I have the #3 pick in the upcoming draft, and I have one player who I have my eye on for that pick, but want to make sure he would be my best option. This is my first HBD season, but I am a quick learner and have spent lots of time reading the forums and such. My various budgets are $20 mil prospect, and $14 mil each for college, HS, and advanced scouting. I will link my current #1 ranked player last, but am looking for advice on whether I should consider ranking ANY of the following players higher.

Rather than going through the tedious process of posting all the projected ratings I see, I'll just link screenshots so you can see for yourself easily.

Gerardo Ortiz
Jeff Simpson
Leo Roberts
Lonny Nunez
Paul Belt
Sean Thomas
Tim Burrell
Vern Ramsay


Reggie Austin

I may be new to HBD, but I know that if Austin meets his projections of 51 stamina and 68 durability, then that equals a **** load of innings. Roberts, Thomas, and Ramsay all may be difficult to sign, so I probably won't go after them as hard. I want my first pick to be easily signable.

You might not want to show your projected rating with /names, that's giving information to anyone else in the league, which would be worse still if the guy above you cant see ratings for a prospect, but can see him in his list.

I'd rank Leo Roberts highest, then Burrell.  Austin is good, but it's not worthwhile to draft a relief pitcher so early.

i agree with shobob about Roberts because of his defense, but Burrell and Ramsey would be great options as well. Austin is very good, like shobob said, but it is hard to draft an rp with so many good bats that high.

Based on the current (and poor) statistics of your ML bullpen as of now, it looks like that is an area that needs help.  I would take Austin unless you have a couple ML quality RP prospects in your minors already.

Roberts, Burrell, Ramsey, Austin... Roberts is easily the best...plugging that ELITE bat in as a very nice fielding 2B is pretty sick, even if it is only 130ish games a year.

Roberts' make-up is not great.  That could sour those lofty projections.

Austin is pretty fricken sick.. You could get 200 ip out of him

With only 14M projections, I would look a bit closer at the current ratings. That 45 glove of Roberts is likely to end up in the 60s making Roberts a LF or GG 1B and his vR projection looks a bit high as well (not that he won't still be a great hitter). On the other hand, Austin's current numbers all look to be within range of his projections and you are right about him being able to pitch a boatload of innings. If I thought Roberts could actually be a good ML 2b I'd go with him, but since I don't I would definitely go with Austin.

Thank you for all the comments. I definitely like Roberts, but am worried about his signability. Anyone who is undecided or who has another sport he is trying to decide between with baseball is someone I am hesitant to go after. That makes it hard for me to put Roberts and Ramsay at the top of my rankings, which sucks because those are two of the best hitters I have up there. I have some good prospects in my system:

Justin Robinson
Luis Alomar
Victor Villafuerte
Stubby McCarthy
Willie Ordonez
Vic Garko
RJ Cornelius
Walt Parrish

And that's just at the AA level. Still have Freddie Bagwell and a couple other good decent ones at AAA. I also have a few good starting pitching prospects, and an ok bullpen guy or two, but nobody that is remotely close to Reggie Austin. Just based on Austin's current ratings, I figure he could be ML-caliber in one year. Not that I'm looking for someone who will be ready that soon, and not that I would actually bring him up to the ML level that fast, but he's already that good. He may be a bullpen arm, but he would easily get me starter innings. He could basically pitch every other game I think.

I'd take the Austin feller.

Posted by dirk41mvp on 2/18/2012 11:24:00 PM (view original):
Thank you for all the comments. I definitely like Roberts, but am worried about his signability. Anyone who is undecided or who has another sport he is trying to decide between with baseball is someone I am hesitant to go after. That makes it hard for me to put Roberts and Ramsay at the top of my rankings, which sucks because those are two of the best hitters I have up there. I have some good prospects in my system:

Justin Robinson
Luis Alomar
Victor Villafuerte
Stubby McCarthy
Willie Ordonez
Vic Garko
RJ Cornelius
Walt Parrish

And that's just at the AA level. Still have Freddie Bagwell and a couple other good decent ones at AAA. I also have a few good starting pitching prospects, and an ok bullpen guy or two, but nobody that is remotely close to Reggie Austin. Just based on Austin's current ratings, I figure he could be ML-caliber in one year. Not that I'm looking for someone who will be ready that soon, and not that I would actually bring him up to the ML level that fast, but he's already that good. He may be a bullpen arm, but he would easily get me starter innings. He could basically pitch every other game I think.

Am I wrong in saying all of those guys are turds?

Maybe turds is a strong word.  But stars they are not.

Posted by shobob on 2/19/2012 2:16:00 AM (view original):

Posted by dirk41mvp on 2/18/2012 11:24:00 PM (view original):
Thank you for all the comments. I definitely like Roberts, but am worried about his signability. Anyone who is undecided or who has another sport he is trying to decide between with baseball is someone I am hesitant to go after. That makes it hard for me to put Roberts and Ramsay at the top of my rankings, which sucks because those are two of the best hitters I have up there. I have some good prospects in my system:

Justin Robinson
Luis Alomar
Victor Villafuerte
Stubby McCarthy
Willie Ordonez
Vic Garko
RJ Cornelius
Walt Parrish

And that's just at the AA level. Still have Freddie Bagwell and a couple other good decent ones at AAA. I also have a few good starting pitching prospects, and an ok bullpen guy or two, but nobody that is remotely close to Reggie Austin. Just based on Austin's current ratings, I figure he could be ML-caliber in one year. Not that I'm looking for someone who will be ready that soon, and not that I would actually bring him up to the ML level that fast, but he's already that good. He may be a bullpen arm, but he would easily get me starter innings. He could basically pitch every other game I think.

Am I wrong in saying all of those guys are turds?

With current-projected ratings, I have Alomar at 68-81, Villafuerte at 66-78, McCarthy at 64-75, Ordonez at 64-77, Cornelius at 64-78, and Parrish at 63-78. Robinson is only 61-64, his defensive ratings are poor but his overall rating is that high because he can hit. Garko is basically the same, bad defensive ratings but is 60-69 because he's a good hitter. As for Bagwell, he is 72-86 for me and is a stud hitter. So all these players look good to me. Maybe not MVP caliber, but solid ML players in the future.

I dont think they're turds. I think they are overvalued, but that could play right into your hands, dirk. Since you have multiples at lots of those positions, dont be hesitant to trade for quality BP prospects. I am always an active trader, and you'd be surprised what you could get for those guys. Just do a little selling in your WC and you are good to go.