Baseball’s amateur draft hasn’t quite established the same caché as the NFL, with All Day Draft Coverage, mock “war rooms” and the like. This is partially because baseball’s deep player development system delays the impact of most draftees and partly because baseball’s draft has twenty bazillion rounds. Even without a media circus, though, the 2007 Draft looms large for the Nats and their plans for future development. Many of their decisions over the past few years come to fruition in this weekend’s draft, for a variety of reasons:
Stockpiling: The Nats hold 5 of the top seventy picks, including the 6th, 31st, 49th, 67th and 70th. In what’s seen as a deep draft pool this year, there are opportunities to pick up real talent that can jumpstart the team’s future plans. As Capital Punishment detailed in a recent post, many #6 picks have turned out to be solid players at the big league level, even stars.
The Soriano Payoff: Even after we weighed in last year, Stan Kasten and Co. held their ground on star left fielder Alfonso Soriano’s trade value. The rationale for not trading him always came back to the two high draft picks the team would receive as compensation for losing him via Free Agency. Because it was the stinkin’ Cubs that picked him up (rather than a contender), the compensatory picks are not as good as hoped. In any case, the “payoff” for losing Fonzi comes tomorrow. Will it be as good as what we could have received via trade?
Organizational Investment: As the Post detailed yesterday, the Nats have focused their organizational goals around building a winner from the ground up, with a top-notch player development system. They’ve poured money into hiring new scouts and luring guys like Arizona’s former scouting director Mike Rizzo to the club. With more players professionally scouted and cross-checked, this approach should allow the Nats to take good players deeper into the draft.
How do you think the Nats will do? Check back with us on Friday when we sit down with the Nats Farm Authority to break down the Nats first day draftees.
