DuckDuckGose

Very strong and when you think that Drabek and Stroman could reasonably be fighting for a spot in August as well it gets even better.

Perhaps STL would move Wong for relief help. It would take a lot more than Oliver though.

For now it looks to be Janssen Cecil Loup Delabar McGowan Lincoln Wagner Rogers with Oliver L Perez Santos coming off the DL at some point this season

No way AA can save enough money to sign Brentz and Tellez. At least it seems like it would take at least $2.5M... If he gets it done it will look great though.

Only if you believe in the bats. Lots of evaluators don't think any of those guys will hit very much at the MLB level. Bickford, Shipley, Harvey and Stanek were probably the best pitchers available. Bickford might have the best fastball of that group and he is only 17 with some room for projection. I'm annoyed that they didn't go bat too but, I'm quite excited to add this kind of arm to the system at the same time.

I would have liked AA to go for a bat in the first this year (and basically any draft) but, I liked his strategy of loading up on comp picks and taking high upside pitchers. Obviously he can't do that anymore and he needs another way to find high upside pitching. He's gone the high risk, high reward route. Hopefully it pays off. I guess the big problem here is there wasn't an impact bat at 10 this year. After the Pirates took Meadows there was only a bunch of defence first prospects and a few college hitters (plus Smith) that had huge question marks. I'd like to believe that if one of Meadows/Frazier/Moran/Bryant fell AA would have jumped at the chance to take them. Once those guys were gone you can make a pretty good case for Bickford as BPA (although I would argue Shipley) at 10. I do have to say I'm quite excited to see if he can K 17 in a row in a Jays uniform.

But just because you can doesn't mean you should. Besides there aren't pitchers as projectable as Bickel unless they have a firm college commitment or crazy signing demands and you are not going to get a FB like Bickford's that late (upper 90's sure but not 95-97mph with command). Basically you either pay him like a 1st round pick after the 10th or you take him early and pay him like a 1st rounder.

That's not really true. Obviously you CAN get good pitchers at the back end of the draft but, normally front-end starters come from the 1st round or international FA. Take a look at some the best starters (just went down the list of leaders) from around the MLB; Verlander - 1st rounder (2nd overall) Kershaw - 1st rounder (7th overall) Cain - 1st rounder (25th overall) Hamels - 1st rounder (17th overall) Zimmermann - 2nd rounder Scherzer - 1st rounder (11th overall) Wainwright - 1st rounder (29th overall) Harvey - 1st rounder (7th overall) Lee - 4th rounder Shields - 16th rounder Latos - 11th rounder Lester - 2nd rounder Buchholz - 1st rounder (42nd overall) Miller - 1st rounder (19th overall) Bailey - 1st rounder (17th overall) Strasburg - 1st rounder (1st overall) Bumgarner - 1st rounder (10th overall) Felix - International FA Anibal - International FA Darvish - International FA Additionally to sign high upside HS pitchers you need to use your leverage to get them away from college. Money talks but, the money isn't necessarily there after round 1 or 2. To lock up Brentz the Jays need to save money in the other rounds of the draft. We aren't talking a couple hundred K either, we are talking a couple million which, is going to be very hard to find for any GM in any draft. I'd love to see AA get this done but the most likely scenario is he goes to college and is a 1st round pick in a couple years.

I'm hoping so, it would be a pretty brutal draft (on paper at least) if AA doesn't snag a couple guys today.

Id want two bats, if AA is going for an arm then i give up

Manny was a headcase, im not interested in his less talented offspring.

They can sign for more but anything over 100k comes out of your budget...

Im eyeing Biggio, Longhi and Woodman. Any idea what these guys are asking for?

Justin Jackson, Kevin Ahrens, Jim Negrych?

Kevin Pillar, AJ Jimenez and Anthony Gose! #STARS

Nope http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/events/draft/y2013/drafttracker.jsp#ft=team&fv=tor

If AA is going to get those guys it's much better he targets them in the 6th instead of the 8th.

I don't know much about him but Greene reminds me of Nicolino. He has a good pitchers frame that is incredibly lanky and has some projection, very repeatable delivery and good movement on his secondaries. Shocked AA still hasn't grabbed a bat yet though.

Thanks for the heads up, I'll keep an eye out for the names. From the article I read the inefficiency was true 1B, not guys that have big bats and move though.

Hoping Denney in the 3rd, O'Neil in the 4th. Then I'd say AA had an amazing draft.

Apparently 1B are the new under-valued market inefficiency money-ball pick. What are your thoughts on the guys that are left, do any of them have a chance to be a special bat at the MLB level?

Denney in the 3rd would be a still! I was upset they passed on him in the 2nd...

Ya, on draft day. Most of them don't have quite as good of stuff. Sanchez, Smoral, Norris, Stroman and Syndergaard are probably the best comps and obviously the group with elite stuff.

O'Neil sounds really interesting for round 3...

I am accepting that he has been very good. He looks like a different pitcher this year, one who has the stuff to start. He's been used as a backend reliever in low-leverage situations. (1, 2) Lately that has changed a bit but, the Jays still have 3 or 4 options ahead of him including 2 LHP (not to mention Dustin McGowan a week or so away, Santos coming back at some point and Luis Perez coming back at the AS break). With Esmil Rogers getting spot starts the Jays should use this opportunity to piggyback Cecil and begin stretching him out. Start with 3IP and give him a month (4-6 outings) or so to get used to it and then bump him to 5IP. If he has efficient outings let him get to 6IP at the tail end of the year, if not use that BP depth and pull him after 5IP. 1. http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=rel&lg=all&qual=10&type=c,63,64,65,68,70,13,122,6&season=2013&month=0&season1=2013&ind=0&team=14&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&sort=6,d, 2. http://www.fangraphs.com/statsplits.aspx?playerid=2660&position=P&season=2013#standard