Thursday 6/5

Draft day special

Today at 2 PM is the 2008 baseball draft on ESPN2 and mlb.com.
It is very difficult to learn about every player potentially being drafted, so I just try and get whatever info I can before the draft, then sit back on a Yankee message board (Nyyfans.com) and watch some knowledgable losers who know 10,000x more than me bicker about the merits and faults of Kennedy and Chamberlain (that's what I did last year anyway). Of course, it's important to baseball fans because more and more in the past decade the draft has been increasing in importance.
Here are some things you can look at to get a little basic knowledge of this year's draft, and I will also provide some of the notable draft selections of the past 5 years so you can appreciate the immediate dividends wise picks have produced.

• Some things to remember.. unlike other sports there is no trading picks. Baseball has a unique system (a little about it here) where you can steal other team's picks when they sign a top notch free agent who left your team, which was implemented to help lower market teams.
• Baseball Prospectus' MOCK DRAFT (with the Yankees taking Ike Davis).
• If you have ESPN Insider (I don't) you can see Keith Law's Updated Top 75 Rankings.
• The Devil Rays will select Tim Beckham #1, learn about him here. Moneyball wouldn't approve of a High ceiling HS SS prospect, but the Devil Rays have been pretty good at drafting recently (albeit with darn good positioning) so we'll let it play out.
• Of course, take a look at the Draft Order (Yankees 28, 44 (Vizcaino Rockies). Red Sox 30, 45 (Gagne Brewers). Mets 18 (Glavine Braves), 22, 33.)
• Mets (18) and Twins (27) are the big free agent type A winners who got first round picks in addition to their Compensating round picks. Rowand signed with a team that had a protected pick (which means a top 15 pick, it was the Giants at 5) so the Phillies were only able to get the Giants 2nd round pick (in addition to the Comp round pick which every team that loses a FA (definitely at least a Type A) gets (I believe)).
• Some Yankee speculation:
  - Someone posted this on NYYFANS.com message board:
  Quote:
  • Rumor of the day: Seattle's doctor has given the team the all-clear to take Tanner Scheppers, whose medical report on his injured shoulder has scared away a number of teams off. His advisors are saying they want top-four-overall-picks money, which has clubs convinced they have a deal in place already later in the round. -Keith Law's blog We got him.
• #1 overall picks sinec 1987: David Price, Luke Hochevar, Justin Upton, Matthew Bush, Delmon Young, Brian Bullington, Joe Mauer, Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Hamilton, Pat Burrel, Matt Anderson, Kris Benson, Darin Erstad, Paul Wilson, Alex Rodriguez, Phil Nevin, Brien Taylor, Chipper Jones, Ben McDonald, Andy Benes, Ken Griffey Jr.
• Baseball America has some notes from a few days ago, right before the Rays anounced they are taking Beckham.

THE DRAFT MATTERS:

First round players from the past 3 years who have debuted in MLB. Each bullet will start with a year, then it will show player, overall selection and by which team:

• 2007 Ross Dewtiller taken 6th by Nats
• 2006 Hochevar 1 Royals, Andrew Miller 6 Tigers, Tim Lincecum 10 Giants, Ian Kennedy 21 Yankees, Joba Chamberlain 41 Yankees.
• 2005 Justin Upton 1 D-Backs, Alex Gordon 2 Royals, Jeff Clement 3 Mariners, Ryan Zimmerman 4 Nationals, Ryan Braun 5 Brewers, Troy Tulowitzki 7 Rockies, Mike Pelfrey 9 Mets, Cameron Maybin 10 Tigers, Lance Broadway 15 White Sox, Jacoby Ellsbury 23 Red Sox, Matt Garza 25 Twins, Craig Hansen 26 Red Sox, Joey Devine 27 Braves (you gotta check out his stats or gamelog so far this year for Oakland btw so click his name), Travis Buck 36 A's, Clay Buchholtz 42 Red Sox, Garrett Olson 48 Orioles.

Wednesday 6/4

OK so I've been a little busy. But I'd like to thank Giller for insighting an idea which will change every upcoming club posting. Also thank Farbs for his contribution via facebook, with some tweaking:

The Player:
Cecil Fielder: G=1470, and SB=2
The Club:
Cecil Fielder has stolen the fewest bases (just 2) by anyone who has played 1310 games or more. If you count 1309 or more, then Del Rice is in a tie with 2. If you count 1252 games or more, then Jesse Orosco qualifies (he of 76 career plate appearances) with 0 steals. So 1310 games or more, and only Cecil has stolen 2 or fewer bases.
WOW. Are you kidding me? That many games and that few steals? Look at the Next in line section for some perspective into how rare that is, because I certainly didn't appreciate it at first either:

Next in line:
Here is the active leaderboard for the Cecil Fielder club sorted by Games Played (AKA these are active players, who have played the most games and have yet to steal the 3rd base of their career):
1. Mike Stanton 1178 Games, 0 SB
2. Mike Timlin 1012 Games, 0 SB
3. Roberto Hernandez 1010 Games, 0 SB
4. Jose Mesa 1007 Games, 0 SB
5. Todd Jones 958 Games, 0 SB
6. Trevor Hoffman 902 Games, 0 SB
7. Daryle Ward 889 Games, 1 SB
I went 7-deep for obvious reasons... I wanted a hitter! Ward is 33... If I were to look for someone who actually has potential to pass Cecil in games at this point, I'd have to keep going. So I will:
8. Tom Gordon 882 Games, 0 SB
9. Mike Myers 866 Games, 0 SB
10. Dave Weathers 849 Games, 0 SB
11. Bob Wickman 835 Games, 0 SB
12. Wes Helms 817 Games, 2 SB
13. Alan Embree 804 Games, 0 SB
Ok I'm not going to list Eddie Guardado, 796 Games, 0 SB because this is getting boring. I'm drawing the line right here at 800 games. I guess it is conceivable that the 32 year old Wes Helms or the 33 year old Daryle Ward, who each can get 100 games a year (being generous) as pinch hitters and such, can catch Cecil in games but it is unlikely. Every listed reliever here is way too old and has no shot at pitching that many games. Looks like Cecil will own this club for a while.

Sunday 6/1

In honor of Manny joining the 500 Homer Club, here is his personal club as well as another very similar player in terms of 4 of the 5 parameters who also dominated the 1990's:

1. Manny Ramirez: HR>=500, SB<=35, 3B<=18, SH<=2, and SLG>=.590
2. Frank Thomas: HR>=500, SB<=35, 3B<=18, SH<=2, and OBP>=.420
Two OPS machines who had different specialties. But don't ask either to run or bunt.