Lookout Landing

Best player available

I would kind of be shocked if we didn't after going for need at 27

Is the Draft video going really slow for anyone else?

Yeah.

What's going on with the clock on the MLB.com?

When do we actually draft?

sammy - June 9, 2009 reply

They're showing replays of the first round right now

Oh, I see. I'm watching the video with the sound off.

sammy - June 9, 2009 reply

Okay. I was just about to complain about why they're showing the Strasburg interview over and over again

In about 3-5 minutes

how soon till the Supplemental picks?

drm1125 - June 9, 2009 reply

Please please Paxton.

Here we go

Compensation round is starting now

Draft video is not working.

Try refreshing, worked for me.

Fuck.

I am a little annoyed.

FUCK FUCK FUCK

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

Disappointed.

FUCK FUCK FUCK

IT’S FUCKING BARON

Annoying

Baron

No pitchers at all in our top three picks.

Wow.

Fail

Wow fuck my life.

FUCK

Worst. Draft. Ever

Well that sucks.

Gay

That's pretty lame

Was the team this concerned about the money Ackley is going to get…the make two “reach” picks?

Argh

Aaron Campeau - June 9, 2009 reply

This draft just took a dump

God that's obnoxious

FUCK THIS ORGANIZATION!!!

Just grand.

Paxton and Scheppers!

The only explanation is that we couldn't afford anything but Ackley.

And I'd call bullshit on them.

That was predictably shitty.

cwel87 - June 9, 2009 reply

Two below slot players in spots we could have picked up a lot of talent

:(

Colorado are doing really well

Yeah, they're beasting all over this draft.

Baron!

This totally undos all the good that was done today

Way to ruin our future Z

BRING BACK JJ

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

And now all the talented pitchers are going to go

Well, the silver lining is that this gives us more money to go over slot at #51.

Still, if he turns into Rob Johnson 2.0 I’m going to be pretty pissed.

Brothers gone.

Lame.

We had better do something crazy-awesome at #51

Our #27 pick doesn't look as good now either

Tried to be silent to digest this... but still.. just wow.

Fett was right.

Sadness.

113 recs and counting.

God bless him

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

It's a shame he was banned

You're joking

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

It really is legendary.

I KNOW

WHY THE FUCK DID WE TRUST THIS GUY?

And then the Rockies had to go and take Brothers and destroy my optimism.

Wow, for some reason I thought the Rex Brothers were two brothers with the last name Rex

This draft officially blows.

We still have time to take a top 200 prospect at 51!

If it makes you feel any better

We’re also getting shut out by the Orioles

Tube - June 9, 2009 reply

Why do we choose Baron even when we choose a cheap Franklin? God, wipe my memory cleam of this team.

Borchering and Davidson? Bizarre

Hey look, it's a catcher with speed!

Zippy!

Catching prospects are so much fun to watch and develop

Let’s just get 35 of them! And make sure every one of them is either marginally talented or has degenerative knees!

cwel87 - June 9, 2009 reply

I think saying that this draft blows is a tad bit of an overreaction.

Agreed..the draft just did take a dump on itself though. That's all I'm saying.

Sorry, just got pretty cranky about our picks.

Yeah fuck Ackley.

*recent picks

He was a great pick.

It was the 2nd and 3rd picks I didn’t like.

Graham and Dave seem to like Nick Franklin.

I hate Baron though!

Fuck our draft sucks.

He seems decent to me, but nothing about him stands out.

And there were some great pitchers we could have had instead.

Brothers and Davidson off the board. Two first round talents

Rockies, hands down best draft so far it seems.

Matthew - June 9, 2009 reply

We should trade them our second rounder for their first next year

Does this mean we are cutting payroll even more next year?

I really can't find any justification for this

Are we just going to throw the world at Ackley?

What might the contract be like?

4 years, 10Mil? Or am I way off?

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

Annnd there goes Paxton

Blue Jays grab Paxton

Balls

I AM SO ANGRY RIGHT NOW

Scheppers next

from Dave:

“We told you guys this was happening – the M’s cut a pre-draft deal with Baron last week. He’s going to sign for below slot, as on talent, he’s more in the 50-100 range.

In case you’ve forgotten, Baron’s a catcher with great defensive tools and a questionable bat. The M’s think there’s more offense in there, and he could be a Yadier Molina type long term. I know, it’s not that exciting, especially considering some of the names that were on the board, but this shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. We knew this was coming. "

YEAH BUT THIS RUINS THE PICKS WE ALREADY MADE

WHO CARES IF THEY WERE GOOD EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE TAKEN INTO CONTEXT

Time to go jump off the bridge

Take Baron with you.

Don't wanna waste the pick now

I could have sworn that we already did

Along with everyother pick in the draft

Then they probably should've taken a pitcher at 27

That was with the assumption that they'd go over slot at 27

This is going to make me go all emo now.

Oh if the Nats get Scheppers!

Wow.

Can't they not pick him?

Or is that just in the first round

Second round.

He is pricey I doubt they take him.

No, I mean, because they picked him last year and didn't sign

Wasn't that Crow that the Nats drafted last year?

And thus couldn’t be drafted again.

pmc47 - June 9, 2009 reply

The Nationals drafted Crow last year

Not Sheppers.

Wow I'm dumb.

Too much draft stuff going on in my head apparently

Phegley before Poythress?

Crazy

Is it follow the leader on catcher overdrafts this round?

Where the hell is Max Stassi?

