Pries is a good pitcher. He was a good pitcher in college, but not a great one. He made a nice leap with his breaking ball as a junior, IIRC, had an improved K/BB ratio, had some nice late life on his very-low-90s fastball, but with the swinging bunts and pepper stuff in college it's hard to tell when one guy can control the zone against wood and whether a small plateau jump at any time might make somebody into a much-improved pitcher.
Pries wasn't that good in the Cape Cod either, so he's hard to pick out. But he was immediately VERY hard to hit the second he got into pro ball. He's equally good against righties and lefties (works his curve for that) and has become a pretty decent arm. You draft guys who are either projectable or have hidden talents. Dominic Leone taught himself a cutter watching Youtube videos, got much better control once he got OUT of the starting rotation, but as a short 16th rounder that's what you're hoping for. You WANT a guy who is teachable, who has a couple of tools, and who can be converted to some sort of usefulness.
200 inning starters are hard to come by. But if you can piece-meal a couple of plus bullpenners out of every draft you can keep the in-house options open for the inevitable bullpen struggles and injury woes, and stay flexible.
Day Three guys are for flexibility. If you land on one who is a great starter, even better! Sometimes you get a good hitter (Matt Carpenter was a day 3 guy, though the draft wasn't structured the same way then). Or an arm surprises you or comes through on young talent. Toronto added Drew Hutchinson back in 2009 (out of high school) and he's matured well. But late-round college arms are rarely where you'll get your starters.
Doesn't mean you can't get SOMEthing though.
I hope we sign a few of the teens somehow, to get some extra upside, and I do think we got a couple of relievers and maybe a swing-man/5th starter type amongst all our dudes. Those first-day hitters are the meat and bones of this draft, though.
~G
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