The Draft

Throughout my college career, I have found many ways to procrastinate. Usually video games (Smash Brothers, Halo, MVP Baseball) do the trick. Now, it is my last week of college ever. I have a big report due and two finals coming up. In order to put off this work I needed something special. I needed something so mindless that my brain can actually turn off for ten minutes at a time. Only one thing could fulfill my need, the MLB draft.

MLB.com has provided live video coverage of this event. Unlike the NFL or NBA draft, the players in the MLB draft are people that no one has ever heard of. The good news is that the entire first round took about 20 minutes, which is about 8 hours faster than the NFL' s marathon style. I am sure that by the end of the week TheSTLCardinal.com will have a well informed full post on the draft, but for now I will pretend that I have some idea what is going on.

The Cardinals had two first round picks, a high school center fielder named Colby Rasmus, and a college shortstop named Tyler Greene.

This Colby fellow seems to be a huge power hitter center fielder, for a high schooler. Apparently, he is also a left handed power pitcher. He is just out of high school, so it is anybodies guess where he will end up in a few years. Woody Williams was drafted as a shortstop that could pitch a little. Of course, the Cards have a need for an outfielder next year, but I am sure this guy is several years away.

Tyler Greene has always been a big prospect and apparently is a huge prospect now, the problem is that he is a Boras client. Like all Boras clients he dropped significantly in the draft, so if the Cards can sign him he will be a steal at pick number 30. I was a little confused about whether his name was Tyler or James, so I looked it up and it is James Tyler Greene.

The Georgia Tech website has his 2005 stats as follows:

Player           AVG  GP-GS    AB   R   H  2B  3B  HR RBI   TB  SLG%  BB HBP  SO GDP   OB%  SF  SH  SB-ATT   PO   A   E  FLD

5 Tyler Greene  .373  59-59   260  75  97  15   3  12  72  154  .592  38   6  68   4  .464   0   4  30-31   101 193  19  .939

and his full scouting report here. His fielding, according to the scouting report, is solid so he should stay at shortstop. Hopefully, he will be a solid option when Eckstein's option is up after 2007. Of course that all depends on him signing. This year, the little brothers Drew and Weaver held out all year but eventually gave up and signed contracts that were very close to their original offers. So, Boras clients are signable for reasonable deals.
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In the supplemental first round the Cards picked tow right handed pitchers. Power guy Mark McCormick from Baylor and high schooler Tyler Herron. So that makes two position players, two pitchers, two college guys, two high schoolers, and two Tylers.

This McCormick guy looks like the new hotness. His stats for last year are like this:

Player               ERA   W-L   APP  GS  CG SHO/CBO SV    IP   H   R  ER  BB  SO  2B  3B  HR   AB B/Avg   WP HBP  BK  SFA SHA
26 McCormick, Mark.  3.12   7-3    17  17   0   0/0    0  92.1  60  41  32  55  97   8   1   2  325  .185   10   9   1    2   6

His scouting report says that he came out of high school throwing 99 mph.

Here is some stuff about Tyler Herron.