Crack of the Bat
by Patrick Ebert

Draft impressions

Draft day has come and gone, and while it’s far too early to determine which teams did the best job and which teams did the worst, I’m going to identify seven teams that I feel stand out from the rest.

Arizona Diamondbacks

I highlighted the D-Backs a year ago for the impressive list of talent they took in the 2006 draft, and they continue to add some impressive names to their system.  After their first round pick, electric prep righty Jarrod Parker, the team focused on several polished college pitchers including Wes Roemer, Barry Enright, Sean Morgan, Scott Maine, Bryan Augenstein and Bryan Henry.  Given the organization’s wealth of talented young hitters, this approach makes a lot of sense.  They did add some high-potential positional players in Ed Easley, Reynaldo Navarro and Tyrell Worthington, but for the most part continued their preference scouring the college ranks, despite having a new scouting director at the helm.

Sleeper:  Kentucky Senior Sean Coughlin (13^th round) had a big spring for the Wildcats, hitting .344 with 13 bombs.  His days as a catcher may be numbered, but you can’t argue with his production over the past few years.

Atlanta Braves

It’s hard not to include the Braves on these lists, who draft as well as any team in baseball.  They added two extremely athletic impact bats with their first two picks in former Aflac All-Americans Jon Gilmore and Jason Heyward, adding another in the second round in Freddie Freeman.  They also added two hard-throwing college relievers in Joshua Fields and Cory Gearrin, and took well-rounded Texas A&M shortstop Brandon Hicks in the third round.  As always, the Braves made it clear that they always keep close tabs on those playing in their own backyard.

Sleeper:  Paul Demny is another Aflac All-American that the Braves drafted, and may be considered somewhat of a tough sign as a 15^th rounder, but he has the profile to succeed at the next level whether it be in college or as a member of the Braves organization.

Detroit Tigers

The Tigers deserve big props for taking Rick Porcello with the 27^th overall selection, as he certainly will not be an easy player to sign after it was expected that he would be taken in the top three to five overall selections for most of the spring.  This marks the third year in the row the Tigers have taken advantage of players that have fallen for financial reasons.  They continued to add power arms in Brandon Hamilton, Luke Putkonen, Charlie Furbush, Casey Crosby and Gary Perinar, with a few polished college hitters mixed in including Danny Worth, Cale Iorg and Dominic de la Osa.

Sleeper: Kevin Rhoderick may be a tough sign since on pure talent he normally wouldn’t have fallen to the 18^th round, but he may be a back-up plan should the team be unable to sign Porcello.

New York Yankees

Cost never seems to be an issue with the Yankees at the big-league level, and their increased investments into player development over the past year definitely carried over to this year’s draft.  Their first-round pick, Andrew Brackman, won’t come cheap, and they added several other tough signs among their early selections including Brad Suttle, Damon Sublett, Taylor Grote, Austin Krum, Carmen Angelini, Ryan Zink, Chris Carpenter, Ryan Wehrle and Greg Peavey.  Add on a few other early selections such as Austin Romine, Ryan Pope and Richard Weems, and you have an extremely well balanced draft in which a little bit of everything was added.  If the team is able to sign half of these guys, they should be very happy with their draft.

Sleeper:  Chad Dawson , taken in the 31^st round, definitely showed his stuff last summer in the Northwoods League, but surprisingly lost it this past spring for Indiana State .  If he can re-find the velocity on his fastball, he could advance quickly as a short-inning reliever.

Oakland A’s

Not surprising, the A’s focused almost entirely on college players, taking pitchers James Simmons, Travis Banwart, Sam Demel, Andrew Carignan, Daniel Schlereth and Eric Berger in the early rounds, as well as hitters Sean Doolittle, Corey Brown, Grant Desme, Josh Horton and Danny Hamblin.  Among those picks they got a little bit of everything, from crafty starters to powerful closers, smooth defenders and power bats, and should go a long way to replenish the lower levels of their system.  All of the players mentioned have the potential to move quickly to provide support at the big-league level where and when needed.

Sleeper:  Stephen Porlier isn’t quite a sleeper on name recognition, as he had a very good year for Oklahoma and has been a known commodity for quite a few years now.  But if the A’s can find a way to sign this 21^st rounder they could land an absolute steal.

Texas Rangers

Many expected the Rangers to take some chances on players given their extra compensatory selections, and they did just that.  They added three extremely powerful prep arms among their first four selections in Blake Beaven, Michael Main and Neil Ramirez as the Rangers continue to look for ways to develop pitching.  Speedy centerfielder Julio Borbon was the team’s third selection, slipping to the sandwich round and may prove to be a difficult sign, but a player many prognosticators thought the Rangers could take with their first pick.  The team added a powerful college arm in Tommy Hunter, two athletic prep hitters in Matt West and Garrett Nash, an athletic college outfielder in Tim Smith, and a powerful prep lefty in John Gast.  Gast was expected to be a second round pick at the worst before having Tommy John surgery in May.

Sleeper:  Prep pitchers Anthony Ranuado and Drew Pomeranz represented the team’s 11^th and 12^th round picks, and the organization would really do themselves a favor by finding a way to sign both of these players.

Washington Nationals

Another team to be found in this feature for the second year in a row, the Nationals once again did a very good job adding numerous high-potential talents to their system.  Ross Detwiler, Josh Smoker and Jordan Zimmerman all could move quickly in a system that direly needs pitching help.  Michael Burgess has the kind of raw power that can propel any team, and Josh Smolinski was born to hit, and could be a sleeper just for the fact that few expect his name to be called as early as it was (second round).  The Nationals made the most of their extra, early picks, and don’t dismiss the possibility of them signing sixth rounder Jack McGeary.

Sleeper:  Patrick McCoy has enjoyed some success on the showcase and tournament circuit, and shows an advanced approach to pitching along with solid stuff for a lefty.

No d’oh

Congratulations are in order for Homer Bailey, who made his big-league debut for the Cincinnati Reds last week, picking up the win against the Cleveland Indians.  Bailey’s debut is particularly exciting since he is the first Aflac All-American to make it to the big league’s, starting for the West squad of the inaugural event during the summer of 2003.

The thoughts and opinions listed here do not necessarily reflect those of Perfect Game USA .  Patrick Ebert is affiliated with both Perfect Game USA and Brewerfan.net, and can be contacted via email at pebert@brewerfan.net.