#4 overall: Jeremi Rice - As I said a couple posts back, I plan to complain about this pick. A lot. Look, I don't have a huge problem with Rice. He is an extremely talented pitcher who was the ace of his college team his sophomore and junior years, he throws in the high-90's, and he doesn't walk too many batters. He's not a big strikeout guy, but he's never really had injury problems and he is currently proving me wrong in Rookie ball (15 innings, 1.20 ERA in two starts so far). All in all, even though he always had trouble getting lefties out in college, I think if our coaches work with him he could be a solid #3 option in the rotation.
So what's the problem? With the 4th overall pick in the draft, you don't want a #3 pitcher. You want an ace. Granted, prezuiwf hinted the other day that if Raymond Simmons were available, we would have probably taken him, and he is a better pitcher than Rice. Still, we passed on a choice so obvious that I am convinced it will haunt us for decades: Jesus Amezaga, taken an astounding 10th overall by Augusta, who got the steal of the century by taking a guy who set single-season NJCAA records in ERA, strikeouts, WHIP, and K:BB ratio... largely at 18 years old. Unsurprisingly, he's already got 4 K's in 2.1 innings and no runs allowed so far in Rookie ball.
The knock on Amezaga has always been his durability-- aside from sustaining several injuries during his HS and junior college careers, he was also known to have starts skipped at Kennedy-King College due to fatigue. But I'm sorry, you just don't pass up on a guy like that, even if he'll only make 15 starts a year. He's being used as a reliever right now, but with what the scouts are saying about Amezaga, he could become a truly special ML starting pitcher. Jeremi Rice is going to have to get a lot of wins to make this draft pick a good one for us.
#16 overall: Josh Nixon - Now THIS was a good pick. Ironically, Nixon accounted for the only home run given up by Jesus Amezaga last year, a solo bomb (though Amezaga still got the win, 3-1). Nixon was a premier hitter for his junior college team and even played a decent second base (though the organization probably sees him as more of an outfielder). He's always stayed healthy, which is a plus. A minus is his apparently volatile temper, but hopefully our coaches will be able to calm him down. All in all, Nixon was a pretty good pick (even if B.C. Harper may prove to have been a better choice) so I'll tentatively chalk this up as a win for us. Oh yeah, he's also OPSing an absurd 2.142 so far in 4 games of Rookie ball. Guess he was ready for the leap to the pros after all.
#70 overall: Raymond Rossy - A pretty solid 2nd round pick, and a guy who has a possible major league future. What the organization really likes about this guy is his durability; his college coaches commented on how he could throw 30 pitches in relief every day of the week and still be 100% the next day. Having a workhorse like that in the bullpen would be a very welcome addition. Unfortunately, his skills are not quite as revered as his stamina, and he only has two pitches: a good sinker and a good changeup. He's a bit of a paradox as his durability makes him an ideal middle reliever, but his skills seem to limit him to lefty specialist duty. It will be interesting to see how the organization develops him. At the moment, he's got 2 saves with a 4.50 ERA in 2 games as our closer at the Rookie level.
#102 overall: Cedrick Pickering - This pick would seem to have "bust" written all over it. After dropping down teams' depth charts due to injury concerns, Pickering got taken out of his first game and has already had to miss a start due to elbow soreness. Scouts like his slider, but his other pitches aren't great, he can't strike guys out, and he's supposedly an awful fielder. To be honest, I'm not sure if this would even be a good pick if he were healthy. Why we wasted a 3rd round pick on a guy who projects to be a poor man's, injury-prone Ben Wilson is far beyond me.
#134 overall: Butch Fingers - The organization hasn't offered him a contract, so it should be safe to assume he'll never don a Snow Pirates uniform. I will give him props for his funny name.
#166 overall: Brendan Henry - Basically a lot like Pickering, but without the injuries. If Pickering was a 3rd rounder, then technically this is a very savvy pick. Unfortunately, like Pickering, I wouldn't expect much from Henry, though I guess I'll reserve judgement until we see him in action.
Overall, I might rate this draft a C+ or B-. Maybe I'm being hard on prezuiwf, and the success of Rice would make this a much better haul for us, but I am just so fumed about Amezaga that I can't really call us true winners here.
A couple miscellaneous notes:
- Knock on wood, but Cyrus Torres currently has the most wins (8) by any pitcher in the majors who has yet to take a loss. He has continued to absolutely dominate, and if you take out his disastrous start against Philadelphia, his ERA would currently be 2.51. He has already been Cy Young caliber for us, easily one of the top 5 pitchers in the AL so far this year, and he is garnering lots of All-Star buzz. Hopefully his hot pitching will continue in his next start, against the hapless Texas Express later this week. You've got to believe he's a current favorite for Rookie of the Year.
- Speaking of All-Stars, we currently have four players who would be in if the voting ended today (assuming we count Torres, as the managers select the pitchers). Our other stud rookie, Danny Milligan (who currently has the third-best batting average in the American League) is currently receiving the second-most votes at catcher, closely behind St. Louis' Darrell Prince. Rob McNamara, who has slowed down but still has a .915 OPS and an AL eighth-best .327 batting average, trails New Orleans' Ronnie Payton at 2B (perhaps deservedly so). Finally, Vic Servet continues his spectacular resurgence, currently receiving the most votes at CF of anybody in either league.
- Ebenezer Brett will almost certainly be watching the All-Star festivities from his couch, but he gave us a solid start earlier this week, pitching 5 inning, 2-run ball in a win against the New York Moneymaker. He allowed 6 hits and no walks, a very encouraging sign for a guy we're counting on to rebound a bit as we make our run at the playoffs this year.
- When we traded Benji Crespo for Don Wang last year, many fans were skeptical at best. It didn't help when Wang was moved to the bullpen due to his inability to pitch into the 6th inning at the tender age of 33. However, the deal now looks a lot better; if you haven't heard, Crespo blew out his elbow a couple weeks ago and will now have to undergo surgery that may shut him down for the rest of the year (or at least until the very end of the season). After scaring us by pitching quite well in the majors last year (3.69 ERA in 39 innings), he was much worse this season (5.67 ERA in 39.2 innings) and the elbow injury is an enormous blow for Philadelphia, who saw Crespo as a rotation mainstay. It will be at least two months before he will be able to throw a baseball again. Wang, in the meantime, has posted a rock-solid 3.51 ERA in 207.2 innings so far in Syracuse and has been one of our most dependable pitchers. Perhaps this trade was a true win after all.
- One last thing: while Omar Gabriel scared us half to death in his first couple starts since being traded from Omaha, note that he has quietly allowed only 1 run in his last 20 innings, and 0 in his past 16, to bring his Low A ERA down to 3.51. Maybe it was rust, maybe it was the jitters, but it looks as if Omar Gabriel might just be scary good after all.
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