Cherry picked? College catchers picked in the top 5. If you add in Wieters it doesn't change much as he was held back for service time concerns. No idea what the Giants would have done with Bart in a normal year.
There is one "bust" pick in the bunch that took a lot longer.
I think they overpaid for Norris. I don't think a start he made in the playoffs means they didn't.
I don't think he was worth a ML ready player, a draft pick and a lottery ticket.
You can't call the Norris trade a mistake. His one good season out of the three with the O's coincided with them winning the division by 12 games so he was obviously essential.
I think his ability to put bat to ball is part of the reason he isn't selective and that facing superior pitching might cause him to become.more selective.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Mountcastle will improve his walk rate in the majors over what he did in the minors.
He won't walk a lot but he will walk a sufficient amount of the time.
Might take a bit but he'll get there.
It's more the other thing that bothers me actually.
You give Mountcastle the best strike zone judgement in the league and he still isn't Mike Trout. He might however be Tommy Pham with a bit more power.
I think that's overly simplistic as well as simply not true (Trout was third in O-swing % in 2019, if you want to go with a five year sample he's 15th). I guess telling a player to be like Tommy Pham doesn't have the same impact?