The first round of the 2018 MLB Draft has passed. Here are some random thoughts on it:
- The Detroit Tigers made a huge mistake drafting the pitcher over Joey Bart. 8/10 of what makes a player great is slugging. The other 1/10 is hitting for average. The other 1/10 is everything else – obp, defense, baserunning, arm strength.
Joey Bart looks like a great slugger. He had a slugging percentage of .632 with 16 home runs in just 57 games in college last year. Legit Numbers. And if you take a look at Bart what you will see is that he is Huge. And he looks pretty Awesome. Good traits.
Pitchers can be Legit but there are red flags with the pitcher that Detroit drafted. Namely, Auburn. Auburn is a weak school relative to The Big Dog in the SEC, Alabama. That’s why Nick Saban has 6 championships!
Look for Bart to make a huge impact for the Giants soon.
Could the drafting of Bart have an impact on the Giants’s chemistry now though? They already have a catcher. His name is Buster Posey, in case you’re new to this. Are they moving Bart to first? Brandon Belt is having a breakout season, as I predicted. To third? Evan Longoria is one of the top MLB players in terms of Handsomeness. Maybe they could move him to the outfield and he could be a helpless looking leftfielder like Kyle Schwarber? Ok. That could work for the Giants. Perhaps the Giants can collectively convince themselves of that going forward and the drafting of Bart won’t have a negative impact on their chemistry now but that worries me because I just said they would take off and since they won 5 of 6 but I’m worried that they are going to take a step back now because they drafted Bart and upset their chemistry but I think they can convince themselves that they will put Bart in left and that he won’t disrupt their chemistry.
The Giants could have a great lineup in like 2021 that could look like this:
1 – McCutchen (best hitter has to lead off. Haven’t you read “Ahead of the Curve” by Brian Kenny?)
2 – Longoria
3 – Bart
4 – Belt
5 – Crawford
6 – Posey
7 – Panik
8 – Hanson (mmmm Bop)
9 – pitcher
The Tigers made a huge mistake drafting the pitcher. The Giants got the best player in the draft. It’s all about Home Runs.
2. How did the Kansas City Royals get the number 2 ranked prospect according to mlb.com heading into the draft with the 18th overall pick? What made all of the sophisticates pass on Brady Singer? Is it because his name is Brady and Brady is an Evil Name because Tom Brady is Evil? Probably not. Everybody seems to love Brady which says a lot about our society and it isn’t good. Tom Brady, that is. Nobody seems to like Brady Singer. But Dayton Moore did.
Dayton Moore is an Old School Dude – that is his official job title and it’s a scientific term and it’s a term of endearment. Go Figure he got the best pitcher in the draft. He looks better than the Auburn guy to me. I like his makeup. He looks Legit whereas the Auburn guy looks, Not Legit. Again, a scientific term.
I’m good at scouting for this. I really am. I picked Jorge Soler to be the AL MVP this year. Has he been the MVP? NO. But, he is having a great season this year when last year he hit .144 and slugged just .258. Plus, the season is still very young. Plenty of time for Soler to hit plenty of Home Runs and make me look good.
Brady Singer looks good. What a steal for the Royals. Dayton Moore beats the sophisticates. Duh.
3. The Phillies drafted a young man named Alec Bohm with the third overall pick. I saw some of Bohm’s comments on MLB Network after he was drafted. He sounded nervous. Is that necessarily a red flag?
Blake Bortles looks to me like a nervous kind of guy. Still, he is an Alpha Male. Malik Jackson was so right about him when he said THIS a few months back.
Blake Bortles has a lot of critics. They are the ones who are Awful and Bortles is the one who is Awesome. More on this as The Football Season nears.
4. Nick Madrigal was drafted by the White Sox with the fourth overall pick. Madrigal reminds me of Breaking Bad, the television show. It was a good show. I liked it. But I liked Justified BETTER. Justified was a better show. The Wire was also a good show. But Justified was BETTER than that show too. Which was better, Breaking Bad or The Wire? I dunno. I’d rather just watch baseball than watch shows. Shows stress me out. INTENSE.
5. The Mets drafted an outfielder named Kelenic. The Intelligentsia is so fickle. The Mets got off to a great start. They were like “NEW SUPER TEAM NEW SUPER TEAM!!!!” Now, the Mets have taken a little step back and they are like “THE BRAVES AND THE PHILLIES ARE SUPER TEAMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” They are wrong. The Braves and Phillies are not just Not Super – again, a scientific term. Both teams are falling apart before our eyes, as I predicted.
Alright alright neither team has “fallen apart” just yet. The Phillies are 3-6 since I sent out the above tweet and the Braves are 8-9.
The key phrase in the last paragraph? “Just yet.”
The Mets will win the NL East, as I predicted.
And the Red Sox will win the AL East, as I predicted.
And the Cubs will win the NL Central, as I predicted. Joe Maddon is building a DYNASTY.
Mike Scioscia is The Big Kahuna. Albert Pujols is Awesome. So is Mike Trout. So is Shohei Otani. And Shohei Otani’s translator’s Hair is Awesome Too. Dreamy. That’s why the Angels will win the AL West, as I predicted.
I predicted that the Yankees would miss the playoffs this year. Will they? That remains to be seen. Bringing Alex Rodriguez back to the organization was the worst decision I have ever seen a sports franchise make, from a karmic perspective. Karma Matters. Truth Matters. That’s the first principle of SABR Skepticism.
The Yankees are ripe for collapse. They will collapse this season.
The Dodgers made a huge mistake when they traded AJ Ellis. That’s why they collapsed last September and why they collapsed in Game 5 of the World Series.
Many of their fans have said to me on Twitter this year “what about last season! It was a Super Season!”
To which I have said, “throw a stone in the pond, there are ripples.”
They will miss the playoffs this year, as I predicted.
The Indians have been said to be a Super Team. My analysis – Not So Super After All. A scientific term. They will miss the playoffs, as I predicted.
The Nationals made a huge mistake firing Dusty Baker. That is why they will miss the playoffs, as I predicted.
The Astros are overrated. They have bad karma. They have a front office that is coasting on the accomplishments of prior regimes. They will miss the playoffs, as I predicted.
Many observers entering this season said that the Padres would have a top pick in next year’s draft. They missed that Eric Hosmer is Awesome. And that AJ Ellis is Awesome Too. That is why the Padres will win the NL West, as I predicted.
6. Harold Reynolds of MLB Network likes Kyler Murray. Harold Reynolds is one of the wisest baseball analysts going today. He has been a huge influence on my thinking. I expect Murray to have a tremendous career.
SABR Skeptic 