M’s Select Fields
No surprise – the M’s selected the best college reliever on the board, in this case, Georgia RHP Josh Fields. He’s a short power arm who can throw 97 and misses bats, so as far as college relievers go, he’s a very good one. He should be able to get to the major leagues very quickly, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see him pitching in the 8th inning in Seattle next summer. For what he is, he’s good.
Our problem, of course, is what he is. As I detailed below, taking a college reliever in the first round is just a waste of a valuable resource. You can build a bullpen without using first round picks on them, and the Mariners have been very good at finding quality relievers on the cheap. This just isn’t a very good way to restock a farm system that’s taken some hits in the M’s efforts to win now.
This organization needs long term help, and Fields is not what this organization needed.
any chance they are looking at him as the L-word part two, and converting him to start?
The obvious question, Dave, is who you think the best available talent was at 20 instead?
So, marching orders from above, then?
I’d be interested in seeing someone play devil’s advocate and try to defend this pick. I just don’t have the heart.
Another potential piece of the future sacrificed on the alter of incompetent people’s desperation for job security.
I’m giving myself two points for avoiding the name-calling Dave doesn’t like. Because I’m thinking of many things I would like to call these people running this team.
A reliever. Whee. I’m shaking with excitement for our future.
huh. they even made a curious selection in the honorary Special Negro Leagues Draft
sigh. it’s been a hard day.
Special Negro Leagues Draft
Dave- I agree with all of your sentiments, but this kid is certainly a talent. I think this move solidifies the fact that they are pushing Morrow out of the pen and into the starting rotation (I guess that was obvious anyways) … but the value of having rock solid 8th / 9th innings are huge we all know this.
People who opposed moving Joba to the rotation from the ‘pen site the fact that they are moving a lights out inning from at least 70 games and entrusting Farnsworth with the responsibility.
I think there is no doubt our 1,2,3 next year will be The King, EB and Morrow (no nickname yet?) …
Well, gee, of all the things that went wrong this year, the bullpen is obviously the biggest problem.
I’d go on a profanity-soaked rant, but Mac already used up this week’s quota of swear words.
A right-handed setup guy. Wooo-effing-hoo.
I guess we can add Fontaine to the list of guys in this organization who’s talent and abilities are rendered useless by the ineptitude field generator buired somewhere at Safeco.
This decision is a continuation of the abomination that was the HoRam-Soriano trade. Soriano is traded. M’s need Morrow in relief. M’s realize that Morrow needs to become a starter. M’s draft reliever to replace Morrow.
Worst trade ever. And I didn’t even mention the horror that was a HoRam start.
He’s had a somewhat high walk rate at Georgia. Would you consider that an issue, Dave?
You look at these relievers and it seems a waste when you think, “This guy might turn into [insert player name].” When that name is Hanley Ramirez for the toolsy shortstops, or Mark Teixeira for the slugging 1B, that seems pretty valuable.
And for these relievers? “This guy might turn into?” What? JJ Putz? B.J. Ryan? Just doesn’t seem nearly as valuable or exciting.
Gotta win now you know so this makes total sense. We can’t wait until a future star develops in 3-5 years, we need middle relievers now dammit.
I’ll play a little devils advocate just for the sake of argument.
By drafting Fields you give some stability to the bullpen allowing Morrow to shift to the rotation but also it could make JJ expendable. Now if your able to get 2 or 3 good chips back for JJ and Morrow starting and Fields is able to be a successful MLB closer then I guess you could look at it like you converted the 20th pick into a #2/#3 starter and 2 or 3 other good chips……
Again, just for the sake of a decent discussion.
Dave. I noticed that the 19 thru 21st selections were all relievers that you had noted on your previous post. So it is obvious to me that other teams figure that selecting a reliever in the first round is worth it.
Comments?
You never know (see “Ryan Anderson”) what the future might bring – the draft isn’t an absolute science. And if Fontaine is as good as rumor has it here and has control over the draft as we’ve also heard here – then maybe we’ll just have to trust him and see how this develops.
