I have no problem with a player like that. Someone's going to be your 25th man, your backup C, might as well be a MFer. And he might never be able to play enough to demand excessive salary.

Yeah, great pickup as a second pick IMO. Have him come in to catch the 8th inning of every game. His PC should help the bullpen's ERA a bit. And playing 2/9 of every game should keep him 100% for the playoffs where he'll be an MVP.

That 3rd player though is SuB at best. That VEL and GB/FB combo will get him killed without elite splits. But fringe ML talent is what you expect that far down the draft anyway.

Wow Brian, keep talking man, I am leaning more from you in these few exchanges than I have in years playing this game. I can't put my finger on it as I am usually pretty good at games, but this one is a bugger to figure out.

I realize, much like real baseball, you have high's and low's. I had some success years ago and then I hit a rebuilding period and I've been awful. My team started turning it around this year and they are very young and fairly talented, but next year or the year after is when they are bound to all come together nicely.

But Brian, I would appreciate if you would be willing to have more dialogue on what attributes you feel are the most important for hitting, fielding and pitching. Like, if one attribute is more important than others, please let me know. I think it might be that kind of fine turning where I am coming up short. From there, I can try and design a spread sheet using certain attributes weighted more greatly. For example, how you said low velocity and and GB/FB combo being so low will get him killed. I've played this many year, and maybe three days ago was the first time I read about how pitchers (unlike hitters) can't really afford a single weakness to be truly great. Hitters, some say, they can overcompensate some weakness. Like I have a 1B named Sean Barnes, fantastic career, MVP winner, MVP runner up several times, and his vsR. is abysmal. His vsL. Is through the roof.

I appreciate the advice, Brian, of putting that catcher at pick 5, simply genius.And I think he will prove a great asset too. Thanks again!

Most of the advice I give is just regurgitated from other posters smarter and/or more experienced than I. Just use google to find what you're looking for on the forums (type in whatever key word you're looking for then site:whatifsports.com/forums and it will give you a bunch of forum posts, better than the search function on this site IMO)

As far as attributes here's how I evaluate draftees, take it or leave it:

Copy all the attributes for fielding/pitching/hitting/signability into excel (just drag your curser down the screen for all 500 or however many prospects you see, copy and paste as text). Then add two more columns. One for the average of the 5 main hitter ratings and one for the average of the 5 main pitching ratings (CON, vLH, vRH, P1, P2). Then add a filter to the table. Now you can sort the players by descending either one of those two averages.

This gives you a good starting point. I prioritize vRH for both pitchers and hitters, right handed throwing pitchers and switch and lefty hitters. When deciding between players I'll look for comparable players in the various leagues I'm in to get a feel for what kind of numbers they will put up.

There's a little more to it than that but that's the gist of it. It will often provide me with big league starters in the 2nd and 3rd rounds (but that's only rebuilds with 20/20 scouting so I'm seeing 90% of players near their true ceilings) Hope that helps.

I actually think you had an excellent draft (or first 3 picks of it). Contrary to popular opinion - to me and my weird way of doing things - the "best" player is the least valuable.

Assuming all hit projections (which is a big assumption), the catcher is *gold*. If you miss the playoffs, it's almost certainly not his fault as the 24/25th man on your roster. If, however, you make the playoffs, he's a massive bat to have play every day. And there's no reason he shouldn't get 12+ years as your C, since he'll play for peanuts.

The RP (again assuming projections) could perform very well with good D behind him. 80/90 as pitches is elite, and good control and vs RH pair well (vs LH obviously is a weak spot). He's also an iron man, and can be an effective workhorse in the pen.

The "star" is a sub-par defensive 3B with a good (not great) bat. His OVR will drive up his cost (but not his value) prematurely and he contributes nothing on the base paths. He'll hit HR and be good at it. His average won't be super high and he doesn't do any of the other "little things" that are really valuable. Knock 20 points off his Dur and his value goes up. But I like the batting lefty/throwing right at least. Still, he's a corner OF for a good team, and his bat (though good) isn't exceptional there.

Excellent analysis zbrent. Thank you very much. I tell you what, the more I was thinking about that catcher, the more I fully agree. What a great steal! If I play him right man, that is such an epic pick. I need to thank Brian for ranking him 5. Made sure he would be the very next guy I'd go for and I did. Lol. My anal researching skills paid off. I extened to 500 prospects and sorted by certain attributes and even though he was super low overall, he came up for obvious reasons. But if I only did it with 25 or 100 prospects, I'd of never seen him.