Draft hangover post

 Well, I wonder how hard core Angels fans are doing this morning?

I am having a little buyer's remorse about not drafting any college bats early in this draft but, when I feel that way, take a deep breath and remind myself:

• The first rule in drafting: If you always draft the best player you eventually have to succeed.  
• Assuming your draft picks perform well, they are exchangeable with other team's successful draft picks.  That means that you can trade your excess pitching for another team's excess outfielders, etc....in principle.  You have to have a GM who is a good trader in those situations and I am not sure we have that but, in principle, who you draft is not nearly as important as that your draft picks become successful.
• You don't draft for now, you draft for 4-5 years from now.   That is, if you draft for current needs in 5 years you may not have that need anymore...and then you are back to the bullet #2 above.

Look, 1/3 (or less, depending on the "expert" you consult) of the Indians top 30 prospects are pitchers.  Two of those are out for this season with TJ surgery.  Another has not pitched this year and the rest are first year professionals.  No one is near the majors,  

As far as position players here is the breakdown:

AAA: 4

AA: 4

High A: 5

Low A: 4

Rookie: 4

So, we are not only unbalanced in terms of pitchers to position prospects right now we are also unbalanced in terms of where these players are in their development path.   

Bottom line: we needed prospects who were the best at that draft slot, who could move fast and who fit into our needs in 3-4 years.

A major problem with this, or any baseball draft, is that these guys are 4-5 years or more away from helping your team.  Not like football.  Not like basketball.  And, there is no real, tangible way for most fans to know which ones will stay injury-free, which ones will be able to implement the changes to make them successful major leagues.   Nobody knows, really.   People act like they know but they don't.

So, even a day later, I see the path forward with each of these draftees.  I see, in theory, how they can help the Indians in the future.   Most won't make it.   Some will.

At this soint, as it is every year at draft time, we hope our scouting department makes the right choices.  Looking at who they drafted I don't see one guy who I think was a terrible choice.  Not one.   And understand that this is coming from a guy who can ALWAY find problems with draft choices.

That being said, I will propose later this week an alternate draft strategy the Indinas could have used.   Not that my strategy will be better in hindsight than theirs was at the time but, for grins, I think it is worth a look.