It does give the team some flexibility both in moving Morrow to the rotation and/or maybe trading JJ and giving Fields the 9th inning (we’ve seen some young closers do well in the last couple years – Street, Soria, Rodriguez, Cordero, etc.).
It could be worse.
J.J. Putz was drafted as a starter in the 6th round. B.J. Ryan was drafted in the 17th round and is one of the few major league relievers who was also a reliever in college.
[this is not contributing to the discussion]
Any chance Fields could be stretched out to be a starter, or does he just not have the stamina/stuff for that?
Fontaine may be good, but I think there’s a difference between having the ability to know talent and knowing what talent is most valuable. To use an NFL analogy, even the best talent evaluators realize that taking a great longsnapper in the first round doesn’t make sense. It just doesn’t have enough impact on your team.
So Fields may be fantastic, without making a fantastic contribution to the team.
And I think the flexibility issue is a complete red herring. If we are afraid of moving Morrow to the rotation because he’s really good in the 8th inning, then we are more imcompetent than I thought. We can move him and hand that role to just about anybody else.
M’s Trade Fields to Brewers for Ricky Weeks Bobblehead and Pack of Juicy Fruit!
To respond to some of the devil’s advocacy:
1. Other teams may actually be close enough to contention that speed to the majors might be slightly more justifiable. To the Ms, as I said, it is lipstick on a pig.
2. Re: moving Morrow advantages, etc. The point is that relievers are relatively easy to find. You could get those advantages in way less costly ways than our #1 draft pick.
No way this pick gets any sort of “Now we can move Morrow” credit. That’s a non-starter, Bavasi.
Also, Boras?
Boras hasn’t really been an issue for the Mariners under Bavasi.
How many right-handed setup guys are in the Hall of Fame? Hmmm, wonder why that is? Could it be that they just don’t have that big of an impact? 60 to 70 innings a year? Maybe 300 plate appearances a year with an impact? Compared to a starter who would have an impact on three to four times the number of PAs? Or an outfielder who would have a huge impact on twice as many PAs and a small impact on twenty times as many?
For a reliever to live up to a first round selection, he would have to absolutely max out his potential. Just like every other move they make, it’s predicated on the best-case scenario coming through, on getting the best possible outcome, otherwise it’s a bad move. An average outcome and they way overpaid.
Look back at Dave’s preseason post on projected Win values. Putz clocked in at 2.63 and Morrow at 1.03. Let’s say Fields becomes another JJ. That would be about the max value he could achieve, right? That would put him int the same rough value bucket as Beltre, Johjima and Silva (pre-season estimates, not counting for current struggles). Essentially average for their positions. At best, this kid contributes as an average fielder or average starter. At best.
If he doesn’t become a JJ-level closer and ends up a career setup guy, he’s a +1 win player. A random 4th or 5th starter is more valuable. Betancourt is more valuable. Almost any above-replacement-level regular is more valuable than a really good setup guy.
Little guy that throws hard.. the M’s should have his arm exploding off his shoulder in less than three years.
It will be interesting to see what we get in the supplementary round for losing Jose Guillen. Doh!
Gloom and doom…most of the long-term help that the Mariners have acquired in the draft since the early ’80s, they’ve traded for luminaries such as Rey Quinones and Mike Trujillo and, of course, Heathcliffe Slocumb. The list is MUCH longer than that.
Mark Langston, out the door. Jose Cruz Jr, out the door. Spike Owen and Dave Henderson got lucky, they went to the World Series after being shoved out the door. Omar Vizquel is more fragile these days, but he’s still chugging along, that old trade still a finger in the eye of the M’s front office.
Gosh, isn’t it about time John Olerud had a kid old enough for the M’s to draft? You know, another home town kid?
#25
Maybe they’re are responding to the voice of the fan that despaired over not taking Lincecum?
