2010 Draft Pool Discussion Thread

[Tyler]

Let the chatter begin.

[Matt]

Is there a lot more talent in this pool than in the past couple of pools, or is my scouting department in need of serious drug testing?

[Denny]

Pitching still seems pretty thin though.

[Tyler]

Pitching still seems pretty thin though.

Yeah, and as the Sox's primary area of need, that sucks.

I agree with San Antonio, though - there's a lot more offensive talent than normal this year.

[Tyler]

Further poking around has revealed an absurd number of quality catchers in the pool.

[Matt]

There's never enough pitching, but at least there seems to be more than in years past. Last year there were just two starters of multi-star potential on the board, there seems to be quite a few more than that this season.

[Alan Ehlers]

I think there is a lot of pitching and there are a lot of hidden gems in the draft pool and all the owners will have to burn the midnight oil in order to uncover the massive amount of hidden talent that I think there is in this years draft pool

[Matt]

We have a Knights sighting.....he can't answer his phone but he has time to post....hmmmmm

[Alan Ehlers]

hey I have been trying to call you since yesterday

[Tyler]

Because it's the night (technically morning) before a final and I can't sleep, here's the Coal Sox mini-draft preview. Coal Sox beat reporter Patrick Bailey picks his top five players at each position. Discuss!

Catchers
1. Alberto Torres
2. Jason Corbett
3. Pepe Espinosa
4. Scott Vinson
5. Jason Gordon

First Basemen
1. Rod Johnson
2. Jeff Carroll
3. Carlos Miranda
4. Julio Olivares
5. Angel Cortez

Second Basemen
1. Leslie McDonald
2. Todd Fairchild
3. River Adkins
4. Edwin Matthews
5. Manuel Perez

Third Basemen
1. Lawrence Coleman
2. Corbin Hickman
3. Jeff Newth
4. Ed Lehman
5. Mark Whittier

Shortstops
1. Eric Peterson
2. Bailey Rohr
3. Randy Davis
4. Tim Green
5. Stephen Collins

Left Fielders
1. Ernie Brown
2. Jay White
3. Ming-feng Sima
4. Pete Wills
5. Cooper Wright

Center Fielders
1. Josh Willard
2. Edgar Valentin
3. Allen Fish
4. Tom Lee
5. George Jones

Right Fielders
1. Bob Collins
2. Trent Jackson
3. Ricardo Longoria
4. Pat Deatherage
5. Rory Newman

Starting Pitchers
1. Bill Lewis
2. Darryl Lewis
3. Michael Ayers
4. Felix Maese
5. Rich Jones

Relief Pitchers
1. Jack Campbell
2. Jon Miller
3. Marcos Diaz
4. Willie Owens
5. Bill Carpenter

Thoughts:
Again, the catching quality is very high.

There are no center fielders in this draft.

There are no mid-quality starters in this draft. After about a dozen good/great prospects, the rest are completely worthless.

There are no great bullpen prospects.

[Apollos]

Tyler thanks for taking time to list the players. It is very helpful.

[Matt]

You don't have Baldwin on your list of second basemen. Granted, he's almost as useful as Juan Samuel at second base, but he's tearing the freaking cover off the ball.

[Denny]

So far my favorite name among the prospects is "Deatherage".

Best nickname probably goes to Jose 'Twinkle Toes' Cruz.

[Tyler]

You don't have Baldwin on your list of second basemen. Granted, he's almost as useful as Juan Samuel at second base, but he's tearing the freaking cover off the ball.

For the purposes of this ranking I made an (arbitrary) decision to rank each player at only one position (which results in some weird choices for guys who are still raw and/or have the tools to play multiple positions), and to require that they be able to play a position. I probably should have added another category for guys I see as future DHs, who certainly are still valuable. You are correct, Baldwin deserves to be on some sort of Top 5 list somewhere.

I also did this in about 20 minutes - it was my first in-depth look at the draft. The Coal Sox internal rankings will differ.

[Apollos]

Tyler should I take that to mean that these are the OSA rankings and not your own?