Now that you’re familiar with the system, let’s jump right in, shall we?
Stephen Strasburg, 10C (21)
Who?
Drew Storen, 9B (22)
Roundly criticized last June as a “signability” pick, Storen may have been the shrewdest pick of the draft – providing desperately what the parent club needs: a young, MLB-ready reliever with a live arm
Josh Smoker, 8D (21)
Jack McGeary, 8D (21)
A.J. Morris, 8D (23)
Colton Willems, 8E (21)
Injuries are said to be the cause of his struggles in ‘09. Was rocked hard the two times I saw him start.
Pat Lehman, 7B (23)
Aaron Thompson, 7C (23)
Brad Meyers, 7C (24)
A dark horse that throws a sinking fastball and plus slider. Not overpowering.
Trevor Holder, 7D (23)
A three-level pitcher (A-, A, A+) that was also hit very hard at Potomac and may have been an overdraft
Luis Atilano, 7D (25)
Works fast, throws strikes, and is gaining velocity but time may be running out him
Victor Garate, 7D (25)
Zechry Zinicola, 7D (25)
Appears to have hit a wall at AAA
Adrian Alaniz, 6B (26)
Classic case of a pitcher that could get by on marginal stuff at the lower levels by compensating with above-average command, but hasn’t been able to solve AA batters and likely won’t
Marco Estrada, 6B (27)
Book went to press before his recent DFA
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For better or worse, most of the pitchers here I’ve only seen briefly, which is a function of the past two seasons where guys were rushed up to the bigs to help out with the bullpen. From my perspective, I believe we could use more depth in the system. Only five of these guys are 22 or younger, and only two of those guys seem certain to make it above AAA. Everybody else is a maybe.
In fact, I’d refer to Brian’s Top 20 list again because I respect his opinion on the guys I haven’t seen, and I think you’ll see that there’s not as much overlap here as there was for batters. Like I’ve posted before, I really don’t like to comment about guys I haven’t watched at the ballpark.