22 –
How many less costly ways can you get a guy who has been clocked at ’97 on a regular basis, throws a venomous power curveball, tossing strikes.’
I mean the guys only knock is that he is as tall as ‘L-Word’ who pitches for the Giants …
I wonder how many years it’ll be before we can have a draft thread that doesn’t contain three hundred references to Tim Lincecum.
What gets me is what I read about the Yankees selection of Cole. Upside to be a #1 starter, but if that fails could easily be a dominant reliever. Why the hell not select a player like that? I know he’s in H.S. and may ask for more than slot, but come on…someone please knock some sense into this team…its killing me.
Well, it does mean that the M’s will have an arm next year to throw in the 8th instead of Morrow, who can then return to the minors to be groomed as a starter.
Oh, who am I kidding?
The one good thing is that Fontaine always seems to find talent and useful parts in the middle rounds. I’m sure going to miss him when he’s axed in the upcoming staff massacre.
#26 – And yet another example of the incompetence of BB!
Aside from the fact that drafting a relief pitcher with your first pick is a waste, this pick is even worse when you consider the M’s have basically nothing in terms of position players in the system who will be coming up anytime soon. It’d be one thing if they were loaded with position guys in the system, and they were just a guy or two in the bullpen away from competing, but they’re not on both counts. Given the glaring needs in many areas other than the bullpen, what do they think this is really going to do for them? This is another big head-scratcher from the disaster that is the Mariner FO.
Is he at least the best player named Josh Fields?
There was in interesting article on page 2 of the PI this morning that listed all of the position players that the Mariners have drafted since 1994 (the year after we drafted Alex Rodriguez) that turned into regulars for the M’s. The list was one name – Jose Cruz, Jr. Just one regular from 14 years of drafts.
On the pitching side we were a bit luckier – we had 3 starters if I remember right.
So the impact of the draft on the future Mariners probably isn’t as great as it might appear.
What was the right pick, Anthony Hewitt?
No, the knock on the guy is that he is a reliever. I don’t care how tall he isn’t.
Honestly, I’d draft any Olerud kid right now, boy or girl. I love Olerud. He is the exception that proves the rule to me.
DW @ #32
Who said anything about a staff massacre? We’re talking about the Mariners here… Lots of talk no action!
Fields will be just fine, I hear he played first in tee ball when he was 5. Lot of pop in the bat too. M’s are considering converting him to 1B power hitter. We’ll be fine!
Yet another Bedarded Mariners move. I don’t know how you give away a Soriano, then draft a relief guy with your top pick. Contradicting themselves. And there’s been brief mention of Boras…oh god. Can’t you just see him watching the draft and when the Mariners pick one of his clients he yells “Cha-ching!!!” and kisses his glossy photo of Bill “Pay-Day” Bavasi? Actually, no, he’d probably rather his client go to another team, play mediocre but with a good attitude, then we’re sure to overpay them.
But yes Dave, insight as to who you’d have rather had that was still available?
That’s not what I took from those numbers.
Also… was that for the first round? Or how do they calculate ‘regular’? And it doesn’t take into account what we got in trade for them, which seems unfair.
30 – It is only because people are still so butt hurt because he is local from the ground up (h.s. – college etc…) … that is really the root of the problem
Also 38 I know I might be the devils advocate guy, but I really like this kid. I think it was just unfortunate our team overachieved last year to the point where we didnt have a top 15 pick / A. Hicks.
I know BB doesn’t run the draft, but is this even possibly part of an effort to save jobs in the current FO by drafting the guy most likely to have an quick impact?
Well, at least there is nothing left to sabotage. After taking on water for weeks – years even – the USS Nonsense has officially been scuttled. If you squint hard enough, you can see an inflatable life raft on the horizon. That’s the Mariners front office, sheepishly paddling away. Our last hope for revenge is that they find themselves stranded on a deserted island in the middle of nowhere, the eventual victims of their own cannibalistic Lord of the Flies autonomy.
