Picking up where we left off, here are nos. 16 through 30 for the 2012 BA Prospect Handbook…
16. Tyler Moore, 1B
17. Robbie Ray, LHP
18. Kylin Turnbull, LHP
19. Zach Walters, SS
20. Jeff Kobernus, 2B
21. Matt Skole, 3B
22. Eury Perez, CF
23. Danny Rosenbaum, LHP
24. Sandy Leon, C
25. Jason Martinson, SS
26. Cole Kimball, RHP
27. David Freitas, C
28. Adrian Sanchez, 2B
29. Paul Demny, RHP
30. Kevin Keyes, OF
Of the 26 (minus the four traded), 14 are holdovers — Harper, Solis, Lombardozzi, Hood, Marrero, Taylor, Hague, Moore, Ray, Kobernus, Perez, Rosenbaum, Martinson, Kimball, and Sanchez — leaving us with 12 newcomers. Let’s take a look at how they were acquired:
2011 Draft — Rendon, Goodwin, Meyer, Purke, Turnbull, Skole
2011 Acquisition — Walters
2010 Draft — Freitas, Keyes
2008 Draft — Demny
2007 IFA — Leon
2006 Draft — Kimball
It would be nice to know who was the 32nd, 33rd, 34th, and 35th picks were (the “bonus” pick, a.k.a. #31 was Taylor Jordan), but we can probably surmise that at least three of those four are from the past two drafts. As mentioned previously, I still believe the time has come to start diversifying the portfolio and try to sign more HS and JuCo guys. Easy for me to say, I know, but when I go through the player reports and and see the bulge of 22-24 year-olds, it worries me.
As we did a year ago, let’s look at BA’s pie-in-the-sky 2015 Washington Lineup (edited to account for the GG trade, with Solis slotted in because he was the next rated pitcher after Purke):
C – Wilson Ramos
1B – Michael Morse
2B – Anthony Rendon
SS – Danny Espinosa
3B – Ryan Zimmerman
LF – Jayson Werth
CF – Brian Goodwin
RF – Bryce Harper
#1P – Stephen Strasburg
#2P – Jordan Zimmermann
#3P – Brad Peacock Gio Gonzalez
#4P – A.J. Cole Matt Purke
#5P – Matt Purke Sammy Solis
CL – Drew Storen
Let’s face it: The reason why these projected lineups are so famously wrong is that they build them from the pieces on hand that year. And it presumes that every prospect will work out. Hence, pie-in-the-sky, i.e. if everything falls into place.
This I can only fault them for so much; the fantasy baseball market demands this kind of projection, and you gotta do what pays the bills. I think of this as the equivalent to the advertorial “Business Review” articles I had to write for the newspapers back in the day.
Like I wrote last year, BA is a lot like the U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Colleges” list: you can complain about it, you can make fun of it, but you cannot ignore it. Not yet, at least.
Have at it in the comments. The Sickels e-book is coming soon!