We've started a trend

I HOPE Z GETS CARLOS BELTRAN DISORDER

WE DRAFTED ROB JOHNSON OVER MAX STASSI

NOT JUST ROB JOHNSON BUT ROB JOHNSON 2.0 WITH CANCER

BUT NOT INSPIRING STORY CANCER JUST LAME CANCER.

Wow there are a couple good anems on the board still.

What a weird draft

And now the Angels make a good pick.

It will be hilarious if Scheppers falls to us at #51.

No, it would be awesome.

Or stassi!

It could happen, I hope so.

Still 10 picks to go though.

I forgot about Skaggs

Wow all the teams have been drafting weirdly except for the Rockies who are just beasting it.

Tyler Skaggs gone as well

What happened to BPA, Jack. This organization turns GM's brains to shit.

Franklin and Ackley were good picks.

We knew about the Baron deal, and why they were doing it, for over a week.

Weren't they going to draft Baron at 33 so they could overslot at 27?

Which they didn’t do.

If they go over at 51 it all works anyway

What kind of talent is going to be available to go over with at 51?

Unknown

And that’s part of the problem

Yeah, but now they can afford to overslot at #51. Lots of guys are falling right now.

Is it that big of a deal for Baron below slot at 33 and at slot at 51? Just seems stupid to lock themselves in.

Franklin wasn't BPA, he was a need and signability pick

And Baron was a signability pick too, which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

It was a reach, but it wasn't a huge reach.

Fucking Angels with all their picks.

Fucking convert Aumont back to a starter right now

Yes.

Just so you gys know

Pretty much the whole blogosphere hated the Adam Jones pick too. We were all convinced he wouldn’t hit and his future was on the mound.

davidcameron - June 9, 2009 reply

Now look at him.

Makes my blood boil.

YES! Baron is similar to Adam Jones!

He still can't play CF

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

(yet.....)

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

I'd just like to remind everyone that our scouting department knows what the hell it's doing.

Wait things out before y’all flip

Yeah, we've known about Baron for more than a week now. I don't get why everyone is freaking out over it.

I'm guessing it's because we didn't think..

that this many high guys would still be available.

One cannot wait and THEN flip out.

It must be immediate and with ill conceived rage.

?

"He's a baseball player."--random guy on MLB.com

Thank you for the hard-hitting analysis, Pravda.

Everett Williams (BA #19, Max Stassi, Pothyress, and C Will Myers, and C Luke Baily are still on the board.

Pitchability?

What is this?

A good arm guy here.

Drinkability

straight from the pitcher?

Bye Tanner Scheppers

FUCK

There goes Scheppers

Fuck

Tanner Scheppers off the board

And there's Scheppers.

Wow, did he ever fall.

Whoops a doodle

Dammit Baron!

Bummer.

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!

The Rangers' farm system just got even more loaded.

With pitching.

This doesn’t look good.

Well crap.

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

Dang it!

Hey and look he's staying in the division!

I hope his shoulder secretly deals crack at a playground and gets locked up for five to ten.

pmc47 - June 9, 2009 reply

Andrew Oliver for 2nd rounder I guess or Luke Bailey.

So who's a good pick to hope for now?

Am I sad that Bashore is gone?

Stassi or Everet Williams?

Stassi, Pothyress, and Baily

Who got Scheppers?

Texas.

AHHHHH Fuck that makes it so much worse. As if they needed any more pitchers that blow ours out of the water.

Texas

Rangers

manyoso - June 9, 2009 reply

You don't want to know.

The Daily Kos

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

I think there's a difference between witty and WTF.

I agree

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

No politics

Jesus hates it when you do that.

It's going to suck to see him pitch against us multiple times a year.

What odds would you give that?

Being that he's a good pitcher who was just drafted by our division rival, decent.

Given that he's a major injury risk with control problems I'd say you are wildly overstating things

Assuming his shoulder doesn't blow up.

There’s a reason he fell this far.

Oh yeah

Forgot about that, so scratch that idea, but Smoak would not be bad

He's a gamble for sure, but I think he would have been worth the risk.

Or

Maybe we could offer them Beltre for Scheppers and Smoak?

Fangraphs is broked.

I noticed. Gives a stupid error message

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

Oliver or Poythress would be nice

Weird draft so far

Who the hell is Kyle Hecklethorn?

I think he is in Hufflepuff

Heh.

I'm hoping for Oliver, Poythress, or Bailey even with the 51st.

Our draft is making more sense than the Angels's

I feel like they have a dart and a blindfold.

And I feel like the M's went to tha dollar store with $1.35 to spend.

Their first round picks were baffling

In a draft piled with quality arms the M's still find a way not to grab one. I have so much hate for this team at the moment.

The organisation's strength is in the draft

Trust them at least through the end of the day

Yay we get to see Bone this round.

I was wondering if he actually got to do anything by being thier representative.

ScottBrowne - June 9, 2009 reply

Please let bone make our pick

Buhner!

Don't fuck this up M's Oliver, Bailey or Poythress

Bone!

Jay? Jay? Buddy, where are you?

Late!

YES!

BINGO

YES

WOOOOOOO POYTHRESS!

YES!

BONE!!!!!

HOLY SHIT AMAZING

There you go!

Poythress!

Okay that’s not bad

That was both awkward and fantastic

I love you Jay, you too Jack

We got the two best college bats in the draft somehow

That sounds like good news.

ThundaPC - June 9, 2009 reply

Are we all off the ledge now? Time to relax

Mariners take Poythress

Okay, that’s pretty awesome.

