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But whose bat was supposed to carry him.  Kinda like some other catcher we got from the Yankees.  Quick, name me the catchers-who-can't-catch who succeeded in the bigs because of their lumber.  Most of them had to be good enough to survive on a corner.  Clement wasn't that good.
Clement was basically a stab at Ryan Doumit.  In the second round, where Doumit was drafted, no problem.  But you don't draft a guy without a position 3rd in the entire draft.  If it was gonna work it would be because Clement could hit like Konerko so a move to first base would be okay. That was a very bad bet.  Was it at the time? Yes.  Could it have worked anyway? Absolutely.
But with Tulo, Braun and Zimmerman in the draft, why take that bet?  At #23 or whatever, sure, swing away.  Zimmerman was a guaranteed Gold Glover at 3B who was being mentioned as a SS or 2B conversion if a team wanted, he was so good with the glove.  Oh yeah, and he'd hit from day one.  Clement was a stone-fisted catcher with terrible footwork and defensive instincts who had a chest like a water buffalo and could hit a ball a mile with an aluminum bat.
He was slow, had a low average in college (for the pre-BBCOR bats of the time) until a decent junior season, had a good eye but only power was his special tool. It was special for a catcher, though, not overall. It's not like he was Ryan Braun.  So positionally-great power potential for a player unlikely to stay on position?  Yeesh.
Clement was a decent prospect if you're talking top-50 yes, but not top-5.  So drafting him top-5 is a huge mistake.
Brandon Morrow had ONE year as a starter in college, with a diabetes issue and a walks problem that would take years to try to straighten out. It's like drafting James Paxton #5 overall.  I like James - I am a Paxton fan for sure.  But that would be a huge risk.  High ceiling sure, but tough road to get there.
The whole point of high picks is being able to take major talents with a good chance to hit their ceilings. Isn't it?  The Ms got rated down for doing that with Hultzen ("He's only a #3 arm" says Law) but seriously, the non-catching catcher and the diabetic starter with no starting history aren't good bets.  They're long-shots.
Why are we taking longshots with those picks?
If we had some Seagers to make up for the delays in the Ackleys, maybe I wouldn't have so much animosity toward those Bavasi drafts. But we don't have them from those drafts. They were devoid of talent, even later round players to make up for early round mistakes.
Ackley and Seager, so far, have more WAR than EVERY BAVASI PICK COMBINED - except Fister.
I'm thankful every day that the Bavasi FO is no more.
~G