He hasn’t been a “can’t sign” ‘em issue. But I actually meant the other way around. Don’t we draft a lot of them? I mean, it’s not like we got a steal because the guy fell in the draft based on his agent. If anything, we reached to take a Boras client.
This decision strikes me as one made with an eye only toward the team’s short term needs. It makes sense that the current regime isn’t interested in developing talent that may arrive in 4-5 years, since they know their tenure won’t last that long without short term help. It looks like an unfortunate decision impacted by the current environment of instability.
I am trying to think of why Fontaine would decide to target first round relievers. I’m not coming up with any answer that holds water.
There is only one that I can think of that doesn’t take the decision away from pure scouting/drafting and that one is weak. They could probably try to claim that they thought relievers were going to be undervalued, so they were targeting them. Which doesn’t really pass scrutiny as an excuse.
So did they finally decide to even interfere with Fontaine? Did Fontaine make judgments about club needs on his own? Was it a mandate from higher than Bavasi?
Did Fontaine throw away (hyperbole) the first pick to get them to STFU and leave him alone… letting him get to the later rounds where he traditionally shines?
Why did everyone seem to know that they were going to take the best available reliever? What kind of screwed-up strategy is that? The only thing less intelligent they could have done was come out and say “We are targeting 4th outfielders. We feel like that is the surest way not to be disappointed. 4th outfielders taken in the first round have a really good chance of making it to a major league bench.”
I’m thinking really bad names about all of them right now.
Well, it’s also because he’s really, really good
John in L.A. contributed to the discussion thusly:
…it’s not like we got a steal because the guy fell in the draft based on his agent. If anything, we reached to take a Boras client.
Not really too much of a reach. I think Fields was predicted to be around the middle of the first round by most sources. John Sickels predicted him at #16 and Keith Law of ESPN had him at #21.
Sickels had this to say about Fields (who he rated the 5th best college pitcher): “5) Josh Fields, RHP, University of Georgia: 13 saves, 0.37 ERA with 44/14 K/BB in 24.1 innings, just six hits allowed. Has recovered from disappointing 2007 season and will definitely have a spot in the first round as a hard-throwing college closer. Command is still an issue, and given the mixed track record of college closers in the pros, he’s not a sure thing. But his upside potential is impressive.”
6 hits in 24 innings with 44 strike outs isn’t too shabby…
While I don’t think the pick is as horrible as many here, I personally would have chosen Christian Friedrich or Tanner Scheppers who were both available.
ps – that PI article was talking about all of the Mariner draft picks – not just the first round. It was a real surprise to me to see the numbers.
Just remember — Darren Dreifort was drafted as a reliever, and then he turned into a successful starter. Or not.
Strange move to say the least.
This can’t be justified as a means to get Morrow to the starting rotation. Incidentally, the M’s would probably be better served giving Morrow a shot at stopper if they could get value for Putz in return — I’m sure that the Braves have a must-miss #5 pitcher that they’ll be happy to send over.
Oolan – ah. Thanks.
50 – If they had drafted him because they thought he could start, that would have been cool. Or if it was because they thought he was the best player available… also cool.
But we knew ahead of time… days ahead of time… that they were targeting relievers. That is my problem. Fields is only some convincing proof of that tragic strategy, not a terrible player himself.
If they didn’t set out to throw their first pick at a reliever? If that was all a smokescreen? If all espn and Dave’s sources were wrong, and Fields just happened to be the pick as a coincidence… then I’ll take back my criticism. Mostly.
I would take this Josh Fields over our Josh Fields at the moment:
http://mlb.mlb.com/team/player.jsp?player_id=435222
D-Cam 4 GM.
This smells of a “higher up” mandate. In other words, it stinks.
Look forward to feeling like the team that drafted this guy.
It is only because people are still so butt hurt because he is local from the ground up (h.s. – college etc…) … that is really the root of the problem
No, the root of the problem is that people refuse to move on. We know, ok? Everybody here already knows. Unless you’re a member of his immediate family, or Tim L himself, there’s nothing you can say that we don’t already know. All you’re doing is wasting your time and our patience.