I would like at least one pitcher now please

Time to start trading for high minors pitching

That has to be the plan now

That

or they going to actually try and resign Bedard

Probably not unless they can somehow trade him then re-sign him next year

They probably are going to spend big free agent money on a good starter though, yeah.

No thank you.

He’s not pitching with a secret injury not even he knows of, but he’s not a good investment and he’s not been as good this year as in 2007.

Or that

C’mon tank already you stupid Mariners

There's a game on

And they’re tanking!

Harper!

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

DRAFT IS AMAZING AGAIN!

Yay!

Fuck Poythress sucks because we drafted Baron.

I thought we didn't pick until 52?

What did I miss?

Polythress? I hadn't heard anything about this guy

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

But based on Brian's comment he must be a catcher

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

Whoosh.

I can't imagine what else you would have meant. Please, enlighten me.

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

Poking fun at all the Baron bitching.

My bad

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

He is a 1B

He can play catcher, trust me the bat is there

I heard he's a bad defender. DH in my opinion

Similar to LaPorta

Defensively he maxes out as a average 1B. Offensively, there’s 30+ HR potential

Shit. That's good.

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

POYTHRESSSSSSSS!

Seen this guy play, this is a steal guys trust me

He'll be fun to follow in High Desert!

discovolante - June 9, 2009 reply

Our depth at firstbase is ridiculous.

Mike Carp?

Carp, Clement, Nelson, Shelton, Pothyress, Dunigan, LaHair

Wait we can just make them play the middle infield right?

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

Rabin

Guy’s done in the OF.

Raben

Argh. I was guessing between "Rabin" and "Raben".

My one problem with Bing is that it doesn’t have a spell check feature.

Rapin' Raben!

And Rabin

Thanks Katal

LaHair and Dunigan and Nelson not so much

Dunigan seems to be killing the ball.

You notice something?

Pothyress would be the only system in our organization projected to be an above average first baseman (Clement excepted, mabye).

Hitting-wise.

IF we can somehow get Andy Oliver with the 3rd round pick I'd be a happy man.

I imagine that Z will be going after other club's pitchers this July

considering the way this draft is going.

Wouldn't be surprised if we unload for pitching prospects. Im OK with it

Poythress, that's better.

Not that we needed a 1B, but he looks good.

Have you seen our offense?

Our offence at 1B? I'm pretty sure Branyan is doing a good job.

It’s still a great pick.

Branyan probably won't be around when Poly is ready...

Didn't think of that, in that case, it's a even better pick than I thought.

True, but it's not like Branyan cost a lot to acquire

First basemen that can hit aren’t too difficult to find

Yeah, but having one for free that has an unknown upside is always happy.

But that said, Poythress is excellent value at #51, and, like LaPorta, can be traded and turned into something else

Sexson, Vidro, Cairo?

First basemen that can hit aren't difficult to find if you're not a retarded GM

From USSM

“Do you want a guy who can hit the ball over the wall? Meet Rich Poythress, a prodigious power hitter who can really whack the baseball. He’s right-handed and a 1B/DH type, which is why he fell to the second round, but the guy can really turn on a fastball. He had a monster year in the SEC, and as late as a few weeks ago was looked at as a mid-first round guy.

This is a nice value in the second round, even though he might not be a great fit for Safeco. I wouldn’t be surprised if he developed fairly quickly and was used as a trade chip to get something else that might fit the M’s needs next year or the year after. "

Don't get attached, he's not a long term guy

I'm following alone with the draft tracker and it froze at 42. Did we really already get to the 51st pick?

Dewey N - June 9, 2009 reply

Same here.

That’s why I was shocked when all of a sudden everyone started talking about a pick of ours.

Draft tracker

is stuck at 42 for me as well.

J_G - June 9, 2009 reply

I keep dreaming that someday we'll have another Olerud.

How do bats like Poythress' translate?

Do guys with power and slower bats tend to see their AVG drop a lot when they hit the majors?

Nickname suggestion: The Poython.

Poythagoreon Theorem.

Jeff Clement has a slow bat

Die

He set that up so nicely though

I agree

`

Dewey N - June 9, 2009 reply

Wow, Chad Jenkins still hasn't been drafted

Yes he has

Yeah he has.

I mean wow, Chad Jenkins was already drafted and that's not surprising

Haha Hi Tommy!

Tommy Lasorda, ladies and gentlemen.

BEST. DRAFT. EVER

I love your emotion

It's really like riding the Robert Rollercoaster

Oh ho ho.

You have NO idea what it’s like to ride the Robert Rollercoaster!

It's actually more like the Robert Pleasure Super Expressway to Exit 42B Sextropolis Ave

It's 100% genuine

John Carlson has aids.

Like marital aids ala Manny?

Guess who gave them to him!

Because we ended up with Poythress with the 51st pick?

DAMMIT NOOOOOOOOOOOO THEY TOOK ANDY OLIVER!

Curses

Hey Graham, do you know where I can find HS stats?

I’m looking for Nick Franklin’s 2009.

Wait I actually knew about that guy! Darn

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

I cannot wait to celebrate our farm system this August.

1. Ackley. 2. Saunders. 3 Top pitcher we got for Bedard. 4. Triunfel. 5. A pitcher we got for either Beltre or Washburn. 6. Moore. 7. Halman. Whoooooo!

Our system still isn't good

Wrong

We have an average system. How do believe it is a good system?

With the influx of talent from the draft and from trades this summer we're guaranteed a well above average system

Well I guess I'll wait to see what happens on the trade front and in the

international market. I just don’t see many ML regulars down there. Ackley, Saunders, Moore, Triunfel?

