BlueRocky

This draft podcast was brought to you by A&W’s straws and Home Depot’s EGO lawn mowers. And finally busted the myth if Corbin Carroll is Asian.

This episode was really fun. Lots of BJ draft talk and had a segment on Captain Kirk. Thought I talked a little bit too much on recording but it seemed pretty balanced overall, mad props to the great editing work. Had second thoughts about hearing my own voice, thought it would be more cringey. My mic could’ve been a bit closer though I’ll keep that in mind for next time. Thanks Alan and Mike for the invitation!

I wanted Rocker and Wilcox last year

cries

The Vlad shift is put everyone on the warning track, especially right down the middle straight through 2B and CF

I’m not sure about that. Logically it makes some sense but I think the Orioles are trying to be too cute thinking outside the box. You could DH him half the week going up the minors if you’re worried about wear and tear. Skills that don’t get used at all tend to degrade overtime, repetition is a huge thing for athletes. There are ways to manage his workload without moving him to 1B/OF. Shea Langeliers is supposedly the most polished defensive catcher that the scouts have seen in over a decade. Even more polished than Rutschman. Langeliers can probably catch right now in the MLB. But despite his defense already being so elite, I don’t hear the Braves going to exclusively 1B him until he reaches triple-A just to focus on his bat, that isn’t really how it works.

For anyone interested, we’ve been working on an article that covers the farm system called: “The First Three Waves of Blue Jays Prospect” Part one “Building Blocks” can be found here: https://www.radioscouts.com/blog/the-first-three-waves-of-blue-jays-prospects-part-one-building-blocks Part two “The Cornerstones”: https://www.radioscouts.com/blog/the-first-three-waves-of-blue-jays-prospects-part-two-cornerstones Part three should be up sometime next week. Including editing this draft took roughly 30 hours of work. Much thanks to P2F for his tedious editing work as well. And whoever decides to support by reading it

The full top 100 is posted on page 813

Pretty much every scout and crosschecker needs an idea how much a guy will sign for and usually will prod them for this information one way or another, many many phone calls are made before every pick. The BA article does a great job explaining this. Nobody wants to run into signing issues and bonus pool issues, teams plan and strategize their picks around a budget, and will skip guys if they don’t seem signable and within budget. There’s hundreds of names on the big board for round 4-10 and preference for one over another is minimal. Hundreds of these types of calls are made on draft week. There’s a difference between “offered him a deal” and: “Hi Parker, I’ve talked to our scouting director and we’re interesting in drafting you in the 4th round but it seem we have a budget of 489K, hypothetically is this a number you would potentially sign for? There’s no guarantees but if you are fine with it I’ll relay this to our scouting director.” “Hi Bob, we’ve received other phone calls that might offer us a higher number. We’re looking in the ball park of 750k.” “I’ll relay this to our scouting director, and he will make a decision. Thanks Parker.” “Offering him a deal” is more like this: D-Backs scout: “Hi Carroll. We are interested in picking you at 16 and we’re willing to pay you way overslot at 5.5 Million.” D-Backs know no other team is willing to match this, and Caroll will go check with other teams. This causes an illusion he is unsignable. True enough, Carroll turns around and checks with every other team, realizes nobody else willing to pay him that. Then explicitly states he wants 5.5M or better or will committ to college, this causes him to slide in the 1st round to Arizona. This is all hypothetical and just an example. But s*** like this actually happens. That’s one way for teams with very high slot pools to manipulate their picks, hence why it’s frowned upon.

This thread has jinxed Stroman by the way

5th round 2016

He won’t, even in this crummy FA market. He’s likely looking 100M/5y or better. Which is why an extension is very unlikely. We definitely have the payroll, but I don’t think FO believes he’s a clear no. 2 starter now let alone 4 years from now. I like Stroman but don’t think he’s going to take a reasonable deal and we’re not likely offering him anything more than reasonable.

If this is as bad as it gets for Jansen offensively, he’s going to be fine. I’m more worried about OF offense tbh, we’re barely getting replacement level production out there on some nights. Catcher is also the position our farm system has an abundance next to middle infield. If Jansen ends up less than ideal there’s always McGuire, Adams, Mineo, Kirk, Moreno, etc

They’re handing out free Sanchez replica jerseys today

I’m attending this game. Please give Stroman some run support. Thanks! I’m assuming they want both Rowdy and Sogard’s bat in the lineup. Biggio has played some 1B in both AA and AAA.

Almost thought we flipped Bichette for Soto

I would do $60M/4

He also had an amazing start to rookie ball and tailed off a bit, so I’m waiting for a bigger sample size before getting overly excited. Still, he’s been consistently hitting for power through every level. I don’t expect his ISO to stay near .286 all season but if he keeps it .180-.200 that’s indicative his bat has real pop. The low walk rates concern me a little bit, but if he’s keeping the strikeouts down it means he’s at least putting balls in play. He also runs well for a catcher, not unusal since his frame is almost like a shortstop. It looks like he’s in a good position to move up with the 2018 draft class like Groshans, Brodt, and Podkul. Conine will likely join Kirk in Dunedin with Warmoth, Noda, Stevenson, Young, Taylor, etc. Still expecting Cullen Large to be up with the Fisher Cats in the second half, he’s still doing well in Dunedin though not showing a lot of HR power, might be the FSL effect.

It's basically a bullpen day every time he starts, might as well.

RIP BBBB, see you in a week. I actually think he's pretty funny

I hear the guys down in Dunedin love this guy, it's the first time I've seen him pitch and Spraker had an excellent debut. He pitched against a very good Railriders team currently leading the division. Threw a 90-92mph FB. I think he might've touched 93 but I'm not sure. Had both 4-Seam and 2-Seam working and threw them in bunches, attacked the plate aggressively, an educated guess @70-75% fastballs. His 4-Seamer has good command, hit the top of the zone a lot. His 2-Seam had lots of tailing movement arm side, generated a lot of whiffs. I think he K'd two batters with it. Also threw a hammer 12-6 curveball for a strikeout, flashed it a few times to steal an easy strike. There was a second breaking ball that tailed down but didn't use it much, I think it was a slider (or could've just been a sloppy curve) I think I also saw like 2 changeups but he really didn't use it much. One of them got hammered for a base hit. He's right-handed and they said he's 6-3 200lbs. The way he pitches reminds me a little bit of a right-handed version of JA Happ, with a tick lower velo. I'm not sure if his velocity is good enough as a rotation arm for MLB. But he had good command of his pitches overall except a few bloopers and was really aggressive throwing strikes, he mixed up the speed and location pretty well. I can see why he did well down in Dunedin. His breaking pitch has good break but I think it's a little bit inconsistent with location and catches a lot of the plate, which is why I think he pitches so many fastballs. Ran to first base pretty well twice on a run down, looks like he could field his position. The run that scored wasn't his fault, Urena mailed it to home plate into the ground and McGuire couldn't catch it.

God I wish I rehearsed more. Walked into that one unprepared for what was coming.

Yes. Hope you made a big bet. Coors field Edwin Jackson is like one of those you can put down a mortgage payment and then quit your job afterwards (not encouraging you)

I selfishly want to see Conine stay in Lansing a bit longer just so we can see what Groshans Conine Moreno lineup would look like for an extended period, assuming Groshans is not staying on the IL all season.