Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Reds Take Leake...

Yeah, okay, real funny guys,,,, pun intended. Thanks to a certain TV-5 photographer for the headline. Mike Leake is his name, and the Reds took him with the eighth overall pick in the first round of the Major League draft. If you care enough to read this far, you probably know he's a right-handed pitcher from Arizona State. It's amusing to read or hear anyone pan this pick. The arguments are hilarious. "But Baseball America had him rated 14th and the Reds took him eighth!", or "They reached because they are cheap and were worried about sign-ability". Please. Who the heck saw all of these guys and rated them? Did you? Did the blowhard down the block, or on the call-in show? Do you really think the people who get all geeked up about drafting player "A" instead of player "B" really have any clue what they are talking about? The people who do this for a living barely know what they are talking about when it comes to the draft. Take football, basketball, hockey, and baseball, and the MLB draft is the biggest crap shoot, by far. It's not even close. Do yourself a favor, and check some past drafts of your favorite team and see how many players panned out in the early rounds. As for sign-ability, talk to the Minnesota Twins about that. They allegedly went for a high school catcher over Mark Prior with the first pick in the 2001 draft because of sign-ability. The catcher's name is Joe Mauer. Mauer is presently hitting .413 and is a damned good catcher. Prior hasn't thrown a pitch in the major leagues since 2006 because of injuries.

Here's the Reds picks so far thanks to MLB.Com:

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/events/draft/y2009/drafttracker.jsp?p=0&s=30&sc=pick_number&so=ascending&st=number&ft=TM&fv=cin

For some reason the video of second round pick Billy Hamilton caught my eye big-time. It's only a little box of video on the internet, but this kid looks like a complete stud. Click on his "enhanced scouting report" and you'll see the video.

you don't have to search long and hard to find out this kid is considered the best high school athlete in the state of Mississippi. Three-sports standout who dreams of playing big-league baseball. Here's a short profile from one of the Mississippi television stations:

http://www.fox40now.com/sports/46966362.html

No comments:

Post a Comment