Remainder of the Big Day (2017 BoS Draft - Part II)

For the last few days, I have been posting about the 2017 BoS Annual Draft; The lead-up to the draft that took place March 26th & have been blogging about the draft results as well.

Yoan Moncada during the 2016 Futures Game.

We left off with the Top 6 picks of the draft. For those who are joining us late & are asking why the top six picks? I will answer by saying "read the two previous posts", but if you want to skip ahead, then here it goes...

The Portland Microbrewers and the Traverse City Panthers made a swap in picks, with Portland acquiring my #6 & #16 overall picks from Round 1, while T.C. acquired the #2 Overall Pick & #28 (2nd Round Pick). So the first part of the article, was to see if their gamble of a trade paid off, which it did, the Panthers got OF-Andrew Benintendi & Portland got SS-Dansby Swanson. Turns out the decision for Brad was not as easy as mine, he knew entering the draft he wanted Swanson, but did not expect to see Yoan Moncada (who he had as the top pick in mock draft) still sitting there at #6. He did some frantic thinking for 60 seconds & still went with Swanson; I believe it's the right move, I feel Moncada has some holes (or at least at this point).

As a recap, the top 6 picks, went as follows...

1. SP - Michael Fulmer (DET) - King Road
2. OF - Andrew Benintendi (BOS) - Traverse City
3. SP - Julio Urias (LAD) - Spring Branch
4. SP - Jameson Taillon (PIT) - Swatara
5. SS - Trevor Story (COL) - Buffalo
6. SS - Dansby Swanson (ATL) - Portland

Which leads us to the 7th Overall pick for Spring Branch, who have two other picks at #11 & #13 overall in the 1st Round. How did this happen, four 1st Round picks in the 1st Round, the 3 new Dispersal Teams had the first 2 rounds of draft slots for the 3 teams thrown into the Dispersal Draft pool, and Spring Branch happened to draft all three of 1st Round draft slot positions available, while the team (as the Louisville Sluggers) acquired a 1st Round pick (with Doug Fister) in a transaction with the Micatin Destroyers, in which the Destroyers acquired pitcher Sonny Gray for last year's pennant race.

The 7th Overall pick would be Yoan Moncada, who was 2016's Top Prospect according to MLB.com; The Chicago White Sox, as we all know now, acquired Moncada along with Michael Kopech, Luis Alexander Basabe & Victor Diaz in exchange for Chris Sale. This is a great pick to fall to #7, because who would have ever guessed Moncada falling to 7th?!

By the way, the three new Dispersal Teams are...

• Spring Branch Duffers - formerly Louisville Sluggers (N.L. East)
• Vancouver Storm - formerly Brooklyn Mets (A.L. West)
• Watersmeet Nimrods - formerly Chicago Nine (A.L. West)

Those three new owners being Neil Leininger (Spring Branch), Brian Hamilton (Vancouver) and Rob Spatz (Watersmeet), who you all may know from running the Chicagoland APBA Baseball Tournaments; While Neil & Brian are league members along with Brad Stark (Portland) in the Lame Duck Baseball Association (LDBA). 

Top Catching Prospect - Willson Contreras.

The Urbana Locomotives would go on select C-Willson Contreras with the 8th Overall Pick; The choice was off their draft list that was sent in, their other two choices, were already off the draft board. Contreras going in the 1st Round is not a stretch given the fact that there is only 3 catchers that are big prospects in this draft with the other two being Pedro Severino (Watersmeet / 3rd Round, 45th overall) & Jorge Alfaro (Traverse City / 7th Round, 112th overall). 

As if the Chicago Cubs don't have enough talent, they have players like Contreras to go along with Albert Almora Jr, Carl Edwards Jr & Jeimer Candelario-- plus a full season of Kyle Schwarber & a future phenom in Ian Happ (who will probably debut in late 2017).

Traverse City's late draft pickup of Alfaro allowed T.C. to trade Rockies Tom Murphy to the Holland Hitchhikers for an 8th Rd Draft Pick that landed Washington reliever Koda Glover, allowing the Panthers to collect another pick in which they would use on sleeper Rio Ruiz of the Atlanta Braves. The Panthers went from a lousy catching situation in 2016 to a much better situation when they landed Jonathan Lucroy from the Seattle Rainiers; Add Lucroy to roster stay-over Travis d'Arnaud & late pick Alfaro... they now look solid at the position. 

The South Side Spartans have been a team steadily climbing since their 2015 franchise inauguration, led by owner Matt Hoeppner; They would draft Dodgers starting pitcher Kenta Maeda (11-XZ) at 9th overall, adding him to a rotation that is already anchored by two Grade 'A' starters in Jon Lester and Rick Porcello, plus Jake Odorizzi. The Spartans would add a closer in Seung-Hwan Oh (Cardinals) with a 2nd Rd selection (while Andrew Miller is the setup specialist) & add another starter in Ian Kennedy (3rd Rd pick) as his career has been resurrected of late. The Spartans have a pretty good offense, and if they struggle more than expected, expect them to trade draft picks to get more offense as the season progresses; They already added a big bat in DH-Victor Martinez in a trade with the San Diego Heroes during the draft, costing them a 4th Rd Draft Pick (SP-Jose De Leon).