Ramirez as a SP?

Couple of relievers.

I don’t know, I just don’t see a good system. I think after tonight we’re about middle of the pack

Meet the future forty

Get acquainted

Precisely!

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

Even before today's draft, the Mariners have had a system that is, if anything, deep.

While our top-5 prospects haven’t been anything terribly special, our 5-15 are remarkably solid.

That system is many times better than yesterday's was.

And it wasn't terrible yesterday.

Didn't say it was.

Now who's ignorant

I know. I'm responding off your comment, which I agree with.

Ahhh. I see.

My bad.

I politely disagree

Our system is being stocked

So as someone with no knowledge of the MLB draft

this makes zero sense to me. Wouldn’t it have made more sense to go Ackley, Poythress, Franklin and then Barron? Why leave talent floating out there like that? Was it because they knew a very good player would still be there at 51 and he would command considerably less money at that pick while they would be able to significantly underslot Barron?

I don’t have any problems with the players taken but the whole process seems screwy to me.

Well, we cut a deal with Baron at 33

Franklin probably wasn’t going to be there at 51 they though, so he went at 27. That leaves us Poythress at 51

And cutting a deal with Baron at 33 a week before the draft isn't weird?

Why would a team limit themselves like that, especially for a player that I would assume would be there with or without that deal?

Well if you don't sign your compensatory picks you lose them so maybe they just wanted to be sure

Darn, Mendonca is gone. Thought he was interesting.

Huge power even though he’s a K machine

where is the draft being updated?

I can’t get anything on mlb.com to work.

I've got video now

The draft tracker is borked though

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/events/draft/y2009/draftlive_app.jsp

Watch it live!

refresh it if it just stops though.

By the end of today, Tommy is gonna fall down the stairs I think

Does the less than slot picks possibly allow us to spend more internationally?

Oh, Tommy.

Garret Gould drafted

Balls

Sweet pick there

Tommy makes me smile

I think he’s shit housed

Tommy Lasorda everyone.

A good pick too. But really, I just wish that he would read all the picks.

I don't understand how I'm so far behind everyone, when it's all online.

Does Baron at #33 pick without breaking the bank on a pitcher at 27 hint that the Mariners plan on making a big splash internationally this year?

Yeah they are.

I don’t know that the two are correlated, but the M’s are supposed to be making waves on the international front.

Or we plan on stealing prospects in trades

I recall where I read it - maybe it was Churchill - but the M's are supposedly planning on spending

about 3x what they did last year on the international market.

Rather, I don't recall where I read it...

Hm

I remember reading somewhere that Zduriencik felt much more comfortable spending on the more well known quantities of the amateur draft rather that IFA.

Did you just compare Berglund to a dead guy?

Funny, I wouldn't think a corpse would have a nice, easy delivery.

?

Who did Paxton go to?

BJ's

He went to a nice farm family where he'll be very happy and get to run and play all day. Don't you think he'll be happy there? That's why he couldn't stay at home with us.

Ignore the pile of dirt in the front yard. That's nothing.

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

Crap.

Liked Gould, liked Eliopolous (Fontaine would have been all over him)…

Hmm…

Luke Bailey is still out there I guess...

Wasn't he a 1st rounder until an injury?

Yup.

Best players available?

Interesting

I don’t think Alex Wilson’s name has been called yet

Or Stassi's and Myers'

What position does Stassi play?

C

Catcher

Better upside than Baron, I'm assuming?

I would say very much so.

Let's hope so

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

Draft tracker finally updated, you are correct

Wilson, or any of the three prep catchers (Stassi, Myers, Bailey) would be fantastic

Whens the M's next pick?

82.

#82.

You could just scroll up and look

Aww there goes Walla.

So much for the "Walla Walla" puns.

Darn.

Huh, Cameron goes over Stassi.

BPA

Best Pitcher Available @ 82?

I think it may be Alex Wilson.

The ? was twofold

who is it , and the M’s take the best pitcher available with that pick?

Thanks for the picks, Phillies.

Hopefully we get Bailey, Wilson or Stassi with the 82st!

Bailey, please.

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

Wait, what? He's still around? What happened to him?

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

Tommy John Surgery!

Ah

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

I'm surprised Paul O'Neil is representing the Yankees

Eh?

Is he whining and/or crying about something? Anything?

It was Tino...

And there goes Murphy.

Wow J.R. Murphy running is hilarious

There goes Alex Wilson

Damn.

Still holding out hope for Stassi.

I don't get why the Sox don't pick up Stassi or Bailey. Don't they need a catcher after Varitek?

Neither of those would be ready by the time 'tek is gone

With their money and farm system, they can trade for whatever they need and draft their favorite talents.

I hope the M's take me at 82, I could use the money.

MFAN - June 9, 2009 reply

Would you go under slot?

Could someone please ~~tell~~ assure me that Braxton Lane will not be drafted in the next to rounds?

*two

Is this fake title thing some sort of joke I didn't catch?

I just wanted to be able to strike through a word.

Aha. I've seen it off and on, and wasn't sure.

Yep, only when absolutely necessary.

It’s the alternative to the dreaded absent subject line.

By the way, I enjoyed reading this: http://www.addictedtoquack.com/2009/6/2/896967/do-not-go-gentle-into-that#comments

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

You did? How'd you find it?

Thank you sir. The other guys didn’t receive it as well as I’d hoped.

5 minute break again?

Nuts

Second round done

Take someone good, please, Mariners.

We need

This confuses me.

