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...that stated "Any pitcher with multiple above-average pitchers should be regarded as a fringe starter if he doesn't throw 97 - even though other "fringe" starters with worse stuff are actually #2-3 starters if you replaced their names with sexier ones."
 
Hultzen can PITCH.  He can also throw a bit, which is fun.  I would not ask him to be my ace, certainly not off the bat, because he might need to adjust to the pro strike zone, get his little black book with hitter habits all scribbled in and annotated, etc.  But we're not asking him to do that.  We're asking him to be our 2013 #3 pitcher and get better from there.
 
He can do that.  The Giants drafted Madison Bumgarner 10th using the same philosophy (since they already had their 2 front-liners as we do), and all he did was come up and help them win a championship.  If we'd drafted Hultzen 10th people would have been crowing from the rafters.  FIFTH and he would have been a good pick.  I'm not sure why tagging someone with a #2-in-the-draft label suddenly makes his outcome "Vargas 2.0." 
 
It's like the idea of taking the #3 guy on your particular board instead of the #1 turns the #3 guy into a #30 guy immediately.
 
Funny, that.  Hultzen was always a top-5 pitcher in this draft, and that hasn't changed.  He's a great shot at an immediate-impact starter.  Just imagine what might happen with the ultimate Pitcher in the draft who gets on a rotational workout that could add a foot to his fastball.  We talk about upside like we know anything about it.
 
Hultzen would not have been my choice, but he's an exceedingly fine pitcher who is absolutely worthy of the pick, and less risky than most of the other selections on the board.  That doesn't mean no risk, and I hate drafting pitchers this high with a great bat or two on the board, but Jack went with his gut feeling.
 
And he's betting his GM-ship on the fact that he can trade for or sign quality hitters while this pitcher makes our rotation nearly untouchable for the next half-decade.
 
I'm absolutely rooting for him to be correct on both counts.
 
~G