Welcome To Seattle, Rich
Dave · June 9, 2009 at 6:33 pm · Filed Under Mariners
Do you want a guy who can hit the ball over the wall? Meet Rich Poythress, a prodigious power hitter who can really whack the baseball. He’s right-handed and a 1B/DH type, which is why he fell to the second round, but the guy can really turn on a fastball. He had a monster year in the SEC, and as late as a few weeks ago was looked at as a mid-first round guy.
This is a nice value in the second round, even though he might not be a great fit for Safeco. I wouldn’t be surprised if he developed fairly quickly and was used as a trade chip to get something else that might fit the M’s needs next year or the year after.
I think you’re right, Dave. I don’t see Poythress staying with the M’s, but he could help get us someone who can.
Love this pick… this guy was a monster in college… We now have drafted the best college hitter available in the draft Ackley and now the best college power slugger…
If he hits it a mile, safeco will be no problem… or a he could develop into a great trade chip!
I see his upside as much higher than or previous 2 picks…
Sorry for the typos… I got a little excited.
Interesting … First 4 picks in the draft and no pitchers.
When is the last time the M’s did that (if ever)?
It might just be that Z and the Mariners have already decided they are trading Bedard, Washburn, Beltre, etc. Accordingly, that may be the way they are going to acquire quality arms, as they haven’t drafted any pitching yet.
I don’t mind, you can’t put position players in the bullpen.
Re #6: Rafael Soriano begs to differ (though obviously that was the right decision)
What an effing terrible draft, I think this shows us all how little power Z has. This ship is not getting righted until Howard and Chuck are gone, Colorado and Texas had killer drafts and we could have had everyone they drafted. McNamara was quoted as saying “most important draft” “we will take BPA” “Get it right.” WHat a joke, minus Ackley worse draft in years, Bavasi drafts better than this. Our glaring weakness is starting pitcher and we have yet to draft one.
We’ve selected exactly three players so far–one of whom you like (Ackley)–and yet this is the “worse (sic) draft in years”? Really?
Are you really whining about not taking BPA then complaining that we didn’t address a weakness in SP?
ebcmc,
You make it sound as if the Mariners are the only team that are working with a budget. Learn to adapt to the environment at hand.
Considering things, Jack Z and Co are having a good draft.
Correction, four players. Still, grow a sack.
We have not taken BPA, so that’s my first complaint. Also our GM has moved our only SP specs to the pen so you would think he would have some focus on SP? Graham, who is going to be the SP for this team in 2010? Free agents? That’s how we got stuck with Wash, Batista, and Silva? No matter how you want to spin this, this was a terrible draft. You guys are on the Jack Z bandwagon, but the fact is that Jack Z took superior talent at both 27 and 33 and went cheap on both. This draft needed top be great and it’s not close. Here’s to Harper in 2011!
Our glaring weakness is starting pitcher and we have yet to draft one.
Do you watch this team? Other than outfield defense, starting rotation is the strongest part. If/when we lose Bedard and Washburn that will need to be addressed, but the offense is by far the biggest problem.
[yeah, see ya]
Bedard and Wash will be gone, Felix does not have an extension. That leaves us with Olson and Vargas (Mr. smoke and mirrors) and RRS, not very promising. If we ran out Felix, RRS, Vargas, Olson, and Silva next year we would lose 90-100 games. We have no one ready in AA or AAA. My only hopes are that Jack Z can fleece someone for Bedard, but I find that unlikely.
Darn nerds living in their parents’ basements!
Let’s ease back on the testosterone a bit, please.
I was trying to play devil’s advocate, the “grow a sack” line was uncalled for. Everyone at USS Mariner is happy and prospectinsider and BBT are furious. Unfortunately I side with the latter.
We do have a couple arms that could be possibly pushed back in the rotation as well.
The last pick seems a bit strange as well, but I’ll wait until I hear some sort of analysis. I think the real problem is lack of talent everywhere right now. We’ve been gutted. They might be planning to get some pitching from international players.
I think it’d be wrong to characterize everyone here as “happy” with every individual pick, but for an organization with a lot of holes, the team just restocked their farm system very nicely without having to break the bank.
They could’ve picked more aggressively, sure, but casting this draft as some sort of disaster is silly.
Well that’s good because the people with brains live over here and at LL rather than PI and BBT
I wouldn’t call this the worst draft ever… WE overdrafted a bit but ALOT of teams overdrafted and passed on good talent it’s a solid draft not really spectacular but by no means it’s the worse.
(Hey this might mean Morrow/Aumont will HAVE to become a starter again!)
It does seem like they’re drafting on the cheap.
