Thoughts on the draft through day two?

[Frobby]

My reaction so far: 

I thought day one was great.   Loved the Rutschman pick, was excited by the Henderson pick, thought the Stower pick was very solid.    Really couldn’t have asked for more.    Seemed like an A+ day.

Day two, for me, felt a little deflating.   In hindsight, I think partly we were paying the piper for the Henderson pick and needed to go underslot, either mildly or substantially, on several picks.   There were several that seemed like solid value, but really nobody who got me really excited about their upside.   I did like the overall approach of targeting good defenders at key defensive positions, but I didn’t see much offensive potential with the hitters. And going all the way to the 8th round before selecting a pitcher seemed a bit extreme.    The two we got at 8-9 seem fine for those spots but it’s hard to see anything other than a role player in either of them.  

So, I’m not knocking the overall strategy but I guess my overall feeling about our draft so far went from A+ on day one to an A-/B+ for the two days combined.    

I think the pick I liked best today was the high school SS, Hernaiz.   He’s the one guy who seems to have upside if things break his way.  

Thoughts?    Am I being too harsh?

[TheOtherRipken]

Respectfully disagree - and granted from the perspective of someone who doesnt follow all these players. Its my favorite draft in some time.   We went aggressive at key skill positions and focused on areas we thought were strengths in the draft. Reminds me of 2013 when we took 3 catchers in first 11 in strong catcher draft. The lack of pitchers doesn’t bother me, we could still grab an overslot guy after round 10.

Just my two cents.

[atomic]

I like our first overall pick.  Don't know anything about the other players other than reading blurbs about them after they were drafted.  Most of the guys drafted will never make the big leagues.  I don't care if he drafts pitchers as you need to pick the best guys available if you have two many shortstops or catchers another team will gladly trade with you if they turn out to be real mlb players. If you draft a pitcher who can't make it past Aberdeen I am not sure what positive that is. You can draft guys in the 25 to 40th range to fill out the roster if you need to. 

[now]

I've seen some hand-wringing over the lack of pitchers in the top picks. But seems we're already well stocked with pitching talent at AA and A... So a good time to grab some position players. 

[Frobby]

1 minute ago, now said:

I've seen some hand-wringing over the lack of pitchers in the top picks. But seems we're already well stocked with pitching talent at AA and A... So a good time to grab some position players. 

I agree with this, generally.   Last year we took 8 pitchers in our first 10 picks.    Today balanced things out a bit.   I just felt we took it a bit far.   

[Luke-OH]

56 minutes ago, Frobby said:

My reaction so far: 

I thought day one was great.   Loved the Rutschman pick, was excited by the Henderson pick, thought the Stower pick was very solid.    Really couldn’t have asked for more.    Seemed like an A+ day.

Day two, for me, felt a little deflating.   In hindsight, I think partly we were paying the piper for the Henderson pick and needed to go underslot, either mildly or substantially, on several picks.   There were several that seemed like solid value, but really nobody who got me really excited about their upside.   I did like the overall approach of targeting good defenders at key defensive positions, but I didn’t see much offensive potential with the hitters. And going all the way to the 8th round before selecting a pitcher seemed a bit extreme.    The two we got at 8-9 seem fine for those spots but it’s hard to see anything other than a role player in either of them.  

So, I’m not knocking the overall strategy but I guess my overall feeling about our draft so far went from A+ on day one to an A-/B+ for the two days combined.    

I think the pick I liked best today was the high school SS, Hernaiz.   He’s the one guy who seems to have upside if things break his way.  

Thoughts?    Am I being too harsh?

The Zach Watson pick is the only really questionable pick for me, $780.40k slot, I don't think he merits that. If he signs for 400-500k, I'd feel a lot better about it. Maybe he was hurt or off somehow this year, he was more well regarded last year but I only watched him this season and he didn't stand out on an LSU team that didn't have any standout position players IMO (Josh Smith with the best of the group but more the Kyle Stowers of the infield rather than exciting).

[LookinUp]

I feel like part of the strategy was based on what Elias views as the shortcomings of our org. Today we got more athletic and better defensively at key positions. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that he tripled down like he did.

[Number5]

This draft became an A+ for me after our first two picks, no matter what else happens.  I'm glad that we chose not to get cute and pass on Adley.  Anything can happen, of course, but, man, I like his chances to be a really good one.  He alone could very well make this an outstanding draft.  Having Henderson fall to us was the icing on the cake for me.    

[Satyr3206]

I don't have an issue with drafting position players after all the pitchers the O's have drafted recently.

As for the guys we drafted after the 3rd round, I don't know enough about them to have an educated opinion. I'll rely on Luke and the guys that follow HS and College players closely.

[DirtyBird]

I think it was pretty boring, but I don’t have any problems with it.

[Luke-OH]

3 minutes ago, Satyr3206 said:

I don't have an issue with drafting position players after all the pitchers the O's have drafted recently.

As for the guys we drafted after the 3rd round, I don't know enough about them to have an educated opinion. I'll rely on Luke and the guys that follow HS and College players closely.

They didn't really draft my favorites, but outside of Watson, I felt like they got some value at each pick. Especially Stowers, Handley, and Gillispie weren't overly exciting but rock solid value picks. 

[Yachtsman]

I think that Elias believes in strength up the middle.  It has been interesting, like seeing a football team being built from the line up. I agree we have some decent pitching, so this approach has been somewhat fascinating and gutsy.  I really want to see what we have internationally based on what he has not picked yet.  My prediction is that he goes pitching heavy next season with relying on what we have at A and AA now, and supplementing with additional kids next year.

[Big O]

My prediction is there will be an "impossible" pick, signed this year and he'll be drafted tomorrow.

[25 Nuggets]

1 hour ago, now said:

I've seen some hand-wringing over the lack of pitchers in the top picks. But seems we're already well stocked with pitching talent at AA and A... So a good time to grab some position players. 

Not to mention somebody out there said "worst crop of starting pitcher prospects in 30 years".

If it's that bad, draft from strength.

[sportsfan8703]

We know the draft is all about the bonus pool money and less about what round players get taken. So we went big with Gunnar and then it meant we had to save the rest of the draft. 

“The weakest pitching draft in 20 years” so we stuck to our board and took hitters. 

This all seems perfectly reasonable so far. Having pick 11.1 is a big deal because we have the first chance to pick one of the “tough signs” that teams didn’t want to take 1-10, because they’d mess their pool up. Adley and Gunnar are great, the rest of the draft will be about if we can steal some overslot kids away from NCAA.