You know that jerk at your local tavern who gets a couple of drinks in him and always, every night, gets going about the god-damned gubermint or the god-damned ay-rabs or the god-damned whatever? Don’t be that guy.
D-Cam 4 GM.
Ok, was I the only person who sat there for 30 seconds going “Who TF is ‘D-Cam’?”
yes.
Reese Havens or Hewitt, but whatever. Like it matters. Oh, a change is gonna come!
I’m more interested in seeing if Barry Zito gets back on track than watching the M’s right now.
Should we feel better about them taking OF Dennis Raben from Miami in the 2nd round? BA had him as their #34 prospect heading into the draft. Sounds like a power corner OF, which would be good for us. Actually, sounds like Wlad.
The knock against Raben is he has a long swing and, get this, takes too many pitches. The Mariners will definitely cure him of that problem.
Is it just me or did the Phillies clean house today in terms of pure offensive talent?
Alright, i think I’ve figured out the logic in this pick….follow along if you can.
You always hear managers and baseball announcers talk about how a good bullpen shortens the game to 5-6 innings…….our starts stink and might get us 4-5 innings….so by drafting a reliever, we’re even further shortening the game and us having to watch wasburn, silva, and Batista.
Pitching prospects in general have as much chance of becoming impact major leaguers as a three quarter court shot has of going in at the buzzer. If the Ms first round heave at the basket pays off, they’ll get 60 innings from him a season. Woohoo!!!!!!
Good lord….that was supposed to be “Washburn, Silva, and Batista”…..sorry.
The Mariners web site features a photo of Fields here you can clearly see that he’s throwing a knuckle curve. That’s an interesting (i.e., semi-strange) pitch to see from a college pitcher who throws heat.
Piss.
A guy who throws 60 innings a year is not worth a first round pick, period. I don’t care how lights-out he is. NOT WORTH IT. You get your relievers off the scrap heap and draft PLAYERS.
Piss.
Steve T – I can always can’t out on you to take my pessimism to the ultimate level. Sad again, but true.
I do like this kid though
Just another reason to be upset with the organization right now. Man, it really hurts to be an M’s fan sometimes.
Even ESPN gets it
“I’m surprised to see a team in last place take a reliever this high in the draft. Fields is up to 97 mph with his fastball and has a power curveball. If he can’t get big league hitters out this year, he will next year. Philosophically, though, you would think the Mariners would go longer term with this pick instead of taking a reliever, who is more of a short-term solution with a shorter life span. ”
Sigh!
“I’m surprised to see a team in last place take a reliever this high in the draft. Fields is up to 97 mph with his fastball and has a power curveball. If he can’t get big league hitters out this year, he will next year. Philosophically, though, you would think the Mariners would go longer term with this pick instead of taking a reliever, who is more of a short-term solution with a shorter life span. â€
Well, you know, Bavasi fully expects to contend next year. This is still the same roster that was expected to contend this year and there’s no reason to think the team can’t rebound and perform more like everybody knows the players are capable of. With veterans like Silva, Washburn, Sexson, and Vidro, it’s impossible for them to stay in slumps like this for very long. With a few judicious free agent signings and some careful trading of prospects to fill the remaining holes in the roster, there’s no reason that this team can’t do well in 2009, and this draft choice is just a reflection of that.
Tomorrow they’re going to concentrate on drafting gritty bench players, unless, of course, they can find some washed up no-power, low-average veterans in the draft, then they’ll go for them first.
Pitching, Dave roughly estimates, is about 35% of a team’s on-field performance (50% run scoring, 15% defense, 35% pitching). There are 1458 innings in a year if every game goes 9 innings. When you draft a starter, you’re looking for, say, 225 innings a year, or roughly 7 innings a game. So you’re trying to get a guy who will contribute about 15% of your pitching, or about 5% of your total on-field efforts (15% of 35%).
