs’ starting rotation and pitched just 24 innings before suffering a forearm strain. The righthander has a sound delivery and good arm speed, dialing his fastball up to 96 mph before being sidelined by the arm injury.

 

A good swing is basically all that matters.  You can have all the athleticism in the world and if you can't hit the ball you are a black hole on offense.  You don't need a ton of athleticism to play 1st, 3rd, Left field, DH and maybe even 2nd Base.  You can hide that if you find guys that hit.  Arraez is a good example.  He has no above average tools except his bat and yet he is more valuable than say a Pedro Floriman type player who has good speed, good arm, good defense but a horrible bat.  Arraez can still play decent defense and can help the offense.

 

While I agree you can't teach speed and arm strength teaching someone how to hit is no easy task either. Ask Bechtold, Pearson and Celestino.  Lot's of players never learn to do it well enough to make it.  Even guys with excellent approaches have trouble I'm thinking Lamonte Wade.  I just think that guys with better hit tools have a greater chance to make it because offense is so important.  Defense can only take you so far.  If you can't hit you can't move up.  If you can't move up you can't make it.  Hit tool is the most important thing then defense\athleticism.

But wouldn't having a great hit tool qualify as athleticism?  It might not be the traditional "measurables" gospel, but as I posted above I'm very happy with the new direction of the Twins org.  To get to my point; it seems analytics have started to redefine the definition of athleticism.