Ah, down there at Tamarack for the Winter Games I take it?

But if traffic is bad going up to Brundage today, I’ll be back here whining.

Jeff Clement will spend all of 2006 in the minors, with an outside shot at a September callup, and probably the same for 2007.

He’ll then be traded along with Emiliano Fruto for Keith Foulke, whose arm will fall off warnming up for his Mariners debut.

One more hing – the traffic in McCall was very light all day today, but the parking lot at Paul’s Market was better than half full at 4 p.m.

By the way, have you checked out Papelbon’s PECOTA card? It hates him. His projected WARP by season? 2.0, 1.7, 1.5, 1.6, 1.1, never posting an ERA below 4.53 to go along with massive attrition rates. His comparables are guys like Art Mahaffey, Gil Meche, Kelvim Escobar, Barry Latman, and Paul Rigdon.

Needless to say, I’ll continue to say that Papelbon is a B pitching prospect, the kind of guy that almost every organization has.

I am really hoping that Missouri RHP Max Scherzer is still on the board when the M’s pick. The guy throws gas, hitting 99 last year. He also has a very good slider and a developing change. Scott Boras will be his agent, so he could slide.

But the best thing about him is that he has some strange genetic defect, and has one pale blue eye and one dark brown eye. It makes him look completely creepy. If the M’s have to pick between several really good pitchers like Bard, Scherzer, and Drabek, and all else is equal, I hope that they go for the crazy eye factor and select Scherzer.

Max Scherzer had a lot better numbers last year, and he hit 99MPH last season. He could jump past Miller with a really big year. So could Brandon Morrow, who struggled a lot last season but has some of the best pure stuff in the draft. He had an incredible first start to the season, and could move up into the top few picks with a big year. Drew Stubbs could also make a bid for the #1 pick, especially if he improves his plate discipline and power. I could see him drawing more walks as a Junior, as people might start pitching around him. This is what happened with Clement last season.

The situation with the prep pitchers is even more unsettled. There is no real consensus on who is the best among Jordan Walden, Matt Latos, Dellin Betances, Kyle Drabek, Bryan Anderson, Jeremy Jeffress, and Chris Tillman. Walden, Latos, Betances, and Jeffress are all big guys who throw hard, are very projectable, and could all climb quickly up draft boards with a big year. Drabek is a guy to keep an eye on as well, as he combines really good stuff with much more polish than the typical prep pitcher.

Then there is also the signability factor. I know that Scott Boras is representing Scherzer and Kennedy. I am sure that he will be representing other top players in the draft as well. The M’s are the first big-market team to pick in this draft, so somebody like Scherzer could fall to them. I am sure that Boras will be representing a few of the top prep players as well. Since there is not as much of a talent difference between the top few players as there has been in the past two drafts, signability could be more of an issue.

Most of the early first-round projections have the M’s picking Dan Bard. Bard is a pretty good prospect, and the M’s could do a lot worse. However, a lot will change in the next few months. I wouldn’t mind seeing them pick a guy like Drabek or Betances. After Miller and Scherzer, the really high-ceiling guys are going to be high-school kids. So many teams are focusing on college players that it could make sense to go for someone like Drabek, who is pretty safe as far as high-school players go.

We’ll see.

The other thing that is interesting about this draft is the overall picture of the talent available. A lot of scouts are saying that this draft lacks a lot of truly elite talent. There just aren’t guys like Justin Upton or Delmon Young available this year. However, there is a lot of depth in this draft, espeically in pitching. Thus, the M’s picked a really good year to not cough up their second and third rounders. If they play their card right, they could get two or three really good players. In particular, there could be some excellent highschool players still on the board for the M’s second, third or even fourth picks. This could be a good opportunity to make up for so many bad drafts in the past.