Dude.... c'mon

In that case, WHOOSH because I seriously have no idea what you're getting at with this heraldry.

Stassi is a guy who is desirable

Stasi was the name of the most repressive and effective secret service of the 20th century. That was their company logo.

Just take Bailey or Stassi...

Two rounds done, with Bailey and Stassi still on the board.

On the clock

BAiley or Strassi c'mon M'S!

Wil Myers still there

Here we go!

Here we go.

ThundaPC - June 9, 2009 reply

Who?

Kyle Sieger

Kyle Seager.

ThundaPC - June 9, 2009 reply

Kyle Seager?

Here we go?

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

Wow Seager

Oh dear... Kyle Sieger?

What

Going with the UNC connection

Kyle Seager!

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

Were they worried that Dustin Ackley needed a friend?

Must have a biased scout in house.

Gotta keep your early pick happy

That worked well for getting Santana...

Except Santana hates Silva's guts

I understand the sentiment completely.

Um.

Limerickx - June 9, 2009 reply

Left handed college second baseman

Huh, interesting.

Another UNC player? I'll defer to Dave's opinion on this one.

I'm waiting for the Welcome to Seattle, Kyle post! It's been 2 minutes already.

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

I'm amazed that we didn't fuck up the Ackley pick after watching couple of these other picks.

Scouting report doesn't look bad on him...but obviously it's not going to make a player look bad on MLB.com

I'm fine with an "okay"-hitting second baseman.

I wonder what the flags on him are, though.

a left-handed hitting second baseman, even.

Not a lot of power

Which is okay if you’re a second baseman, but bad if you’re a third baseman

The guy seems interesting.

But…

Lopez better watch his back.

MLB.com:

Seager is another advanced bat from the University of North Carolina. While not as elite as teammate Dustin Ackley, he can swing the stick pretty well. He doesn’t have a ton of power and that could help dictate what position he plays professionally. He’s played both second and third well, but most feel he’s best suited for the former, where his offensive skill set profiles better. As a pretty good offensive middle infielder, he could go pretty high on Draft day.

I like the idea of Franklin and Seager being our starting MIF by '12.

Nah, just Franklin.

Let’s sign a big-time 2B. We have the cash.

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

Okay, WTF

Humongo - June 9, 2009 reply

Kyle Seager isn't too bad if he can stick at 2B

Interesting that they’re going with all hitters, and a few of them may be ready for the majors soon

So time to grade our first day draft.

C+

HIGHER

Depends on the grading criterion.

D+

You are also retarded

You know what, Graham? You're retarded. How does that feel? I bet you feel bad now.

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

Don't worry, I was kidding :)

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

Graham wasn't and Graham is right.

Matthew - June 9, 2009 reply

He's literally retarded?

Garces - June 9, 2009 reply

Yes it's like Matthew said 'Graham is literally right'

Well then I am impressed he can manage to use a computer!

Good for you, guy.

Garces - June 9, 2009 reply

Ackley was the obvious pick, no points there.

The second and third picks weren’t even close to BPA, therefore suck.
Poythress was a good value pick.
Seager is… well, let’s just say not a good pick when the M’s had a chance to make a great one.

Realistically B-/C+ seems fair.

You couldn't be more wrong about Franklin.

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

Show me a talent board where someone thinks he's higher than Stassi.

Because if you saw it on an internet draft board, it MUST be TRUE!

manyoso - June 9, 2009 reply

Quick, everyone to DRB!

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

Isn't that what everyone here is looking at?

legitmatemlbdraftboard.com

legitmatemlbdraftboardrumors.com

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

This is me pointing at the Mariners draft board

Congratulations you're one of the people who doesn't think the Mariners have a budget

I though our money-saving technique was to overslot someone that slid, not pick up a high school shortstop.

And then pass on Stassi later.

Poythress

I didn't think Poythress was a signability issue at all.

Poythress will go for a decent amount over second round slot

He's not asking to break the bank or anything, though, as we've heard with some of the other picks.

Like, did we really need to skimp on our 2nd and 3rd picks for… Poythress!?
If we did then I’m disappointed with the money alotted the M’s for this draft.

It really depends on Ackley's bonus demands, doesn't it?

Baron is still the only guy I don’t like

Yeah I guess I'm just disappointed that our FO wasn't given more money to play with.

If they were, it’s hard to see them passing on Paxton and Scheppers with their second pick or Stassi in round 3.

Stassi's value to the team goes to hell with the Baron pick

Also, don't we lose the sandwich pick completely if we don't sign a guy with it this year?

If so, then you should be fairly safe with it so you don’t get boned by contract demands while you have no leverege or lose it totally.

If you don't sign compensatory, you lose them. So, yes

I concur.

NO

You are retarded

We haven't got a single pitcher anywhere near MLB ready in our system or out of the draft. Our system is in dire need of more polished pitching.

As opposed to the raw arms we’ve got in A ball.

If only we had a starter we could trade for some quality pitching prospects!

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

Perhaps one with one year left on his contract

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

Drafting for need is dumb

And waiting a year turns our low minors pitching into high minors pitching anyway

Isn't that what we did when passing on both Scheppers and Paxton for Franklin?

Either of those pitchers were more talented than Franklin.

But much less safe and signable, which is why Franklin was drafted

Would the substaintially lower odds of signing Paxton than Franklin make Franklin the "BPA" at 27 in your opinion, then?

I’m genuinely curious, if this comes across as being smart-assed.

I think Paxton is better, but I'm happy enough with Franklin

How many polished MLB ready SP are there besides Strasburg?

manyoso - June 9, 2009 reply

0!

