BA's 2008 Draft Report Card : Best Tools

[Tony-OH]

I personally struggle with the 'athlete' concept. This implies that someone has incredible athletic skills (ie: speed, strength, leaping ability) but not necessarily baseball skills.

I like the fact that Avery is mentioned, but a fast bad hitter, is no better than a slow bad hitter, aside from being a qualified MiL pinch runner.

Hopefully, Avery's bat develops.

Here's where you and Frobby are missing the boat when you hear "athlete." We're not talking about guys with no baseball backgrounds. We're talking about guys who the scouts have seen play baseball but they've come from areas where their baseball programs may not be very good or they've never fully committed to baseball because they were so good at other sports.

In Avery's case, he's played in showcase games with the best high school talent around (and hit a long home run in one game to boot) but he's a great athlete to boot. It's not like Joe Jordan and his scouts are scouring football and lacrosse fields looking for raw athletic players and trying to make them baseball players.

Jordan calls his preference, "Athletes who are baseball players." In other words, he's already seen them play the game of baseball well, but thinks if they focus solely on baseball, they will improve incrementally. He believes these kind of guys need 1000 professional at bats before you really know where they are heading, but he's a firm believer that in the end, you will end up with more successes than drafting thick-bodied "pure" baseball players, who may hit a bit, but will probably end up 1B/DH types.

Most players drafted are going to fail to reach the majors in any significant role, that's just the odds. But the one thing to take out of all of this that Jordan may like "athletes", but they are baseball players, not just raw athletic young men.

[hoosiers]

I was going to post something similar to what Tony just did.

I think people are going in thought directions that are not appropriate with Avery just because someone said he was an athlete.

I would also like to point out that Tyler Henson was an "athlete" when drafted - having taken both his baseball and football (he played quarterback) teams to the state championships - and winning. The BA write-up on Henson had positive vibes about most aspects of Tyler's game save for his hitting - as his swing had some doubters.

Now, we see Tyler show some decent stuff at DelMarva, we see some major progress in his plate discipline this winter, and he appears ready for a quality season at Frederick next year to improve his prospect status.

The term "athlete" should not carry such a negative connotation.

[Frobby]

Here's where you and Frobby are missing the boat when you hear "athlete." We're not talking about guys with no baseball backgrounds. We're talking about guys who the scouts have seen play baseball but they've come from areas where their baseball programs may not be very good or they've never fully committed to baseball because they were so good at other sports.

Where did I miss the boat? I thought that's what I was saying here:

It depends a little bit on what kind of opportunity he has had to develop baseball skills. If you are 18 years old, and grew up in a family with limited resources in an area where there isn't much top-flight baseball competition around, chances are your baseball skills aren't very well developed. But that doesn't mean you can't learn them when you are being paid to focus on it and getting high level professional instruction.

When I said "chances are your baseball skills aren't very well developed," I didn't mean the player hadn't played at all. I meant pretty much the same thing you just said.

[rhall]

This is the first I'm hearing of Welty. Can you or anyone else tell us a little more about him?

Thanks in advance.

Check out my new thread in the Minors section on Welty.

link

[Pruke]

Here's where you and Frobby are missing the boat when you hear "athlete." We're not talking about guys with no baseball backgrounds. We're talking about guys who the scouts have seen play baseball but they've come from areas where their baseball programs may not be very good or they've never fully committed to baseball because they were so good at other sports.

In Avery's case, he's played in showcase games with the best high school talent around (and hit a long home run in one game to boot) but he's a great athlete to boot. It's not like Joe Jordan and his scouts are scouring football and lacrosse fields looking for raw athletic players and trying to make them baseball players.

Jordan calls his preference, "Athletes who are baseball players." In other words, he's already seen them play the game of baseball well, but thinks if they focus solely on baseball, they will improve incrementally. He believes these kind of guys need 1000 professional at bats before you really know where they are heading, but he's a firm believer that in the end, you will end up with more successes than drafting thick-bodied "pure" baseball players, who may hit a bit, but will probably end up 1B/DH types.

Most players drafted are going to fail to reach the majors in any significant role, that's just the odds. But the one thing to take out of all of this that Jordan may like "athletes", but they are baseball players, not just raw athletic young men.

I'm not saying Avery won't be a great pick. I just struggle with labeling someone a great athlete. I much prefer great athletes who are great ballplayers. I hope Avery is every bit of that, believe me! I just think this is where we start looking at the org development effectiveness for some hope in making great athletes into great ML ballplayers.

Go O's