MLB Draft: 2016 Draft Winners and Losers
Which Teams Came Away From the 2016 MLB Draft as Draft Weekend Winners, Who Came Away As Winners, And, Well, How Do We Label the Cardinals?
After three days and forty rounds of drafting, many people are looking at the 1,216 names selected and experiencing a bit of brain overload. Heck, most of these guys will never even sniff the major leagues, so why get too worked up about the draft, right?
Well, we’ve seen that working the draft (and not just the first round) is something that allows a team to be successful in the long-term, and being able to afford those long-term players is vital for teams. We’ll take a look at four teams I’m going to classify as “winners” from the weekend and four teams that I’m classifying as “losers” on the weekend.
That doesn’t mean that the winners did everything right and will have 30 major leaguers out of their draft, but they used a good player selection strategy. Likewise, the losers aren’t guaranteed to fail, but in my view, their approach to this draft was not as successful as it could have been for a number of reasons.
Lastly, we’ll take a look at the St. Louis Cardinals, who don’t fit in either end. They’re their own enigma in this year’s draft, and we’ll discuss that more in the final slide.
The teams are ordered alphabetically by their team name, not in any particular ranking order.
Enjoy!
Next: Winners
Winners
Atlanta Braves
The Braves shocked many with the selection of Ian Anderson, but then Baseball America’s Hudson Belinski reported that Anderson’s last two starts of his high school season, if they’d have been when expected in mid-May (delayed due to weather issues during the season), he’d have been in the top 5 discussion for anyone and everyone. The combination of the three high school arms they got at 3/40/44 is tremendous value, though many Braves fans are likely wishing for some power.
On day 2, they did grab some intriguing players before really having a big day 3, and they’ve already signed their top selection of the third day, Matt Rowland. The “fun” pick was the son of coach Eddie Perez, a 6’7, 260-pound catcher, Andres Perez.
Milwaukee Brewers
The Brewers may find themselves not signing a number of guys, but I love their approach, as they truly did go with the best player on their board at each selection. They got a big steal in my eyes by grabbing Corbin Burnes in the 4th round. I had him mocked many times in the 1st round, and he had a couple poor starts to end his season that took his stock down that much, which should benefit the Brewers.
The Brewers really shone on day 3 as well, drafting two of my absolute favorite guys on the board heading into day 3, high school infielder Chad McClanahan and JuCo outfielder Zach Clark. They also picked high school righty Jared Horn, who was projected as a first rounder. Signing all these guys may be impossible, but they at least gave themselves that shot by making the selection!
San Francisco Giants
The Giants didn’t select until the 59th selection, so to expect to get a first-round value would have been outlandish. Instead, they got TWO! The Giants went hard after college talent, selecting highly regarded outfielders Bryan Reynolds from Vanderbilt and small school Heath Quinn of Samford. They also grabbed one of the biggest power bats in college in Gio Brusa of Pacific.
Then they came into their third day and just made everyone else look silly. They grabbed multiple projection players and then rolled the dice on a number of players, most notably Duke commit New Jersey prep lefty Adam Laskey, who some had thought could work his way into the first round as late as Memorial Day. Pretty solid for no first round selection!
Cleveland Indians
The Indians were picking at 14, and they surprised many who were connecting them to Pennsylvania prep outfielder Alex Kirilloff by selecting Georgia prep outfielder Will Benson. They then grabbed highly-touted Pennsylvania prep infielder Nolan Jones, and snagged Oregon State catcher Logan Ice, a high-rising catcher with the 72nd selection.
In the second day, they continued going after solid high school bats, picking outfielder Conner Capel and infielder Ulysses Cantu. The guy that caught my eye in day 3 for the Indians was not a high school guy, but a college player, pitcher Wil Crowe of South Carolina, a big-armed starter who missed all of 2016 and may require a big number to pull away from school, but the Indians at least gave themselves that opportunity to get a big arm into their system.
Next: Losers
Losers
Miami Marlins
While I have no issues with the Marlins top pick, Braxton Garrett, I am more than underwhelmed with their rest of their draft. I like Thomas Jones a lot, but I wonder how signable he’ll be in the 3rd round, which could make this a wasted pick. After taking few signability issues outside of Jones, they spent all of day 3 on college players rather than taking any risk with high school players, and the Marlins system desperately needs the upside of some high school kids.
New York Mets
The Mets have a system stacked with pitching and desperate for bats. They had an opportunity at 19 to select a bat they were tied to for quite some time in Will Craig, yet they chose to go with a college pitcher. Then they selected yet another college pitcher at pick 31. In fact, the Mets did not select a single high school player until round 11.
The worst part of all of it is that including the college and high school bats altogether, by far the guy I like best they drafted as a future hitter for their organization was Carlos Cortes, but as a 20th round selection, I’m not sure that they’ll be able to pay him enough to get him away from college.
San Diego Padres
One of my favorite parts of doing my mock drafts was taking a look at what the Padres could do. Their three picks in the first 25 selections and five picks in the first 85 selections gave them a ton of financial leverage. Then, they drafted an injured pitcher, overdrafted a high school shortstop that should have been way under slot at that spot, and picked a college pitcher that likely will go for slot or less at their first three picks.
The Padres did at least attempt to add talent, but they did it with guys who were falling, guys who likely will want more than the money they’ll have to give. They did go heavy after high schoolers in the third day, including a personal favorite in prep outfielder Hunter Bishop, so perhaps they read some of the criticism in their first two days and cut loose a bit!
Texas Rangers
The Rangers did go for high school pitching, and they wanted to go for high ceiling. I get the method, but I struggle with who they utilized the method on. Cole Ragans is more of a pitchability lefty, and Alex Speas has a big arm and no idea where it’s going. Those are your first two selections. High upside is great, but you want to have SOME floor behind it, especially when it’s available on the board.
I will note that they did go for a number of good options on day 3, albeit perhaps not the guys I’d have selected, but I at least understand the method with their day 3 guys. I’m just worried their two first guys will eat a lot of money while not giving them the production similarly priced guys could have in that same selection slot.
Next: How To View The Cardinals
The Cardinals Draft
The Cardinals got a ton of talent on draft day. They did what the Cardinals do, grabbing guys that are under valued, snagging players throughout the second day that were making people shake their head and just exclaim, “of course, the Cardinals!”
The Cardinals had 3 selections in the first 34 – 23, 33, and 34. They grabbed two of the best college pitchers in the nation, Dakota Hudson and Connor Jones, at picks 34 and 70, which is great value. They drafted injured Wichita State pitcher Sam Tewes, a likely 1st/2nd round pitcher before his injury, in the 8th round.
They did grab a number of “Cardinals type” of players in Minnesota oufielder Matt Fiedler, USC Jeremy Martinez, and North Carolina State C/3B Andrew Knizner in the second day.
Why do the Cardinals find themselves in this spot? Their selection at pick #23 – Delvin Perez, prep shortstop from Puerto Rico. Perez failed a PED test before the draft, and many felt that it was a poor message for Perez to go in the first round at all, let alone to a successful organization like the Cardinals.
Of course, this has led to some tremendous moments on Twitter, and if you follow the “Baseball’s Best Fans” Twitter account, you’ll see some of the outlandish ways that Cardinals fans have attempted to downplay the PED issue of Perez. It’s still a present issue, however, and that’s a big issue to me, so I could not in good conscience, no matter how much I liked the rest of what they did, put the Cardinals in the winner category.
Next: Coverage of Rounds 1 and 2 of the MLB Draft
So what do you think? Do you believe different teams should rank in my list? Do you disagree with my assessments? Comment below and join in the discussion!