Now you’re drafting a positional player. Since it’s the first round, you’re hoping that guy will contribute about 11% of your team’s run-scoring efforts (one out of every nine plate appearances) and somewhere in the ballpark of 12% of your defense (1/8 of your defense, rounded down to account for pitcher defense) — more if he’s a shortstop, less if he’s a first-baseman, but something like that. What you’re hoping for is a guy who will be responsible for a total of maybe 8-10% of your on-field efforts.
Now let’s say you’re drafting a reliever. If everything pans out, you’re hoping for maybe 70 innings a year, or about 5% of the pitching that’s going to happen over the course of the year. That’s less than 2% of the team’s on-field product. You can quibble about whether this needs marginal adjustment up because of leverage situations, but leverage situations come about principally as a result of the performance of the starters and the position players.
Those contribution percentages are not about how much each player contributes to winning — it’s just what percentage of the total effort each player represents. All else being equal, you want to allocate your resources to acquiring players who can make positive contributions at positions where those contributions will have the greatest overall value. An above-average starter is more valuable than an above-average reliever just because he will be above-average for more outs. Even if the reliever is a bit better at run prevention on a per-inning basis, the starter will prevent more runs total because he prevents them in more innings.
In allocating your resources, you also have to consider the value of Plan B. If you don’t draft a starter or a shortstop, how easy will it be to obtain an adequate substitute? The consensus here seems to be that relievers are relatively (not absolutely, but relatively) easy to find. The Mariners certainly have found a lot of good ones without using high picks or FA money (Sherrill, Soriano, Putz, Green), though they spent resources on others (Morrow, Guardado, Sasaki). It’s a lot harder to find quality starters or position players.
One of the assets a team can use to acquire a player is a #1 draft pick. That asset is extremely valuable because it has both monetary value (it locks up what you hope will be a quality player at below-market rates) and non-monetary value (it confers monopoly rights over that player’s performance). The best use of that asset is in acquiring a player that will affect the greatest number of outcomes in the most positive way compared to what one can get in the replacement market. A reliever affects few outcomes and is relatively easily replaceable. That’s why you don’t use one of your most valuable assets to draft a reliever.
Isaac — I think that’s a great way of looking at the draft and I agree with you 100%.
I’m virtually certain, however, that the risk-averse Mariners feel (right or wrong) that they can more accurately project a “proven” college reliever than they can any position player. Baring injury, they think a guy who throws a mid-90′s fastball with even a semi-passable off-speed pitch, is a lock for the bullpen. They love Morrow in that mode, and see him as proof of their strategy.
Just another reason to be frustrated with this organization.
Is Clay Bennett behind this?
You’re telling me he didn’t secretly buy the M’s in a “good faith” package deal?
This smells of dung.
When you were a kid, for Christmas, you asked for a bicycle, a stereo, or something really good.
This is like asking for a big candy bar for Christmas. Nothing wrong with a candy bar, but isn’t Christmas the time to ask for something more?
various quote from Fields, and the Ms here and
here
This goes along with the best player on the board theory that Fontaine lives by. I do think we all agree with post 72 to an extent, if not completely.
Bottom line is how much better could we have done, and this KID is a good pitcher. Like I said before, he’s hits 97 on the gun consistently has a monster curve and a live arm.
Why not take someone who can at least close down games and give the Mariners a chance in the late innings next year when Morrow moves to the starting rotation.
Like Bavasi tried to do with this years team, why would fontaine make the same mistake and reach for some other pick Gillaspie? Cooper? I’m just curious what the other option is … and I did scroll through this entire post to try and find other suggestions.
Lookout Landing compared Raben with Brad Wilkerson; hardly a ringing endorsement. Not even draft day can get me excited about the M’s future.
This is like asking for a big candy bar for Christmas. Nothing wrong with a candy bar, but isn’t Christmas the time to ask for something more?
