I have the 1st pick so I have the choice. I would always prefer pitching but I am not a lover of Lefties AND these are some pretty big HOF type bats. All are 19 years old. Player 1 is ridiculous, but his health, batting eye and base running scare me to think about the other 2.

Player 1 - RF (Switch Hitter)
Overall / Range / Glove / Arm Strength / Accuracy / Durability / Health / Speed / Patience / Temper / Makeup
93 65 59 76 59 85 57 99 96 84 85
Contact / Power / vsL / vsR / Batting Eye / Base Running
100 98 99 88 62 56

Player 2 - RF (Switch Hitter)
Overall / Range / Glove / Arm Strength / Accuracy / Durability / Health / Speed / Patience / Temper / Makeup
91 72 49 77 69 88 85 100 25 34 92
Contact / Power / vsL / vsR / Batting Eye / Base Running
71 92 77 81 69 96

Player 3 - SP (Lefty)
Overall / Durability / Health / Patience / Temper / Makeup
83 26 65 67 59 100
Stamina / Control / vsL / vsR / Velocity / Groundball / 1st / 2nd / 3rd / 4th / 5th
78 87 83 78 94 83 87 76 57 58 28

What is your scouting budget? If # 1 really gets those ratings it is a no brainer if not # 3

1 despite the health. The BR is good enough that he won't hurt you much if at all on the basepaths. I'll roll the dice on position player health all the way down to 50 or even 40 before I get worried.

#1 all day.

I have $20MM in College Scouting and all 3 are 19 yrs old and in junior college.

Mostly agree with the pack here -- Player #1 is the best. He has elite power, elite L split, elite contact, elite speed and great R split. These type of guys are rare. Also, since all of them are age 19, you have to work with what your scouts tell you so you go with the best player. He hits those ratings, you might have a HOF LF on your hands.

#1 is a 1st ballot HOF and has a high chance of re-signing for a reasonable contract (although I can't remember if 90+ guys always test free agency)

#1 is the best player overall. My biggest concern is the health rating, but he should be good enough where even frequent injuries won't slow his production when he's on the field. That's a multiple-MVP type of bat, and you can't pass that up.

#2 is also a great player. I love building teams around speed, so I might prefer him if he had like 10-15 more points of batting eye and #1 didn't also have elite speed. But that's not the case, so go with #1.

#3 looks like a mid-rotation starter. I would not take him.

I always like these so will join in the fun. Have the first pick in an underwhelming draft and have (what I think) are some tough calls. I play in Jackson which is a slight pitchers park (-1 for both HR directions). Curious what others think - listed what I believe are the key ratings below:

Door 1 - 1Bs. Defense/Speed/Health are essentially a wash between them and nothing special. Speed of 40-50 and defense meets the 1B recommendations. Both looking to sign.
Age/Bats - CON/PWR/VL/VR/EYE
18/R - 90/100/70/78/86
19/S - 80/89/75/79/80

Door 2 - SPs. Stamina/Durability/Health are a wash between them and all fine. Stamina in the high 70s, so definitely starters, but not workhorses.
Age/Throws- CTL/VL/VR/VEL/GB/P1/P2/P3/P4/P5
18/R - 100/77/77/25/83/86/87/65/30/NA - Undecided
20/L - 97/91/78/27/39/85/72/64/50/51 - Looking to Sign

Door 3 - Punt the pick. Take a guy with mother as the agent, or go for a more cautious approach and take the Undecided SP and hope he doesn't sign.

I've flip-flopped a couple times so curious what others think. I was leaning the lefty SP but after looking around a bit, am starting to wonder if a lefty with the same ratings as a righty would actually perform worse because of having the platoon disadvantage far more often.

Posted by gman981981 on 8/19/2020 12:02:00 AM (view original):
I always like these so will join in the fun. Have the first pick in an underwhelming draft and have (what I think) are some tough calls. I play in Jackson which is a slight pitchers park (-1 for both HR directions). Curious what others think - listed what I believe are the key ratings below:

Door 1 - 1Bs. Defense/Speed/Health are essentially a wash between them and nothing special. Speed of 40-50 and defense meets the 1B recommendations. Both looking to sign.
Age/Bats - CON/PWR/VL/VR/EYE
18/R - 90/100/70/78/86
19/S - 80/89/75/79/80

Door 2 - SPs. Stamina/Durability/Health are a wash between them and all fine. Stamina in the high 70s, so definitely starters, but not workhorses.
Age/Throws- CTL/VL/VR/VEL/GB/P1/P2/P3/P4/P5
18/R - 100/77/77/25/83/86/87/65/30/NA - Undecided
20/L - 97/91/78/27/39/85/72/64/50/51 - Looking to Sign

Door 3 - Punt the pick. Take a guy with mother as the agent, or go for a more cautious approach and take the Undecided SP and hope he doesn't sign.

I've flip-flopped a couple times so curious what others think. I was leaning the lefty SP but after looking around a bit, am starting to wonder if a lefty with the same ratings as a righty would actually perform worse because of having the platoon disadvantage far more often.

If your scouting is equal and close to 20, don't punt; these are fine options. Either HS player is a Hall of Famer; I'd take the pitcher.

Thanks dedelman. Forgot to add-scouting is equal and high.

I don't think there's a wrong choice there except punting the pick. All four of those guys are really good. Personally, all things being equal I'd take the HS 1B—the power differential is probably big enough to outweigh the JC guy's switch-hitting, and the pitchers are a step below both of them. Of the pitchers, I'd probably take the JC lefty. The solid fifth pitch is important, and you know he's going to have at least one very good split—even though it's the wrong one, the righty might wind up with like, 72/72 splits, which is fine, but 85/72 is better. And in a pitcher's park, his flyball tendencies won't kill you. Plus there's the signability factor.

To conclude, I'd rank them: (1) HS 1B; (2) JC 1B; (3) JC SP; (4) HS SP.

Agree on the HS 1B. At pick #1 you want someone elite and that guy is going to rake at the plate. The pitchers are fine and I prefer the lefty but not the type of elite pitcher you usually see as the #1 pick in drafts. I've gotten guys like him in the mid-first round before.

Gman's guys:
For the 1b, the right handed guy will outperform the switch hitter early in their careers, the switch hitter will outperform the right handed hitter past the age of 31 or so. I would take the right handed guy because you know you will have him early in his career when he is the better hitter. The caveat here is durability. If one of them plays every day and the other has less than 80 durability, I think they are close enough to where I take the guy that plays every day.

To me, the pitchers are nearly a wash -- if they both reach those ratings, they both give up an Obp of around .275 in the NL and .285 in the AL.

Don't punt. None of these guys are generational players, but all four are mighty fine.

Thanks all for the insight. To circle back on what happened, I took the HS 1B. I incorrectly listed above that he was looking to sign - he's actually maybe will sign. He declined the initial offer and came back and asked for $10.4M. Given my initial uncertainty on the pick, I'll see how IFAs go and decide closer to the end of the year. For a bit of background I didn't initially provide, my training is only at 10M (just took over the team and liked the scouting budgets enough to tolerate the training), and have a terrific 1B in the minors already so I'm leaning towards just taking the 2nd pick next year.