DonYon wrote:Schadenfreude wrote:Something else that I'd forgotten...because three players failed to sign last year, we could be picking as low as 21st in the first round if we outplay the Cards.
upshot is that it looks like a deep draft, so there'll be talent available. The downside is also that it looks like a good draft, and unless you get bonus sliders (and the team is willing to pay a high price for one guy) our last ten games might have dropped us 6-8 slots, out of a position where we would have a greater range of top talent from which to choose.
But I would assume that in baseball picking early or late isn't really a big deal right? especially when we've seen so many top picks barely even make the big leagues and we also see so many late round picks go on to become hall of fame players. This isn't like the NBA where it's very rare to find decent talent outside the top 20 pick. Besides, some 1st round talents always seem to drop down because of signability questions and whatnot.
Getting a good MLB player in the first round is difficult, much less anywhere else. A top 5 pick helps because a team will be choosing from the best crop of talent, but really once you go into the 15-30 range, it is a crapshoot. Some times you hit, some times you miss. The good (or bad depending on your view) thing in baseball is players slip due to signability, so if the Jays are ready to shell out money, then they'll be able to get someone in that mold.
This was the year we were supposed to stink, and we didn't. I don't think we will ever be in the position the Rays were in for 10+ years, unless we encounter again 2004 type year which was clearly an outlier for the Jays (who love to finish in the 80-85 win range).