Which one?

Dewey N - June 10, 2009 reply

None, including Strasburg.

I'm fairly sure he's ready as of right now. A little polish can't hurt though

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

He's ready, but polished is a term I wouldn't use for like half of MLB starters.

Not what I said. As in he could use a quick tune-up in AAA. Maybe for 6 or 7 starts.

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

Yeah, I know, I wasn't so much responding to you as continuing the thread.

You aren't going to get a ML ready pitcher in the draft either!

I disagree completely.

I would give us a B+. Ackley, Polythress and Franklin are excellent picks (via Cammy)

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

I agree with this

Those three are great picks. Baron was a reach but shouldn’t be shocking to anyone. We all knew he was coming at 33 for a week

Paxton over Baron would've made it an A, but I'm pretty happy with it anyways. I'd say B+ too.

Definitely. Although Z's good at spotting talent. Maybe he sees something in Baron we don't.

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

This is wrong and you know it.

I'd say B

I give it a solid "B"

The Baron pick is a head-scratcher, but if it saves us some money to get Ackley signed and make waves in the international FA pool, more power to them.

We've known about Baron for weeks.

Yeah, I know. "Head-scratcher" is probably the wrong term.

On second thought, I’d bump my grade up to B+. I really can’t find much to complain about this.

It's still kind of a dumb pick whether we knew it was coming or not

Budget!

DING DING DING. We have a winner

Our 27 pick was kind of a budget pick too

So it seems like we think Ackley is going to command 15 million+ or something or it doesn't make much sense

It would be a dumb pick in MLB 2K9, but in real life teams have things like budgets. I'm perfectly fine with paying less money to a guy like Baron if the money saved is enough to get Ackley signed.

Indeed

The Adam Jones trade was beyond moronic and we’re still hearing about that shit

I wonder if this is all because they were sick of reliever jokes

One of them is bound to have a good enough arm for that.

See ya Yuni and Loafie

We take Baron at 33 and Bailey and Stassi are still available some ~50 picks later.

Awesome.

Humongo - June 9, 2009 reply

There's likely a good reason for that

I imagine that none of Bailey, Stassi or Myers are going to pass up college in favor of getting slot money in the later rounds

Basically,

they don’t want to pay for top amateur arms and are drafting a bunch of college bats.

I really like this pick.

Infact, the only people who are complaining about this draft are the ones saying we had to take SP. I’d rathe this a B+ We got a Switch hitting SS, Lefty 2B, The best hitter in the draft and the best power hitter in the draft. I like it.

As a side note this link applies to us now:

Patton - June 9, 2009 reply

Entirely agree.

The only caveat being that I really, really want to see the FO go after some pitching talent while scouring the trade market. Otherwise, I love our haul.

We seem to have a lot better luck with IFA pitchers anyways.

International as well

International pitchers tend to be young.

I’m more interested in getting some arms that can help us in 2010-11.

Bedard + Beltre?

Clement even?

If we get arms back for every one of our tradeable commodities this summer, I'm thrilled.

If we get just a few, I'll be happy.

Honestly, though, I’m probably a little more conservative than most here in that I don’t expect us to really compete next year, and we are much more likely to get HighA/AA arms than upper minors true prospects for anyone we trade off.

Not to mention by the time 2 years roll around there’ll be a good possibility of some of our current AA arms being MLB ready. I don’t see a need to overstock ourselves for pitchers at the expense of a more well rounded haul.

Aside from Hensley (who's getting lit up there), we don't have any AA arms though - all our good ones are in High Desert and Clinton.

I think 2012 is more realistic for most of them.
Ramirez, Pineda, Lorin, Prinabic, and Kesparek all look promising, though.

Justin Souza is interesting

Well, if we would just start Morrow.........

Felix, Morrow, RRS would make a nice 3

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

Too bad none of those are the same person.

I am pretty much in complete agreement with you

You're probably right

I guess if the plan is to trade for pitching with the trade pieces we’ve got this year it will look like a great draft. But we do need pitching one way or the other.

Expecting GMZ to patch every hole in the organization on day one of the draft seems a little lofty.

I’m pretty damn pleased with how we did today.

It's a good draft, I was kind of hoping it would be 100% perfect but that was probably unreasonable

When you are drafting against 29 other teams it shouldn't be that hard to be 100% perfect

That's not what I meant, though

I just don’t really like taking two signability picks with 27 and 33 because that probably suggests that the team is either overvaluing what Ackley will cost or having payroll reduced further, which wouldn’t be their fault but still sucks for us.

I am perfectly fine with this draft

I trust that GMZ and co saw something no one else saw in Baron and Franklin

Franklin is a switch-hitting shortstop.

That’s pretty damn awesome.

Carlos Guillen?

Switch-hitting shortstop

With above average D. Sign me up every time.

Patton - June 9, 2009 reply

where do you see above average D? I think the pick is fine. He's a solid all around SS

but I dont see anyone projecting above average defense

Franklin seems like the type of kid who, if he went to college, would be a top-10 pick in three years.

A switch hitter who looks like he’s going to stick at SS? Yes please.

Yeah but there's serious questions if he can stick with the stick.

There are?

Hes fucking 18!

Jesus

Cite your sources

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

There's a good student!

IN MLA FORMAT

You fool, this would be Chicago style

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

Of course. He's 18, and a switch hitter.

He still has a lot of time to develop, though.

They are much more to do with ability to hit for power than ability to hit at all

And power is the #1 tool for position player prospects.

