Ackley, Miller, Turner and Crow

by Chad Bahamas on May 14, 2009 2:27 PM EDT

ESPN had a write up today on which teams were interested in which players at the top of this June's draft. They mentioned the 4 guys above. The thing that surprises me is that Miller and Turner are both high school pitchers. Personally, I'd prefer a college player or an HS position player. Aren't the results for top 10 high school pitchers absurdly poor?

Here's the link: http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=4166499&name=mlb_draft

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of the managing editor (Charlie) or SB Nation. FanPosts are written by Bucs Dugout readers.

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In generalities, the fail rate on HS SP is higher than some areas.

But it does depend greatly on the pitcher. I’d take a HS SP over a college arm from Rice, for example, since Rice’s coach is a known arm-shredder, who thinks nothing of having his guys go 150+ pitches.

by Vlad on May 14, 2009 2:54 PM EDT reply actions

why aren't there rules against this kind of thing?

…since Rice’s coach is a known arm-shredder, who thinks nothing of having his guys go 150+ pitches.

not yelling at you Vlad, just curious if anyone knows offhand why this kind of thing isn’t banned by the NCAA.

by gonfalon on May 14, 2009 3:44 PM EDT up reply actions

Well, what could they do?

Telling coaches how to coach during games is a can of worms that they probably don’t want to open – it could have all kinds of unintended consequences.

The record of first-round pitchers from Rice under Wayne Graham kind of speaks for itself, though. Matt Anderson, Kenny Baugh, Jon Skaggs, David Aardsma, Philip Humber, Wade Townsend, Jeff Niemann, and Joe Savery. There are only two guys on that list who didn’t end up having major arm surgery: Aardsma, who was a reliever, and Savery, who was chosen in ’07 (and thus still has plenty of time to get hurt). Some of those guys worked like mules, too – Baugh had a 171-pitch game at one point, just to cite one example.

I should also note that Graham is supposedly not as bad about workload these days as he once was, although after the Humber-Townsend-Niemann triple wipeout I kind of averted my eyes.

by Vlad on May 14, 2009 4:08 PM EDT up reply actions

The track record with HS pitchers isn’t nearly as bad as the track record with college pitchers taken in the top five. I say “no” to college pitchers in round one.

by WTM on May 14, 2009 4:31 PM EDT reply actions

Hmmm, would that exclude Crow then too? I can’t pretend I know anything about these guys other than what I’ve read on various places around the internets, so as long at the NH and the crew can sell me that they selected the best player available, I’m fine with that. Pitchers scare me in general, but high school pitchers have entrenched the skepticism in my head. I guess that’s hard to get out.

I know I started this post discussing our pick at #4. I’m most interested in how the team does in its later picks. I doubt we’ll be signing some one for what we paid Pedro last year since there seems to be no one of his pedigree at #4. That means we’ll have more $$$$ to play with in later picks. I hope we sign more Robbie Grossmans and Quentin Millers than last year if possible.

by Chad Bahamas on May 15, 2009 12:05 AM EDT up reply actions

Unless ...

we give the 16 year old Dominican, Sano, the $4 million (or more) that his agent is looking for.

That could be a major mistake, but it will certainly gain some notoriety for the Pirates.

by thegunner on May 15, 2009 1:21 AM EDT up reply actions

Whether Sano fails or not, the Bucs are doing the right thing by taking chances on high upside guys. The only thing that would bother me about spending $4 million on Sano is if they use that as an excuse to not to pursue anyone like Grossman or Miller in the later rounds of this year’s draft.

by Chad Bahamas on May 15, 2009 11:02 AM EDT up reply actions