It depends. If the last few times you asked for a bike and your dad spent those Christmas Eves in the basement “putting to together” and you came down on Christmas morning to find a some random parts broken and smoking under the tree, or discovered he’d given up on the assembly and handed it over to the kids next door (who figured out how to put it together and ended up with one of the coolest bikes on the block)…. or told you the bike could only be used for 15 minutes twice a week… well, sometimes you rein in your expectations and just hope for a candy bar.
Even Verducci gets it; while his data regarding the shortened apprenticeship of many players is a little questionable, his point about the increasingly sparse free agent market resulting from the recent tendency of smart teams to lock up their players young just underlines how out of step the “veteran leadership” M’s are and how increasingly handicapped they’re going to be in the future, especially if they’re not making good long term decisions about the draft today.
Oops, I guess a link would help.
#79
joser-
thanks to you, beer came out of my nose and onto my keyboard.
truer words were never spoken!
Look at it this way. At least next year we will have the #1 overall pick and surely won’t be drafting a reliever. Right??? Well, unless that reliever is dubbed the “best available player” of course.
The bad thing is this management won’t be around to see how awful this draft turns to be. I am not excited by any pick they made today. This sucks.
One word reaction: blah
I’m waiting for an in depth post from the USSM guys on the results of the entire draft to make my final conclusions … At least I need to know more insider information about Fields.
I honestly don’t understand how most people can scream end of world from this.
1) This isn’t the disaster that is 2008 season. Please try and somewhat separate the draft from this season and previous regular seasons. It’s not fontaine’s fault that Jones is gone.
2) Fontaine has been good before and like Nye posted in the last thread it comes down to the overall draft results.
This kid is not a complete disaster. Not by any means.
More importantly is the Front Offices decision on the current state of affairs/2008/2009 directions – and instead of saying we need x,y,z NOW lets make smart, cool headed decisions.
Total strawman.
Who said it was?
Both of those things relate to the Mariners, though, no?
Who said it didn’t? And if the rest of the draft is good, doesn’t mean it couldn’t have been better.
No one said he was.
Um… isn’t that the opposite side of the argument? Don’t draft for NOW?
Also, you said this:
Which I guess you didn’t mean. Or you misunderstood 72. Because the rest of your post says the opposite:
If you agree with 72, then you know why not, right?
I don’t get the point of your posts.
We mostly agree, as you pointed out vigorously. I just said with no one else available, I don’t think its bad pick considering circumstances.
I wanted to know what the other choice was at 20 that would have been that much better (I tried looking for suggestions, granted I could have missed them, lots of text) that was the main point.
While at the same time I think this kid is very good.
Worst Pick according to ESPN. YAY MARINERS!!!
But i do think he will setup and maybe close next year if JJ gets traded
Oops.
Maybe the Mariners are going the “any PR is good PR” route.
This pick could show a glimmer of self-awareness. Perhaps management realizes that they are not capable of assembling a good staff of starting pitchers, so they will only require the starters to go 4 or 5 innings. Lowe, Fields, Morrow, and Putz pitch the last 4 innings of each game.
Ok, Bratman. Cool. I will be excited to see him pitch, too. But, boy, I hate that approach to the first round.
92 – Couldn’t agree with you more on the approach. I think USSM (on the whole) agrees that we DID NOT need a reliever/should not have chose one first round.
Even with that being said, we didn’t choose picking 20th overall. Can’t make something out of nothing. Lets thank he overachieving 2007 Mariners accomplished that for that pick number.
And if there is someone better to have taken at that point in the draft I would like to know some names. I am not saying there aren’t others I just haven’t heard names yet.
I have a feeling one of the USSM guys will give an in depth opinion soon, maybe about some other options we could have chosen/routes we coudl have taken.
We did the Fontaine ‘choose the best player’ method, I guess.
To answer my own post from Dave:
Guess he wasn’t the best choice, but was he the best overall talent?
I would have picked Shooter Hunt just on name alone