Makes you wonder who is really pulling the strings: Z or Lincoln & Armstrong, aka Dumb and Dumber.
Beyond which, it’s always silly to try and evaluate a draft up front. When people talk about whether a draft is good or bad, they have to use some measure of evaluation of talent available that’s imperfect and different than the information available to the team(s, for that matter). If the M’s picked some random CC kid no one had ever heard of with #27 they’d be lambasted from coast to coast, even if the team came out and said “we had an eye on this dude every game and it’s absolutely unbelievable everyone else missed, check out the stats, watch this video…”
As for Morrow and Aumont being put to the pen. Morrow decided that not Jack or Wak. As for Aumont, nothing is set in stone. I feel ya with the starting pitching but really we do not know what Jack will get for Bedard or Washburn. Both will haul in something the question is what. Maybe some SP prospects. I’m not worried really about it because there is very little chance that next season is going to be played for winning 2011 is gonna be a great year I think!
Has there been any evidence, whatsoever, that HowChuck have been meddling in any decisions since Zduriencik took over? The guy’s been operating with the type of long leash that most GMs could only dream of.
Hey, i realize that some of the folks who post on Prospect Insider arent exactly the elite that we get on USSM, but I think thats kinda a cheap shot towards Jason. He does a fantastic job with that website, especially with the amount of time that hes had to put into the draft blog at ESPN. I dont love the comments that follow, but lets give Jason a lil credit
Why? 99% of the commenters, whether at USSM, LL, or PI, really have no idea what they are talking about. There are probably at most five people at those sites who are sufficiently knowledgeable to provide commentary that is worth considering. Observations that PI is mostly negative and USSM is mostly positive have about as much relevance as my thoughts about who the best pure hitter is in the draft.
I think it’s easy to say that Dave and Jason have somewhat differing perspectives. As to whose assessment is better – well that won’t be known for several years, will it???
Wouldn’t you agree that it’s really a bit premature to be trying to grade this draft?
You know what, the “Lincoln/Armstrong as the real shadowy masters of the Mariners and we can’t hope for any improvement until they’re dead in a ditch somewhere” comments are getting really old.
I love how we can be generalized to fit the picture painted by those who disagree with the authors.
Remember the good old days when USSM was nothing but a bunch of pessimistic Negative Nancys?
The way some commenters describe it, you’d think that HowChuck lived under a volcano, dressed in black robes, and chanted Latin hymns while drawing blood from Zduriencik. In reality, I imagine that Z goes to Lincoln’s office, describes his master plan, and Lincoln simply nods slowly without looking up from his paperwork.
I’m curious about the comment about not fitting for Safeco. I understand that the field hurts righty power hitters by keeping balls in the park that would otherwise go out. It still seems that we want to have some righty pop for going against lefties and playing away. What am I missing?
Which is a significant change from the days of Woody Woodward, who would tell the owners, I’ve got a 2 pm tee time, and I’ll get back to you tomorrow.
Or Pat Gillick, I need to help my wife move her inventory to a new location, but I’ll give you a call as soon as my plane lands in Toronto.
hoser but there are a lot more right handed power hitters out there. And the team is already heavily weighted towards righties.
Sidi, well, yeah, we’ve got Beltre, Lopez, Branyon, Balentien. Reading this site leaves me wondering if any of them will be around next week, much less in two years.
Easily my favorite pick of the draft. I figured Poythress was going to be a top-25, top-30 at worst pick in this fairly weak draft. Yes, I’m disappointed the M’s didn’t grab a pitcher, but I’m ECSTATIC they got Poythress. While I’m still nowhere near as well-informed as a lot of people in the draft, I actually paid a lot more attention to it this year. Poythress is one guy I picked up on early and while I knew it was probably hard to pick him at 27, I was fantasizing about him at 33. That we landed him at 51 is completely shocking to me, and I couldn’t be happier.
Yeah, his game is somewhat one-dimensional (i.e. he doesn’t have much, if any, defensive value), but he’s got legit power and worse-case we develop him a bit and use him as a valuable trade chip.
Seriously – I’m stoked about this pick!!!
I also love the instant analysis of draft picks by commentators who, if they were truly skilled at analyzing draft picks, would be hired by clubs to do exactly that.
Ooops! My comment above is aimed at the television and broadcast analysts; not at persons commenting in the threads here. I was particularly thinking about how, according to the analysts on ESPN, almost eveyr pick made was an outstanding pick.
Poythress could be the steal of the draft. Some think he will beat Ackley to the majors. I hope that the M’s keep Poythress at 1B, move Ackley to 2B of CF, and trade Bedard for a LF.