AL Central Draft Review
Chicago White Sox
Best Pick: Gordon Beckham. Just an excellent power bat that could potentially play at short or second.
Worst Pick: Kenny Williams Jr. Nepotism is bad.
Highest Risk/Reward: Not much to see here. All safe college picks.
Overall: Going the college route with all first day picks, and besides Gordon Beckham, not getting anything all that great. Brent Morel’s ok I guess.
Cleveland Indians
Best Pick: Cord Phelps. He’s an offensive-oriented college 2B with an excellent plate approach and decent power.
Worst Pick: Lonnie Chisenhall. Spending a first round pick on a guy who was dismissed from University because of criminal charges and had to play at JuCo a year, doesn’t have plus power, isn’t very athletic… doesn’t sound like a great idea to me.
Highest Risk/Reward: Zach Putnam. Probably a tough sign, and he’s raw whether he’s a pitcher or a hitter, but he’s got a lot of potential both ways.
Overall: After a first round pick I don’t really like, there’s a couple of good pitchers and some good potential. I like it. But then again, I like most of the things the Indians do.
Detroit Tigers
Best Pick: I kinda like Ryan Perry as a fit in the first.
Worst Pick: Cody Satterwhite, who has electricish stuff coupled with troubles keeping the ball in the strike zone and in the park (in college!).
Highest Risk/Reward: Satterwhite.
Overall: Every pick seemed to be in the whole “decent pick, nothing special” range… a slew of college pitchers, especially. This was a decent draft for a team hoping to contend now.
Kansas City Royals
Best Pick: Pretty much everyone. Eric Hosmer’s a beast, and Tyler Sample at 80 is a really good high-ceiling guy who’s not a huge risk.
Worst Pick: Nobody really bad. I guess Melville can be seen as kind of a wasted pick since he’s almost certainly not going to sign, but if he does, then what? A lot of people (not me) had him as one of the best arms in the draft.
Highest Risk/Reward: Wow. Uh. Pretty much every pick after the first two.
Overall: Excellent. Really snatched up a lot of high-ceiling players without any of them (except Melville) being one of these big long-shot types.
Minnesota Twins
Best Pick: Shooter Hunt, ranked 13 on my list, taken at 31.
Worst Pick: Danny Ortiz. He kinda sounds like David Ortiz, and that’s not a memory the Twins want to dig up. Seriously, nobody to complain about.
Highest Risk/Reward: Aaron Hicks, a TRUE five-tool outfielder, instead of one of these “Well he’s really fast, and I’m sure the other tools will follow” types.
Overall: I don’t like the Twins organization, but talent acquisition has always been their forte, and that’s continued with this draft.
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