***ROYALS MINOR LEAGUE SURVIVOR: Hochevar Wins!***

[skillset]

mtroyals said:

I see the Royals taking players that OFTEN fall on their faces. And BA ranks 900 players within the minor leagues every year, so I'm pretty certain they can pick the best 200 collegiate and high school players pretty accurately. You really can't defend the Royals drafting tendencies...ever. That's why our farm system is shoddy.

Well I think you and all the regulars that vote in this thread will agree that you cannot judge a draft until it is 6 to 10 years after it has taken place. So lets take a look at the 2000 draft for what is was instead of arguing over what we think the 2006 draft might be. I have include the BA top 10, some notables from the draft and the Royals top 4 picks.

BA Rank	Player Name and Position	Draft Position	Signing Bonus $$$
1	Scott Heard, c	25th	1.475M
2	Matt Harrington, rhp	7th	Did not sign
3	Xavier Nady, 3b	49	1.1M
4	Jason Stokes, 1b	41	2.027M
5	Luis Montanez, ss	3	2.75M
6	Beau Hale, rhp	14	2.25M
7	Mark Phillips, lhp	9	2.2M
8	Chris Bootcheck, rhp	20	1.8M
9	Adrian Gonzalez, 1b	1	3M
10	Dane Sardinha, c	46	None
22	Rocco Baldelli, cf	6	2.25M
25	Chase Utley, 2b	15	1.78
34	Dustin McGowan, rhp	33	.95M
56	Cliff Lee, lhp	105
nr	Grady Sizemore	75
15	Mike Stodolka, lhp	4	2.5M
37	Mike Tonis, c	44	.8M
47	Scott Walter, c	74
98	David DeJesus, of	104

So according to BA, the Royals reached a little for Stodolka but got value in selecting Tonis, Walter and DeJesus. MLB selections Heard, Nady, Stokes, Bootcheck, Sardinha and Lee were steals. And finally, Gonzalez, Baldelli, Utley and Sizemore were overdrafts probably due to being a signability pick.

Also interesting to note, the fourth round featured picks, 103. Todd Wellemeyer; 104. David DeJesus; 105. Cliff Lee; 106. Zach Miner.

Then mtroyals will really love how the Royals fleeced the market in the 2001 draft by getting 2 of BA's top 10 talents with their first two selections. The Royals had the #9 and #53 selections and nabbed #6 ranked Colt Griffin first and then #9 ranked Roscoe Crosby. (Sure glad the Royals didn't pass on Roscoe just because 29 other teams did.)

In 2001, BA also ranked Dan Haren 57th, while he got selected 72nd; Noah Lowry 51st, while he was selected 30th; David Wright 45th, while he was taken 38th; and JJ Hardy 89th, when he was taken 56th overall.

While a few times BA ranked players closer to their real value, the FAR majority of the time the MLB ballclubs did a much better job of drafting the best players first.

[mtroyals]

Billy Buckner.

[mtroyals]

Maybe you don't know what happened to Roscoe Crosby. It had nothing to do with his physical ability. And nothing to do with his mental ability. But it had to do with his not being able to cope with people who died in a car crash that he survived. That could easily bring down most people. I have not one single problem with the Roscroe Crosby selection.

Perhaps, you can give me good reason for these picks:

Goodman
Braun
Aviles
Powell
Gragg
Donachie
Costa
Howell
Campbell
Maier

Sure, those teams that drafted the players you mentioned hit ONCE (except for Montreal who hit on Sizemore and Lee) on players throughout the draft, none of which would have been on their top ten...usually before they even get to the third round, their top ten has already been selected, while BA hit on two of its top ten. I'm not the biggest fans of BA because they go more on projection than anything else. However, they have nothing to lose by saying Patton is the ninth best available prospect (f ex) while the teams have plenty to lose by agreeing with that when they take their bottom line into account. There are also variables that BA can't take into account when ranking their players. There's no proof that Harrington wasn't the second best available prospect. There is only proof that he was heavily influenced by his agents...and it's not rare for a prospect to lose a lot of everything by holding out. Also, BA cannot take into account the way an organization will treat their prospects. Teams can take both of those variables into mind because one, they negotiate and discuss directly with the player and two, it's their farm system--and it's not uncommon for an organization to drive its prospects into the ground.

I really don't understand why people want to continue defending the shakey record that is the Kansas City Draft History. They've been cutting corners for years. And the Royals? In 2000? 5 players made it to the MLB, 2 players that have had a lot of playing time in 2007, 1 player that had a lot of playing time in Royal Blue. Failure.

[sahurst]

Carlos Rosa

[sahurst]

As for Costa, if you put him in LF (& give him the same latitude that AG was given this year); you'd end up with a solid run producing ML LFer.

[mtroyals]

I have some serious, serious doubts about that. I mostly agree with the front office on this one. And even if I'm wrong, and I could be wrong, there were still plenty of amazing players taken after Costa.

[ror1fan]

Costa is a AAAA player at best.

[skillset]

Billy Buckner gets my vote to finish off Round 95.


To start Round 96,

"Hold Out" Moustakas.

[skillset]

ror1fan said:

Costa is a AAAA player at best.

Don't you mean he is a AAAA player at the very least. He already has proven he can dominate AAA. I would like to see him get a chance to show what he has. Gordon was awful at the plate for 2 months but we stayed with him. Give Costa, Huber and Brazell that kind of chance to see if they belong or not. What could be more important to the franchise during the months of August and September? Maybe one of them prove to be worthy of a spot next year and two fail, then we can move on knowing who we can count on and who we can let go. Isn't that better than playing Brown, Gload and Sweeney?

[KC Royals Nation]

Wow, upon my return, the "other" Billy B. has been eliminated.

OK, for Round 97 - Danny Duffy!

*Edit*

Omaha: Luke Hochevar

Wichita: Carlos Rosa

Wilmington: Dan Cortes

Idaho Falls: Mike Moustakas

AZL: Dan Duffy

[FanOfJoseAgain!]

Duffy

[ror1fan]

skillset said:

ror1fan said:

Costa is a AAAA player at best.

Don't you mean he is a AAAA player at the very least. He already has proven he can dominate AAA. I would like to see him get a chance to show what he has. Gordon was awful at the plate for 2 months but we stayed with him. Give Costa, Huber and Brazell that kind of chance to see if they belong or not. What could be more important to the franchise during the months of August and September? Maybe one of them prove to be worthy of a spot next year and two fail, then we can move on knowing who we can count on and who we can let go. Isn't that better than playing Brown, Gload and Sweeney?

I agree. I hate the way Bell keeps running out Brown,Sweeney,LaRue etc. Yeah I would love, LOVE, LOVE for them to play Costa,Huber,Brazell . What I said about Costa was that he has been given a chance the last couple of years and never did anything. He reminds me of an Aaron Guiel type guy. I would take Costa over Brown as my 4th Outfielder any day.

[ror1fan]

Duffy is gone Next round:

Mike Moustakas

[FanOfJoseAgain!]

10 minutes...nice

I'll go Moose.

[KC Royals Nation]

No Moose vote from me, but with skillset, it's inevitable.

But I'll vote for Carlos Rosa, in case skills sees the light and changes his mind.

*Edit* Four remain standing:

Hochevar, Rosa, Cortes, Moustakas