Official pre-Draft thread

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Ted

12:14 I watched Austin Beck's videos for the first time today. Am I wrong for being concerned about his swing and miss when he swings so hard?

Eric A Longenhagen

12:15 Nope, you're on it. Scouts are concerned about the swing and miss, too. In fact, he was a guy I was told, by multiple sources, to move down the board after it went live. Huge tools, though. Still think he goes top 12 picks.
 
Enscheff said:
Ted
12:14 I watched Austin Beck's videos for the first time today. Am I wrong for being concerned about his swing and miss when he swings so hard?

Eric A Longenhagen
12:15 Nope, you're on it. Scouts are concerned about the swing and miss, too. In fact, he was a guy I was told, by multiple sources, to move down the board after it went live. Huge tools, though. Still think he goes top 12 picks.
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Please. Not another Cody Johnson.
 
Enscheff said:
Ted
12:14 I watched Austin Beck's videos for the first time today. Am I wrong for being concerned about his swing and miss when he swings so hard?

Eric A Longenhagen
12:15 Nope, you're on it. Scouts are concerned about the swing and miss, too. In fact, he was a guy I was told, by multiple sources, to move down the board after it went live. Huge tools, though. Still think he goes top 12 picks.
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Yeah, there are some concerns there, and with Adell, too. I'd be totally fine taking the gamble on either one.
 
Enscheff said:
"Best" with respect to floor vs ceiling...not posi-Braves spin.

But I get it, you drank the koolaid and think Anderson was BPA. Nobody unaffiliated with the Braves agrees with you.
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No, I get it, anytime someone disagrees with you they are a posi-brave.

My point was you latched onto silly rankings in the summer and don't acknowledge the reports that Anderson was rising up draft boards prior to the draft.

As you said, people move up and down draft boards, it isn't static.
 
http://www.minorleagueball.com/2017...b-draft-austin-beck-of-arcadia-north-carolina

In early March I was talking on the phone with an employee of a major league team, gathering the latest information on his farm system. We were talking about what he saw in instructional league when my contact suddenly changed the subject to the 2017 draft, or rather, to one particular player from the 2017 draft.

“Hey, have you ever heard of Austin Beck? This guy is going to be a monster. A monster. There’s your tip for the day. Austin Beck.”

The extremely respected David Rawnsley at Perfect Game is not a person who falls victim to hype, yet he had this to say about Beck:

“. . .the most impressive thing about Beck when I saw him was his bat and offensive profile. His hitting approach is outstanding, with a balanced set up and directional stride at the plate, ideal hand position with a calm and relaxed load and as good of lower half torque and whip as this scout has seen in a long time. The raw bat speed is extreme, absolute highest level. . .Beck hits to all fields due to his balance and ability to wait on the ball and very consistently squares the ball up.”

WEAKNESSES

Beck isn’t showing many weaknesses this spring.

The main uncertainty revolves around competition: he isn’t facing the best available right now during the high school regular season, and the 2016 injury cost him the opportunity to show what he could do against his top peers last summer. That’s not his fault, but it is an important factor when projecting his future. Yet it isn’t stopping the hype.

Back to Rawnsley:

The popular comparison in the scouting community for North Carolina's fast-rising outfielder Austin Beck has been Mike Trout, which this scout has heard three different times in the last few weeks. It seemed a bit presumptuous to compare an 18-year old who has a short a resume as Beck to the game's best player, to be honest, but after seeing Beck play in person in late March this scout began to understand where those scouts were coming from.
 
LOL, yes, Beck will be Mike Trout, the best player of our generation and one of the all-time greats.

Unless the Braves pass on him, at which point the posi-Braves will say he is nothing special and much worse than whoever the Braves took.
 
If 90-92 velocity bothers you there isn't any use in picking any pitchers this year except possibly green.

They all seem to sit in low 90s with ability to flash 96.
 
Preacher said:
No, I get it, anytime someone disagrees with you they are a posi-brave.

