We are up. Who do you want for pick 81, and who do you think they will take?

[Frobby]

6 hours ago, Sports Guy said:

 

So, let’s see.   The Rangers had a total draft pool of about $9.65 mm.   They spent over $9 mm of it on Rocker and Porter.   To do that, they passed on guys like Johnson, Green and Lee, and presumably went underslot on a lot of the picks after around 4.    

I guess if Rocker is healthy and Porter recovers from his surgery and becomes a good major league pitcher, that could be a coup.  But it also could be a huge blunder.   Fast forward ten years and maybe we’ll know.  
 

[Sports Guy]

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

So, let’s see.   The Rangers had a total draft pool of about $9.65 mm.   They spent over $9 mm of it on Rocker and Porter.   To do that, they passed on guys like Johnson, Green and Lee, and presumably went underslot on a lot of the picks after around 4.    

I guess if Rocker is healthy and Porter recovers from his surgery and becomes a good major league pitcher, that could be a coup.  But it also could be a huge blunder.   Fast forward ten years and maybe we’ll know.  
 

Well, they didn’t have a second or third round pick I believe.

They went with the strategy of taking the best 2 players on their board and valuing that over a falling player in the 6th round.  
 

BTW, they can also go over their 4.9%.

I like their thought process although it will be interesting to see what happens with Rocker.  I think that was a reach but if he stays healthy, it may not be.

[LookinUp]

1 hour ago, Sports Guy said:

I like their thought process ...

It's an extremely high risk draft. As Frobby said, it can definitely work out, but it could be a year where they get nothing from an entire draft. It's the Saints trading everyone for Ricky Williams.

That didn't work.

[LTO's]

I would be livid if the Orioles came out of a draft with this haul. In terms of expected future value, this is about as low probability as it gets. HS arms are the worst bet in the sport and of course Rocker has the medical concerns.

[seak05]

1 hour ago, Sports Guy said:

Well, they didn’t have a second or third round pick I believe.

They went with the strategy of taking the best 2 players on their board and valuing that over a falling player in the 6th round.  
 

BTW, they can also go over their 4.9%.

I like their thought process although it will be interesting to see what happens with Rocker.  I think that was a reach but if he stays healthy, it may not be.

Do you really think rocker was the best player on their board? They went extremely underslot to sign him.

[RVAOsFan]

15 minutes ago, LTO's said:

I would be livid if the Orioles came out of a draft with this haul. In terms of expected future value, this is about as low probability as it gets. HS arms are the worst bet in the sport and of course Rocker has the medical concerns.

With a full draft board I would agree with you but since they did not have picks in rounds 2 and 3 I think this was very creative.  You get 2 guys who were projected first round picks by many.  

[Sports Guy]

1 minute ago, RVAOsFan said:

With a full draft board I would agree with you but since they did not have picks in rounds 2 and 3 I think this was very creative.  You get 2 guys who were projected first round picks by many.  

Right.  I’m not saying Rocker was a smart pick.  I don’t think he was at all.  
That said, they obviously really like him and if you believe in his health, coming away with 2 potential TOR talents is really nice.

Of course this could blow up in their faces and they definitely could regret not taking one of the available hitters.  
 

Every draft can blow up in your face and most of the later rounds picks become nothing.  I would take the elite talent over several mediocre talent guys any day of the week.

[Sports Guy]

21 minutes ago, seak05 said:

Do you really think rocker was the best player on their board? They went extremely underslot to sign him.

Yes I do.  No reason to draft him, of all people, unless you think he’s BPA.  He’s too risky otherwise.

[RZNJ]

23 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Yes I do.  No reason to draft him, of all people, unless you think he’s BPA.  He’s too risky otherwise.

I don't know about that.  They definitely had a strategy in place to get two high ceiling pitchers.    Rocker, being underslot played into that strategy.   Do they take Rocker if they aren't able to parlay that savings into Porter?      Not so sure.

[Sports Guy]

2 minutes ago, RZNJ said:

I don't know about that.  They definitely had a strategy in place to get two high ceiling pitchers.    Rocker, being underslot played into that strategy.   Do they take Rocker if they aren't able to parlay that savings into Porter?      Not so sure.

But why take Rocker?  Why not take Lesko if you want the high end pitcher for underslot.

They clearly valued Rocker highly.  

Also, you don’t know that you are getting Porter.  I doubt they felt he would definitely be there in R4.  

 

[RVAOsFan]

Boras reps both those pitchers, it was clearly a pre draft package deal made.  Boras got Rocker drafted high and a decent pay check for a guy who didn't sign last year because of injury.  He gets Porter mid first round money and the Rangers get 2 first round players with picks in the 1st and 4th round.

If my team pulled that off I wouldn't be mad.

[RVAOsFan]

2 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

But why take Rocker?  Why not take Lesko if you want the high end pitcher for underslot.

They clearly valued Rocker highly.  

Also, you don’t know that you are getting Porter.  I doubt they felt he would definitely be there in R4.  

 

Maybe Lesko didn't want to cut the deal? Rocker seems like a prime candidate to cut a deal since he didn't sign last year.  

[Sports Guy]

7 minutes ago, RVAOsFan said:

Maybe Lesko didn't want to cut the deal? Rocker seems like a prime candidate to cut a deal since he didn't sign last year.  

Lesko definitely would have been an underslot.  As cheap as Rocker?  Who knows.  He had more leverage in some ways but he wasn’t going to give up the 5+M to go to college after already having TJ surgery.

[LTO's]

1 hour ago, RVAOsFan said:

With a full draft board I would agree with you but since they did not have picks in rounds 2 and 3 I think this was very creative.  You get 2 guys who were projected first round picks by many.  

Sure I get all that but it’s still not the route I’d go. I think if you’re targeting Porter you go position player under slot with your first pick to mitigate some of the risk. I also don’t think Porter was thought of as highly around the league as he was by the scouting pubs. I just don’t like the draft at all but we shall see.

[Frobby]

2 hours ago, LookinUp said:

It's an extremely high risk draft. As Frobby said, it can definitely work out, but it could be a year where they get nothing from an entire draft. It's the Saints trading everyone for Ricky Williams.

That didn't work.

SG is right that they were in a weird position anyway, with no picks between 3 and 109.   They could have chosen a lower risk, potentially very high reward pick at 3, but then they would have had a lot of eggs in that basket.  So, we’ll see how this goes.   It’s defensible, just ridiculously early to be calling it a “coup.”