SPOILER ALERT - If you are a diehard Guardians fan and your Monday has been a bummer, stop reading right now because this post is not going to be the ray of sunshine your dreary day needs.
OK, now that the disclaimers are out of the way, let's talk about the Guardians draft so far.
Coming in the Guardians SHOULD have had the following objective: balance out your farm system - this would involve getting an offensive catcher or two, a couple of power hitting corner infielders and a few college outfielders, preferably hitting right handed. Sprinkle in a few college pitchers and your first 10 rounds should be done.
The Guardians, however, appear to have had a different set of objectives. Draft lefthanded college hitters and college pitchers early and then finish the 10 rounds with some HS pitchers. Here are their selections in the first 10 rounds:
1.16 Chase DeLauter, LH hitting outfielder, James Madison. De Lauter has some power but there were warts to his game. he was hurt in April and didn't play after that. His hitting setup is controversial and some scouts think it will make him susceptible to velocity as a pro. Basically, although DeLauter is not a terrible pick here, there are more question marks about his game than should be present for the 16th overall pick. That is why at least one source gave this pick a "C" grade.
1.37 Justin Campbell, RHP, Oklahoma St. - Just like the college pitchers selected right after William last year, Campbell has upside. No problem with draftng him if we didn't have other needs. But with similarly skilled players in those areas of need available when we took Campbell, we should have filled those needs in my opinion.
2.54. Parker Messick, LHP, Florida St. - Stuff is similar to Campbell's. He, like Campbell, will benefit from the Guardians' pitcher development program. Still, we didn't need another pitcher at this point after all the pitchers we grabbed early last year.
3.92. Joe Lampe, LH hitting OFer, Arizona St. - The one thing we have in our system is leadoff-caliber LH hitting outfielders, like 9 of them between the majors and the high minors! Yet our first salvo today was to pick Lampe. It makes no sense given what we SHOULD have been targeting.
4.121. Nat Furman - LH hitting 2Bman from UNC Charlotte - At pick 121 the Guardians decided to stop drafting rated prospects. Furman is another on-base, slap hitter type with no power.
5.151 Guy Lipscomb, Jr - Another LH hitting, unranked by MLB college outfielder. Again, good on-base skills.
6.181 Dylan DeLucia - unranked RHP, Ole Miss
7.211 Javier Santos, unranked, short HS RHP
8.241 Jackson Humphries, a HS LHP ranked as the #128 prospect in the draft by MLB.
9.271 Austin Peterson, unranked RHP from Connecticut
10.301 Jacob Zibrin, a HS RHP ranked the #131 overall prospect in this draft by MLB
Analysis - If you thought Day 1 of this draft for the Guardians was an unsexy yawner, Day 2 was worse. The Guardians, on day 2, missed the mark as badly as they did on Day 1. They drafted more LH hitting college players even though we have a bunch already. They drafted 3 HS pitchers at the end of the first 10 rounds, 2 of whom were highly rated, in an era where colleges can assure these kids that their NIL money will be close to or surpass what their bonuses would be if they signed AND that they would likely get bonuses as large or larger in 3 years. I can't say, yet, that this draft is a disaster as I don't know if it will be. What I can say is that it, so far, was ill-conceived. Whether it was also poorly executed will be seen by how many of these guys we can sign AND stay inside our budget.
So that we can put this away in the time capsule and pick it up in 5 years, here is how my draft would have played out if I was the guy running the Guardians' draft:
1 - Daniel Susac, C,
1C - Cayden Wallace, 3B/1B Arkansas
2 - Carson Whisenhunt P, East carolina
3 - Dominic Keegan, 1B/C Vanderbilt
4 - Luke Gold, 2B Boston College
5 - Noah Dean, LHP, Old Dominion
I think my draft gives the Guardians players to balance their farm system without sacrificing quality. What the Guardians did: Piling more on to strong areas of their farm system and capping it off by drafting HS players that will be difficult to sign.
I have faith the first 3 rounds of their draft won't be a disaster and, knowing the Guardians, the other college picks won't be terrible. However, when your organization depends on player development and not signing free agents, you can't miss on your draft picks.
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