It's not chock-full of amazing talent at the top where you have to work hard to miss out on a contributor (thanks Bavasi...).
It's not even like 2004 (Verlander was a smash, Weaver is great, Stephen Drew dropped for signability, Butler is a useful hitter, and the rest of the first is a wash of meh players or busts). That was a "wow, position players are terrible, draft arms!" draft that only worked out for a couple of teams in the first. And I don't think this one is that either - though Pedroia and Pence were in that draft's 2nd round, so some people underestimated the hitting in their reach for arms. There's talent with arms and with bats, HS or college, but it's not heat-of-the-sun sort of talent.
It's kinda like 2003, and that's how I've been approaching it. The 2003 draft:
#1 - Delmon Young. Had everything...but never put it together. Buxton, perhaps.
#2 - Rickie Weeks, a college kid with worlds of talent at a glove position. Zunino?
#3 to 6 - college arms and HS bats that don't work out.
#7 - Markaikis, a JC kid with a well-rounded game but nothing extra special. (Dahl, lol)
Then a HS and a college arm who are contributors, a college SS who fell because he probably had a lower ceiling and has turned out great (Marrero-ish), couple more pitchers, a clubbing OF with a low average and a HS catcher, some dude named Jones who some felt was more a pitcher than a CFer but has done pretty well for himself...
It was a bunch of decent contributors, no world-killers but more than a handful of nice pieces.
It feels like 2012 to me. Don't go looking for a 1-1 A-Rod because he's not there. You just want a guy who can get on a field and help you out. So if I'm Jack it's a player who can man a glove position (C, SS, CF...so there's several options there) and isn't all tools.
Jack showed he wasn't greedy last year, when he took "safe" Hultzen over "risky" Bauer. And while Bauer has been outstanding, Hultzen is doing just fine. Jack understands that these drafts aren't about impressing draftniks, they're about getting guaranteed future contributors into the organization.
Which means Jack with take Giolito as the highest-upside, big-risk player and call it a day.
He hates being predictable.
~G
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