The biggest problem I see with the group is that none of the players listed at positions other than 1B/COF are actually going to be able to play those positions competently at the ML level.

Roberts is easily a Silver-Slugger quality 2b with solid defense.  If you have a chance to get him, you should do so.  The more veteran GMs here should correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe his signability means that he will almost surely sign, but will ask for more money.  Burrell and Ramsey also look VERY good, albeit with caveats.  Reggie Austin has a special combination of characteristics, and even though I would not want to take an RP with the 3rd pick of the draft, I might put him #2 on my board.

Bagwell is a very good prospect.  Alomar and Villafuerte are solid.  The rest look like injury replacements to me.

Im not in love with roberts for sure.  At best he is going to be very underaverage defensively for 2B though with a great bat.  He is more of a LF Def wise, and with a slightly above avg bat there.  If I were you Id put a guy that definately wont sign at the very top of your board and get the 4th OA next season with 18 18 HS and Coll scouting.  Then hope that you get a serviceable player with your 2nd pick.  I would rank RP, C, DH and maybe 1Bs very high (the ones that look great) and hope that they drop down to your 2nd pick.  You might get lucky and grab a very high quality RP with that 2nd pick.

Roberts is top for me.

After that, its Austin.  Normally I wouldn't be a fan of taking a relief pitcher #3, but if you have a reliever that can throw up 150-200 innings of dominant stuff, you've got a guy who might win a Cy Young before all is said and done, and will probably be nominated for several if you use him correctly.

Here's a comp:

http://whatifsports.com/HBD/Pages/Popups/PlayerProfile.aspx?pid=1807234

That guy covers up a lot of sins pitching 2-3+ innings at a time.

The draft was held in the AM cycle and after putting a lot of thought into it, I decided to roll with Reggie Austin as my top pick. Just the fact that I have better hitting prospects than pitching prospects and Austin's signability made me lean that direction. Leo Roberts was taken with the very next pick. Burrell and Ramsay were also taken in the top 10. I'm comfortable with my decision right now, and hopefully it was the correct one. Thanks again for all the advice.

I think you did the right thing. Go Mavs!

Posted by greeny9 on 2/21/2012 11:56:00 AM (view original):
Im not in love with roberts for sure.  At best he is going to be very underaverage defensively for 2B though with a great bat.  He is more of a LF Def wise, and with a slightly above avg bat there.  If I were you Id put a guy that definately wont sign at the very top of your board and get the 4th OA next season with 18 18 HS and Coll scouting.  Then hope that you get a serviceable player with your 2nd pick.  I would rank RP, C, DH and maybe 1Bs very high (the ones that look great) and hope that they drop down to your 2nd pick.  You might get lucky and grab a very high quality RP with that 2nd pick.

Roberts would be a multiple silver slugger winner at LF in most worlds.

Posted by gjello10 on 2/24/2012 9:21:00 AM (view original):
I think you did the right thing. Go Mavs!

+1000000000

go Mavs indeed! And go Rangers too since we're talking baseball.

But not go Cowboys. I hate the Cowboys with so much passion.

Posted by caesari on 2/24/2012 10:45:00 AM (view original):
But not go Cowboys. I hate the Cowboys with so much passion.

I'm a Cowboys fan, but not even close to how much of a Mavs fan I am. Easily my #1 team. Plus, being a Cowboys fan these days is just downright depressing.

also take into account their age. a player who is 21 or 22 needs to be much closer to his projected ratings because he realistically only has 2-3 seasons to improve his ratings.  most players gain most of their ratings by the time they are 23/24 so a guy who is 18 has more time to reach his projections than a guy who is 23.  the 23 guy needs to be somewhat close or he will never reach those ratings.

guys can continue to gain ratings past 24 until they are 27, but it won't be significant.  once they hit 27, their current and projections are the same.

Early return on Reggie Austin is positive. I like what I see so far. He took a little longer to sign than I thought, but the wait was worth it. Had maybe one bad game but that was it. Up until this last game, I had been using Austin in a Setup A role. And while he had been putting up a lot of innings that way, I decided to put him as a Tandem B guy for this AM.

So I wanna ask: do y'all think this would be a good way to maximize his innings? In both the Setup and Tandem B roles, I have put his pitch count at a max of 40. He threw exactly 40 pitches for 3.1 IP in the last game. His fatigue reads "52 (100)" so if I wanted to, I could put him right back out there as a Tandem B again after the next game. He won't always be back to 100% after just one day off, so should I wait one more day and get into the habit of pitching him as Tandem B every third game? With his durability, on a 40 pitch limit, it will never take more than two games off for him to be back to 100%.

My gut says SuA with MPC/TPC at 25/30.  I think you'll end up with about 30% more innings that way, but I'm not exactly sure how to test that hypothesis.

Another thing, promote Austin from Rookie League.  He should be ready for the big leagues in one season or two, so there's no need to start him out with your crappiest coaches.  Throw him into HiA or AA, wherever you have a better pitching coach.

nah put him at 30-35 pull rating of 1 or 2, and yes, he should be in hi a or aa whomever has the better PC.  He will def pitch every other game with that pitch count.

Looking at the coaches for every team at every level, I see that I have the #1 coach at the AA level, by pitch IQ (82). My Low A PC is in the top 10 and High A in the top 15. My original plan was to give him time at every level, no matter how short. Even if it was to put him at Low A for a couple games before putting him at High A. But he is clearly good enough for AA right now. So should I abandon that plan and just skip right over the As?