POLITICS-FREE ZONE: BASEBALL HYPOTHETICAL
Today we're talkin' baseball.
Here's the question: You are the owner of a new MLB team, say, in Memphis. Your revenues promise to be good. Your minor leagues have been running a few years and you have good prospects, especially pitchers. You get ONE unrestricted draft from any team in the bigs. It must be a POSITION PLAYER. The balance of your team will be made up of Free Agent signings, Rule 5 draftees and selections from the minor league teams of ten other organizations of players who are on that team's 40 man roster but not in the big leagues. In other words, your ONE Unrestricted selection from any team not only has to be really good but young enough to hold up until the talent around him progresses.
You're on the Clock...Who is your selection? Why?
posted by UMRBlog @ 12:04
14 comments
14 Comments:
I have a Delmon Young and a Grady Sizemore so far.
My feeling is that Young is a little too volatile and Sizemore a little too old for an expansion team but good picks.
I'll put mine up later. Hint: He's my favorite combination of names, an Anglo first name, Latin surname.
A-Rod @ Short !
I was thinking Nomar at first because by the time he completes 1 solid season the young guys would have played 7 full seasons ......
The Nomar play 1/16th of the games and d-l 15/16th , but is fully able to dive out of a upper story condo & save people drowning
Now the guys at work are saying Fielder, Braum , Ramieze ( Fl) ......
But I am arguing the base of star quality of A-Rod, Jeeter, Albert ...
Proven players with ability to place much needed butts in the seats
Geovany Soto. Go ahead and laugh. When the pundits forget about Pudge and Johnny Bench because of this guy, you will all be sorry.
I don't think Soto is a silly call at all, when you consider position scarcity.
TYFCB
Jose Reyes. Disruptive force.
Catcher is a good call Oracle, but you'd take Soto over Mauer, McCann or Martin?
JRG,
Reyes is either Eight Belles or a force for the next decade.
Martin was ten years in the minors. That's a lot of games caught.
Mauer is very good but his isolated power has gone done over time. But you're right, the age difference is negligible viz. Soto.
TYFCB
Mine's Hanley Ramirez.
Five tool player at a critical position with an actual correct birth certificate.
Besides, then I'd get to see him play every day.
I am still following the "Owner" card and looking at proven players who can Mark McGuire the seats .
A 5-6 year run with the city being able to wrap themselves with proven star is a good bang for the buck.
If you had asked this 5 years ago I would have stated Chipper Jones ....
p.s. : You see he's hitting .415 ???
I will gladly take the 25 year old catcher that hits light out. Derek Lee will be gone in 3 or 4 years. Convert the 300 plus hitting Soto to first base and you lose nothing offensively. And I think he was a first baseman converted to catcher. So the switch won't be as defensive a downgrade as you think.
98% at work agreed , if you had put this forward 5 years ago .........
Chipper Jones hands down ! He is a Ryan Sandberg or Steve Garvy or Ozzie Smith !
He still has 4-5 seasons left and that would have been a 10 year PLAYER to build off of .
Five years ago, Chipper was definitely in the discussion. I think I would have taken Vladdy then but then, how could you have passed on ARod? And that's before you talk about IRod and position scarcity.
TYFCB
For me, I would take Chase Utley, the true MVP for the Phillies...hits for high average, good pop, rbi machine and still plays a solid defense....a close 2nd is his middle counter Jimmy Rollins.
And I choose to be anon because I am too lazy to get a google id
I love Utley's pop and his fundamentals. Three iffy things.
First, he's a late-blooming power hitter. Late blooming power hitters seem to have sudden power outages in their early 30's.
Two, he's a little brittle. Durability's hard to measure but he had some minor league DL time, too.
Three, it's generally believed he'll have to find another position because his range is limited. His power is not quite so eyepopping if he is in a corner position. Still, he's a star and a winner. Great big league approach, too.
TYFCB
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