I’m not saying there’s no chance he reaches the bigs, but unless he develops power he’s switch-hitting Bloomquist with defense.

How many shortstops do you know that hit for power?

Gap power, not 20-HR power.

We drafted a power hitting shortstop like 15 years ago.

It’s obviously not that hard.

joof - June 9, 2009 reply

A powerhitting SS? What is this elusive beast?

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

Hanley Ramirez!

He said shortstop.

"SS"

Hanley's not a bad glove

In years past he's been pretty awful

Constantly improving, however. His really bad year looks like the outlier, not the slightly below average to average years.

2006: -5.3 UZR
2007: -19.2 UZR
2008: -0.7 UZR
2009: 1.2 UZR, 4.3 UZR/150

Tell me, what looks like the biggest outlier here?

Hard to say because that's only 2 months of 2009

But you’re probably right that he’s not as bad as 2007 would suggest.

Yeah, I'm not saying he's above average or anything.

Just that he’s not atrocious. With his bat, if he’s -10 to 0, he’s a bonafide star.

*superstar

Oh I never meant to imply that he's not a superstar

Just maybe not really meant to play shortstop

He got moved.

Damn, shows how much I pay attention to the Marlins

Well maybe not yet.

I thought he had but I don’t remember where I read that.

I was assuming at some point he would move, but wasn't sure if he had

He is very bad at shortstop

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

Wrong

he's probably -5 at worst.

http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=8001&position=SS
2007 was most likely an outlier.

PlaySportsinSeattle - June 9, 2009 reply

Never mind then. Not sure why I thought that.

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

He was bad, horrendous actually.

Last year he was league average.
This year, SSS, but he’s above average so far.

His one awful year was also SSS.

And I see this was already taken care of. I'm LATE

Did you know that Willie Bloomquist has hit .282/.348/.371 with a platoon advantage?

Or it's the least important tool for shortstop prospects

Well to be fair she did say Ackley had below average Base on ball skills.

Oh my god.

A lot of people saw great things with Franklin

There goes Myers

Zduriencik is on 710 talking about the draft right now

I heard him earlier. He emphasizes picking the best available player a LOT.

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

He's doing a question and answer with Drayer

Huh, he says it's up to Yuni what happens with Yuni.

They asked him flat out what is going on with him, pretty diplomatic but he did say that at the end.

Either he picks his shit up or packs his shit up is what I take from it

I really like Zduriencik yeah?

I love Tommy

I think he just surprised the commentators. That was fucking awesome

http://ussmariner.com/2009/06/09/welcome-to-seattle-kyle/

Dave is happy

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

His recap of the Rich Poythress reminds me alot of LaPorta at first glance

Poor man's Laporta was his initial reaction

So does that make a poor man's Dave Cameron?

I full valued Dave Cameron would not leave the word me out of that sentence in case you were wondering

You forgot a word.

Poochie - June 9, 2009 reply

I got better in my second go around

He was dealt to the Indians, right?

And yeah, he references LaPorta several times.

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

He headlined the Sabathia trade

I havent read the USSM threads yet. Are they worth it?

Read Dave's comments, ignore the user comments

Lot of “WHY DIDNT THEY DRAFT BPA”, followed by “WHY DIDNT WE FULFILL OUR SP NEEDS”

They're hilarious

In a bang your head against the wall way

Your sense of humor is far too elitist for an author of this site.

Be more humble.

R.J. Anderson - June 9, 2009 reply

As I found out in the Poythress thread!

That one did me in, too

Bunch of bandwagoners.

Damn it.

Now I have to check this out…

ningwers - June 9, 2009 reply

It's worth it

This made me hit the floor

“Everyone at USS Mariner is happy and prospectinsider and BBT are furious. Unfortunately I side with the latter.”

Graham your response to this earns an A+

BBT has seven responses?

And one of them is SABRMatt, who doesn’t seem to like anything to do with Mariners prospects most of the time.

I don’t know where the fury is coming from.

BBT's Twitter feed says:

M’s on the clock after short break. Paxton, Schepp, Brothers & STassi all on the board somehow. Z needs to take one or expect a fan mutiny.

JohnBBT had better be one hell of a mutineer because it looks like he’s not gonna have many takers.

Besides, 90% of Mariner fans have probably never heard of Dustin Ackely. And they’re gonna revolt over a sandwich pick?

I saw that.

But he wasn’t threatening to string Zduriencik up for Poythress or Seager, and just seemed somewhat disappointed while resigned to Baron.

Not much of a mutiny going on there. I don’t think he’s going to lead a revolution with that attitude.

Sure.

Come to think of i, he’s way, way, way more subdued than we were after Baron was announced.

I can't seem to figure out...

What’s BBT?

Bleeding Blue and Teal

And I’d never heard of it

Ohhhhh!

I remember Detecto raving about that website. No wonder.

That should've set off warning flags

Reading the site's comments...

I find it interesting how when a poster here says he (or she) wants to murder cats, it’s charming. When a poster at BBT says it, it’s disturbing.

Because everyone knows those commenters are too dense to conceptualize tongue-in-cheek humor, so they must be serious

It's actually a very good site. My friend Jon runs it.

A lot of commenters are r-tards, but the writing is really well done and I read it daily.

Yea, it was the commenters that threw me off

Remember back when USSM was constantly accused ot being too pessmistic?

Those were the days.

It's hilarious

Based on what I’ve read at USSM, Dave Cameron is probably one of the most optimistic people about our team.

