Thoughts on our draft?

[Quake Griffin]

All i know is i heard Ned talk about drafting well in the later rounds while we were in Colorado.

the 1st 2 picks seem legit.
i dunno anybody after that

[Neddy]

Ned is a walking bull waiting to happen. i trust in logan white and his scouting team. i feel like we took a hyped up anderson who rose up the board quickly towards the end and i don't really see him as a high ceiling guy like zach lee even though anderson is far more polished than lee. everything i read about this kid reminds me too much of billingsley when chad was drafted, with less hype about his command.

i like the second round pick, a big strong lefty who still can improve in simple things, such as his mechanic to add more velocity.

don't like that I'm reading about the 3rd baseman dixon. a defensive player with only 1 year of offensive production. did he just figure it out or was it a fluke?

cody bellinger in 4th round has the same frame, build, and game as james loney. hopefully this kid can figure it out in less times than james have done so far.

michael johnson in 14th round is interesting because he gets by with his intellect than his stuff. great era and wins and losses but those are not as relevant in ivy league competition. but rather pay attention to his BB-SO ratio, SB against vs caught S ratio, all points to this buck 80 6 foot lefty kid from dartmouth a pretty interesting pick in middle rounds.

sam finfer, a high school catcher we got in 29th round, maybe the gem of the draft. the kid had .520 OBP. he didn't show as much power for his 6-2 190 frame, but this is a kid who just got out of high school in days. he will fill up and have at minimum an average power potential. if a catcher can hit 15 HRs per season while getting on base at high rate and be able to play his position, that catcher is going to have a great MLB career. sam could be that guy.

[Quake Griffin]

i liked when we picked up Seager last year and I like how he's coming along. he's going to play a good 3B and hit for us lord willing.

Maybe it's just me but I want more high end position players and more power bats for us down below because we have arms and always have/ will be able to develop arms.

sidenote:
I'm only about 2 years into tracking farm systems...about a year into understanding the baseball GM and player development process....IM CLUELESS...i know how the Dodgers work and i have a pretty good idea of how the Giants, Cards and Rays work.

maybe we'll beef up the position players when through the international.
but until then, it just doesn't seem like there's a 2B below or an SS below....definitely not any that are ready to go.

[Neddy]

you need to acquaint yourself with these names. bill james, rob neyer, and any articles from back in the day about sandy alderson.

i have always been a fan of baseball for nearly 40 years since when i was old enough to grab a little toy bat, but i had an awakening, if you will, when i first came across bill james' books about 15 years ago. i strongly recommend readings of his books, any books. rob neyer used to work for bill way back in the day and he's been doing his own writings and research lately, an excellent baseball mind as well. but contrary to popular belief, the first actual baseball GM to utilize bill james' approach to the game wasn't billy beane, but his predecessor sandy alderson.

have you watched that fictitious movie brad pitt made, which made billy beane look like a holy sage? well that movie "money ball" was loosely based on true events, and greatly modified from the book michael lewis wrote more than 10 years ago, which i still own the original print of, paints some holier than thou picture of billy and makes a geek out of a character named peter brand. well that character, peter brand is also loosely based on a real person named paul depodesta, who did exactly what frank mccourt asked him to do, and became frank's scapegoat prior to the slimeball ned came into power.

anywho, the movie is okay but the book "moneyball" is a good first read on how baseball nowadays is played.
then get to know bill james, my personal hero. you will have then a good understanding of how to look up minor league players and be able to predict with pretty good consistency just what kind of a player he will be.

as far as us historically drafting pitchers heavily early and often in drafts, is because #1 we still play in pitchers park, despite the frank-nized neutered dodgerstadium, #2 because pitchers break down along the minors often that you can never have too much pitching #3 dodger tradition of finding HOF pitchers continue to this day, don
newcombe, don drysdale, sandy koufax, don sutton, fernando, orel, ramon, nomo, to today's clayton, they were all a draftee of the dodgers, not a FA signees. this is who we are. pitching first, pitching second and pitching last franchise who prides ourselves in cy young winners over the years who become immortalized.

BTW seager will be our next ron cey. he will be our everyday 3rd base for the next decade or more.

[Quake Griffin]

can't wait for Seager to come up.

post is noted.
will peep those books.

u know anything about this Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez kid defecting from Cuba?

[Neddy]

do not wish to touch him with a ten foot pole.

he is coming off of a tommyjohn surgery, and not exactly by the top surgeons either. nobody has really seen him pitch in last 2 years. he is a huge gamble.