Review: My Shadow Draft

I wouldn’t say that I pride myself in anything really. My knowledge is actually rather fickle and that’s just in general. From random TV Shows (Community, Psych, Heroes, ect) to Baseball, the depth of knowledge is rarely so great that I can’t ever learn any more from a situation that arises or a specific individual. That’s one of the great things about reading blogs from other people, most of the time regardless of the subject you learn something.

The other day I was reading about Jack London, writer of the beloved novel “White Fang”. You know the Disney movie starring Ethan Hawk in the 90’s, well there is a book too. It was actually written first, if you could believe such a thing. Turns out good ol’ Jack London was a HUGE socialist. Now, I’m not trying to bring politics to the blog–I have a particular disdain for all the junk that is currently floating around my facebook right now– but it was something that particularly surprised me.  Who would’ve guessed that one? Not me.

Anyways, while on the subject of knowledge, I do believe that I have a pretty good handle on the MLB Draft. I mean, as much as anyone could have without traveling around. I watch a lot of video; I subscribe to a lot of different writers specifically for it and I bug a lot of people that I really respect.

It’s partially why I enjoy performing a Mariners Shadow draft the past couple of years.

That said it’s always cool to compare what I think should have been done versus what actually was done. I mean why not. Let’s see how much I know. Let’s compare the 2010 and 2011 McNamara drafts versus what I produced. I don’t really think I did all that well, but again; let’s just see where things fell.

2010

McNamara

POS

$cost$

Harrison

POS

$cost$

R1-STaijuan Walker

RHP

800,000

Stetson Allie

RHP

2,250,000

R2Marcus Littlewood

SS

900,000

AJ Cole

RHP

2,000,000

R3

Ryne Stanek

RHP

DNS

Jake Hernandez

C

DNS

R4James Paxton

LHP

942,000

James Paxton

LHP

942,000

R5Stephen Pryor

RHP

153,000

Jordan Buckley

OF

DNS

R6Christian Carmichael

C

150,000

Robbie Ray

LHP

799,000

R7Mickey Wiswall

1B

150,000

John Hinson

2B/3B

DNS

R8Jabari Blash

OF

140,000

Steve Wilkerson

SS

DNS

R9Luke Taylor

RHP

125,000

Phil Wunderlich

1B

100,000

R10Tyler Burgoon

RHP

125,000

Adam Eaton

OF

125,000

R11

Jon Keller

RHP

DNS

Martin Viramontes

LHP

DNS

R12Stefen Romero

3B

100,000

Austin Wilson

OF

DNS

R13Jason Markovitz

LHP

Signed

Chase Burnette

OF

100,000

R14

Tyler Linehan

LHP

DNS

Jimmy Hodgskin

LHP

DNS

R15Charles Kaalekhi

RHP

125,000

Jordan Shipers

LHP

800,000

Total

3,710,000

Total

7,116,000

Obviously, I came out on the expensive side, breaking the 7 million dollar mark, but really that would only place me 12^th among all teams in MLB. While yes, it’s on the expensive side it’s hardly what I consider going all out. My goal is normally to attempt to stay below the 8 million dollar mark.

Really the biggest difference between the two different drafts, at least in my eyes, is the 7 different guys that failed to sign in my draft compared to that of the 3 for the McNamara group (kind of sounds like some evil organization in a “B movie”).

In all honest, I think the talent pools of the two drafts are pretty comparable. Looking back now a year and a half later from the event (even if that’s not necessarily the appropriate amount of time for such an evaluation), you can see that I brought into the organization three possible above average starting pitchers.

Stetson Allie probably was a poor choosing as it looks like he almost certainly will end up in the bullpen at this point, and may never be A) worth his signing bonus, B) as good as Stephen Pryor and even C) a Major League pitcher. That said, in fairness people warned me and I choose not to listen.

Overall I give the McNamara group the edge. But, considering everything I do think I did grab a few solid pieces out of the draft and it’s too bad the likes of Jake Hernandez and John Hinson didn’t sign because I think that it is possible that I could have come out even.

Now looking at the 2011 draft, I was determined to draft more “signable” guys while not going a projected 10 million dollar budget. I upped it a bit since they had the #2 pick and you knew they were going to spend a little more than normal.

Let’s take a look.

2011

McNamara

POS

$cost$

Harrison

POS

$cost$

R1Danny Hultzen

LHP

6,350,000

Dylan Bundy

RHP

4,000,000

R2Brad Miller

SS

750,000

Jason Esposito

3B

600,000

R3

Kevin Cron

1B

DNS

Pratt Maynard

C

315,000

R3-SCarter Capps

RHP

500,000

Ian Gardeck

RHP

DNS

R4John Hicks

C

240,000

Nicky Delmonico

3B

1,525,000

R5Tyler Marlette

C

650,000

Ryan Wright

2B

225,000

R6James Zamarripa

OF

200,000

Tyler Dugas

OF

DNS

R7Steve Proscia

3B

160,000

Burch Smith

RHP

250,000

R8Carson Smith

RHP

215,000

Carlos Rodon

LHP

DNS

R9Cavan Cohoes

SS

650,000

Devin Jones

RHP

97,500

R10Dan Paolini

2B

125,000

Dusty Robinson

OF

95,000

R11Cameron Hobson

LHP

Signed

Preston Tucker

1B

DNS

R12Mike Dowd

C

100,000

Blake Forsland

LHP

DNS

R13Jamal Austin

OF

Signed

Austin Nola

SS

DNS

R14Cody Weiss

RHP

Signed

Elvin Soto

C

DNS

R15Mike McGee

OF

Signed

Trey Ford

SS

Signed

Total

9,940,000

Total

7,107,500

Okay, a few thoughts come immediately to mind. The first was I was surprised how many college guys DIDN’T sign. I thoroughly expected Gardeck, Dugas, Tucker and Nola all to sign, well at least half of them. That really kind annoyed me and it also explains why I am nearly 3 million dollars under the Mariners budget. That said I feel as if the talent that I brought in was just as good if not better at this point. Of course we won’t *really* know anything about this draft class for another 3-5 years down the road.

I really like my class right now and in the effort to remain impartial I’m going to say for the time being the two classes are about even. But, I can’t wait to review this next year.

What do you guys think anyone that you would have drafted at different points, any sleepers out there?