I have spent the last few hours staring at videos

Dave has to treat his commenters like kindergarteners.

“Good job guys, we actually had a discussion that didn’t make me want to bash my head against my laptop and never write about baseball ever again!”

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

So no

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

Isn't that a necessity for hosting a site these days?

rtang - June 10, 2009 reply

No. There are plenty of intelligent people here, for example.

.Taylor - June 11, 2009 reply

Mendoca!

I forgot about Tom Mendoca! Of course the Rangers got him…

TheNewBRoy - June 9, 2009 reply

I have non-Ackley reactions up on my site.

Not a whole lot that blew me out of the water, but I think there’s enough throughout to like, and Poythress in round two makes up for Frankin and Baron a bit too high.

Great stuff, Jay.

Thanks JY, I was hoping you'd put your two cents in

Thanks guys.

Since I have the videos lined up, I’d like to see what analyses other people come up with.

Angels are dumb.

It’s almost like sidearmers and submariners usually put up better numbers in HS/College than they do anywhere else.

If we acquirred a submariner, He would instantly become my second favorite player on this team.

I fucking love them

If only...

You could throw a knuckleball submarine. I think the pure awesomeness would cause a black hole.

Sidi - June 9, 2009 reply

Only if you could make a face like you are throwing out your asshole every time you do it.

Left-handed.

Or switch pitching with one of those six fingered gloves.

The universe would end. There woule be nothing left to do.

What about a sidearm knuckleballer Japanese schoolgirl?

Her name is Eri Yoshida.

This isn't 4Chan...

I don’t even want to imagine the effect of that comment.

Sidi - June 9, 2009 reply

I fail to see what my comment has in common with 4chan.

It has been done by Dan Quisenberry.

Sec 108 - June 10, 2009 reply

So Stassi and Bailey are both still available aren't they?

Yep and there's gotta be a reason, too

Probably because they'll be tough signs at this point

And you’d have to go way over slot if you want to sign either. And if you don’t sign them, you don’t get compensation in the 2010 draft.

Bingo

Churchill has been adamant that Bailey wants to sign. I think him dropping has more to

do with the surgery than contract demands. Stassi is definately related to money.

Churchill says a lot of things.

Oh, Morrow is starting again

Draft Day just got a whole lot better.

Whoa, what?

Oh my God are you serious?

Best news I’ve gotten in weeks

Link to wherever you read this please

Here

Linky

WOOOOOOO!

heh

.Taylor - June 9, 2009 reply

So the conspiracy theory was true!

Poochie - June 9, 2009 reply

What the hell?

That guy can’t make up his mind for anything. Next he’ll be playing shortstop.

His diabetes is eating his brain

4\ itchy. tasty.

joof - June 10, 2009 reply

If he worked at it he could probably be an improvement over Yuni

At least he's doing the right thing now, that's what counts

I'd be cool with that at this point

Suddenly, I no longer feel tempted to pour packets of sugar over my (soon to be owned) Brandon Morrow bobblehead.

Morrow can still go to hell for all I care

You're very salty today

HOLY SHIT POYTHRESS YESS!!!!!!!

At 51, he’s easily the best pick of the draft for the M’s. Yeah, yeah, Ackley, whatever. I’ve wanted Poythress for awhile, and thought it would be a pipe dream to see him at 33. AWESOME!!!

PositivePaul - June 9, 2009 reply

I let out a primal scream when we picked him at 51

I did so, too, a few hours later when I heard...

Got wind of it from Churchill since I was still loading the draft boards, and I thought he was shitting with me. He knows how much I liked Poythress, and I honestly thought he was deliberately trying to mess with my brain. Then I pulled up the draft board and screamed like mad.

Heh – you guys here are flipping so much unwarranted crap at Churchill that even I’M leery of trusting him…

PositivePaul - June 9, 2009 reply

Generally it's not unwarranted when he has a history of being wrong

So no pitching today, but damn if GMZ didn't do some restocking of the offense.

Any thoughts on Poythress? I realize he’s a good hitter, but isn’t he slightly redundant in the system?

abender20 - June 9, 2009 reply

How much better is Poythress than Carp/Raben

abender20 - June 9, 2009 reply

Poythress=90% LaPorta

So I guess Shelton, Nelson, and LaHair can go get fucked

abender20 - June 9, 2009 reply

90% LaPorta meaning he's 10% worse?

Or are you just saying that they’re very similar?

DAMellen - June 9, 2009 reply

Dave thinks we're gonna trade him

Well, he considers it a possibility...

Not that we’re going to actually pull the string…

PositivePaul - June 9, 2009 reply

So What is everybody's grade for each AL West Draft?

Texas A – Hard to complain about Purke and Scheppers, Mendoca is intersting and Erlin is another small lefty that fits the pattern for them every year (Kiker, Ross and now Elrin)

Seatle B+ – ACKLEY… Poythress and Seager I really like, Franklin I am “Meh” on and Barron is a pick I wish the Marines could redo… Nice overall start to the first day though.

Oak B – Not a lot to work with for Oakland, but I like Green at 13 and Marks in the 3rd. Not spectacular but a nice solid set of picks

LAAAA B -How can you have so many picks and have such an up and down first day? Really like Skaggs and Trout, concerned over Grichuck and think they over drafted on several of their picks…

laxtonto - June 9, 2009 reply

Texas kicked ass. I give the M's a B-.

I like Ackley, Pothyress, and Franklin but can’t get over the fact we took Baron at #33 and didn’t land any arms to add to the system. If we had just gone slot at #33 I would be very pleased with this draft.