Another surprise late pick would come in the form of the Houston Astros' bright young third baseman star, Alex Bregman -- who was selected by the Corktown Tamales at 10th Overall. 

Spring Branch Duffers would take Rangers' outfielder Nomar Mazara and Oakland starting pitcher Sean Manaea at 11th & 13th Overall to add to their previous two picks.

The Duffers' 1st Round Haul

• #3 Overall - Julio Urias - SP
• #7 Overall - Yoan Moncada - OF
• #11 Overall - Nomar Mazara - OF
• #13 Overall - Sean Manaea - SP

Their additions of Julio Urias & Sean Manaea makes a very strong young rotation to go along with Jacob deGrom, Aaron Sanchez & Carlos Martinez; The Duffers also have Matt Wisler in the wings, while they added vets Ivan Nova and Nathan Karns -- all while Yoan Moncada & Nomar Mazara join Maikel Franco & Carlos Correa in the lineup.

The Portland Microbrewers took starting pitcher Blake Snell of the Rays at #12, solid upside, but must work on his career, while they drafted ready-to-go Zach Davies of the Brewers to end the 1st Round.

Shelved Prize: Alex Reyes hurt his arm in Spring 2017, will miss entire MLB Season.

My younger brother Chris Baier drafted OF-David Dahl of the Colorado Rockies to add some power back into the Heroes' lineup, while Holland's Steve Ruder drafted Alex Reyes, whose 1st Round stock may have slipped a few spots due to his recent arm injury that will require Tommy John Surgery. If for some reason, Reyes slipped down to my Traverse City ballclub, I would have taken him at #22 overall, but honestly even with the arm injury, it would have been a shocker if he fell that low... which doesn't mean that I still didn't get a steal or two or three in the 2nd Round.

My Panthers would get 3 big picks in the 2nd Round...

• #22 Overall - Tyler Glasnow - SP
• #26 Overall - Carson Fulmer - SP
• #28 Overall - Hunter Renfroe - OF

My strategy paid off, trading up to get Benintendi (#6 to #2), while trading down #16 to #28 -- and I still got what I consider two 1st Round-caliber talent in Glasnow & Renfroe... but to also land Vanderbilt's Carson Fulmer as well? Sure, I could have took the chance of waiting on Fulmer, since on APBA paper, he is a 1*-W (D*-W), but if anyone has seen video on him, would know he's a beast on the mound. There is much more to be excited about the Panthers' draft results & I would have to post about that sometime in the near future. 

Andrew Toles of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Other Later Draft Steals?

• OF- Tyler Naquin (Swatara) - 3rd Rd / #36 Overall.
• SP - Reynaldo Lopez (Traverse City) - 3rd Rd / #38 Overall.
• C - Pedro Severino (Watersmeet) - 3rd Rd / #45 Overall.
• RP - Matt Bush (Seattle) - 3rd Rd / #46 Overall.
• RP - Blake Treinen (Spring Branch) - 4th Rd / #55 Overall.
• OF - Andrew Toles (Urbana) - 4th Rd / #56 Overall.
• SP - Jose De Leon (San Diego) - 4th Rd / #57 Overall.
• RP - Brad Hand (King Road) - 5th Rd / #65 Overall.
• RP - Yohander Mendez (Corktown) - 5th Rd / #74 Overall.
• 3B/1B - Travis Shaw (Micatin) - 5th Rd / #75 Overall.
• RP - Carl Edwards Jr (Urbana) - 6th Rd / #88 Overall.
• OF - Aaron Judge (Holland) - 6th Rd / #95 Overall.
• SP - Chad Kuhl (Traverse City) - 7th Rd / #101 Overall.
• RP - Dan Altavilla (Traverse City) - 7th Rd / #103 Overall.
• P - Brian Flynn (Spring Branch) - 7th Rd / #104 Overall.
• 3B - Yuniesky Gurriel (Micatin) - 7th Rd / #107 Overall.
• C - Jorge Alfaro (Traverse City) - 7th Rd / #112 Overall.
• 3B - Hernan Perez (South Side) - 8th Rd / #121 Overall.
• RP - Hansel Robles (Swatara) - 9th Rd / #132 Overall.
• SP - Ivan Nova (Spring Branch) - 9th Rd / #135 Overall.
• P - Alex Wood (Micatin) - 9th Rd / #139 Overall.
• RP - Jake Barrett (San Diego) - 9th Rd / #142 Overall.
• 3B/IF - Wilmer Difo (Spring Branch) - 10th Rd / #151 Overall.
• C - Omar Narvaez (Portland) - 10th Rd / #156 Overall.
• RP - Matt Strahm (San Diego) - 11th Rd / #174 Overall.
• 3B - Pablo Sandoval (Seattle) - 12th Rd / #178 Overall.
• OF- Raimel Tapia (San Diego) - 13th Rd CP / #197 Overall.

Corktown Burglary: Big Texas prospect Yohander Mendez, drafted 74th Overall.

There is plenty that could be surprises & plenty that could be duds, only the 2017 MLB Season can tell. Every season brings excitement & mystery in the draft, only the future knows how it all will play out for these clubs.