After I wrote last Friday’s article about the draft, Jim Callis at Baseball America posted his first mock draft, trying to predict where everyone would go in the first round. Here are his picks from 13-23

13. CLE – Blake Beaven, RHP
14. ATL – Jason Heyward, OF
15. CIN – Kevin Ahrens, SS/3B
16. TOR – Matt Dominguez, 3B
17. TEX – Julio Borbon, OF
18. STL – Matt Wieters, C
19. PHI – Devin Mesoraco, C
20. LAD – Josh Smoker, LHP
21. TOR – Pete Kozma, SS
22. SFG – Casey Weathers, RHP
23. SDP – James Simmons, RHP

Continue reading More draft stuff to ponder →

We’ve started to look at the 2007 draft here, and at about a month away, things will begin to take shape over the next few weeks, with players raising and lowering their respective stock and settling in somewhere on the overall board. Baseball America has updated their draft tracker, and a few guys in our general area have changed spots. Lets see who has moved up and down, who might be within reach, and who has probably moved out of reach.

Continue reading Thinking about the 2007 Draft, Part 2 →

Our good friend JE over at philliesdraft.com has started to do his homework on the upcoming 2007 draft, and he’s prepared his first rough mock draft, looking at who might be available for the Phillies in the first few rounds, as well as taking a look at the organization’s drafting philosophy in past drafts and how we can use that info to predict what will happen this June. This is the first in what I hope will be a number of contributions from Jeff, and next time, I’ll try and get him to write up the report here with his own unique login. For now, check out what he’s got, it’s a great read. I’ll catalog this posting in the “2007 Draft” tag group to the left, and all subsequent posts dealing with the draft will go there as well.

Continue reading 2007 Draft Notebook, 5/4 →

Some various odds and ends on the brain today, so let’s crank through them. First, take a few minutes and head over to the Ottawa Lynx blog and check out the various pictures, and even some video footage of our affiliate north of the border. Second, a bit of troubling news yesterday, as Dan Brauer left after two innings pitched in Clearwater. I’ve looked, no indication yet as to what happened, but let’s hope it isn’t serious. If you hear/find anything, drop me a line. With the addition of new correspondants who will be helping with the weekly reports for each affiliate, I’ll be getting back to writing more feature pieces and profiles. First up is a profile of Jason Jaramillo (hopefully tomorrow), I’d like to also look at Welinson Baez, but after that, I’m open to suggestions. To read all past profiles, check here and if a guy you’d like to see hasn’t been done yet, let me know and I’ll do my best. I’m also planning a piece on minor league park factors, something that I think is of real importance when looking at minor league statistics. But for today, let’s take a look at the upcoming 2007 draft. I’m also pleased to announce that JE at PhilliesDraft.com has agreed to provide some insight on who the Phillies might target, as well as scouting reports on players as we get closer to the draft. Be sure and check out his site for more info than you could ever ask for on past Phillies drafts.

Continue reading Thinking about the 2007 draft →