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On MC, in the Q&A with Churchill, I asked him if Z's drafting with the Brewers gave us any clues regarding the type of player that he likes. We've seen the M's get fixated on a player archetype before - the all tools athlete, the soft tossing lefty starter, the low K/high contact hitter, the tall power pitcher, etc. Churchill's response is very insightful - and meaningful in retrospect. Remember, he answered this question in December, before the Putz trade and the recent draft.
JAC: If you asked him, he'd probably say he really doesn't have one other than that he wants hard-working, highly-skilled BASEBALL PLAYERS. I think the one thing you won't see is that affinity for the fast-twitch athlete who may develop power to go with his potentially plus defense and baserunning.
Jack leans toward baseball players - think of the scouting scale and remember that a three-tool total of 170 or better is ideal, but power and on-base skills are more valued than are the other three. Zduriencik's drafts reflect this. Round one and sometimes even two is deceiving, because the "five-tool" kids in the top 10-20 talents in each draft are much more polished than in the rest of the draft, therefore has a better chance to pan out.
But look at his tendencies in the middle first-day rounds,rounds 3-8... he drafts a good number of baseball players over athletes. You have to take some shots on the unrefined yet athletic kids, because every once in awhile an Alfonso Soriano will fall out of your back pocket. But drafting for raw tools is not Jack's forte in the least - nor should it be.
I do not believe Zduriencik has shown that he values any different type of hitter or pitcher then most successful personnel execs; power arms with the best chance to throw two or three pitches for strikes, power bats with the best chance to make contact and hold down a defensive position, and up-the-middle defenders that have the best chance to hit enough to warrant regular play. But he does dig pretty deep to make sure he's drafting character players, and I mean that in a baseball sense. He wants kids that will work hard to become big-leaguers, always try to get better, lead by example, which is why he's among the more successful executives in the draft.
If all else is equal - or even near-equal – the harder-working, baseball-smarter talent is going to be the better player many more times than not.