My point was you latched onto silly rankings in the summer and don't acknowledge the reports that Anderson was rising up draft boards prior to the draft.

As you said, people move up and down draft boards, it isn't static.
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Wrong. A posi-Brave is someone who thinks Anderson was BPA because the Braves told them he was BPA. Even though they can't find a simple source that isn't affiliated with the Braves claim he was BPA, posi-Braves cling to it like it's a "fact" from the Bible.
 
Southcack77 said:
If 90-92 velocity bothers you there isn't any use in picking any pitchers this year except possibly green.

They all seem to sit in low 90s with ability to flash 96.
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So a HS pitcher sitting 90-92 is the same as a college pitcher sitting 90-92? You don't think the HS pitcher is much more projectable and more likely to add velocity? You don't think an 18 year old throwing 90-92 is more impressive than a 21 year old throwing that hard?
 
Enscheff said:
LOL, yes, Beck will be Mike Trout, the best player of our generation and one of the all-time greats.

Unless the Braves pass on him, at which point the posi-Braves will say he is nothing special and much worse than whoever the Braves took.
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Anyone who says 'Austin Beck might be Mike Trout' is obviously a moron.

But all he posted was quotes from PG, which is a pretty well-respected site. I guess Perfect Game is now a posi-Brave.
 
Enscheff said:
Wrong. A posi-Brave is someone who thinks Anderson was BPA because the Braves told them he was BPA. Even though they can't find a simple source that isn't affiliated with the Braves claim he was BPA, posi-Braves cling to it like it's a "fact" from the Bible.
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What source are you using to determine that he wasn't? Signing bonus? That's a data point sure, but that's far from perfect.

I've never said I think Anderson was BPA because the Braves said so, every team in every sport always says 'WE GOT OUR GUY' after the draft, so drop that nonsense; that's just something you like to say to people when you troll.

Two things, I don't think its usually really clear who the absolute BPA guy is in a draft, especially one like last year with a ton of guys that all had some type of question marks, there was no Harper last year, there was no definite 'BPA' at #3 in the eyes of most people. I think there was a small group of players, who all had the talent and upside to be reasonably considered BPA depending on what the team was looking for, I think Anderson was in that group. Has nothing to do with what the Braves said.

Just look at Anderson and the players picked after him.

BaseballAmerica has 60s on his fastball and change, a 55 on his curve and a 55 on his control. Those grades match up just fine with ANY pitcher in the draft last year, maybe you prefer Pint/Puk and their 70+ fastball, but that also comes with a 45 grade control.

If you look at Anderson compared to the 6 pitchers picked after him (Pint, Puk, Manning, Quantrill, Groome, Garrett, Manning) Anderson and Garrett are the only two pitchers with better than 50 grade control and BA thinks higher of Anderson's fastball/changeup combo.

Just look at how scouts grade these pitchers out, look at their performance to date, try to forget that you saw a random list in the summer that didn't have Ian Anderson as a top-15 pick.

Certainly the fact that the Braves saved money was a factor here, but its also possible they got one of the guys they considered BPA in that slot while ALSO saving money.
 
Enscheff said:
So a HS pitcher sitting 90-92 is the same as a college pitcher sitting 90-92? You don't think the HS pitcher is much more projectable and more likely to add velocity? You don't think an 18 year old throwing 90-92 is more impressive than a 21 year old throwing that hard?
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You don't necessarily seem to buy that with Anderson.
 
Preacher said:
What source are you using to determine that he wasn't? Signing bonus? That's a data point sure, but that's far from perfect.

I've never said I think Anderson was BPA because the Braves said so, every team in every sport always says 'WE GOT OUR GUY' after the draft, so drop that nonsense; that's just something you like to say to people when you troll.

Two things, I don't think its usually really clear who the absolute BPA guy is in a draft, especially one like last year with a ton of guys that all had some type of question marks, there was no Harper last year, there was no definite 'BPA' at #3 in the eyes of most people. I think there was a small group of players, who all had the talent and upside to be reasonably considered BPA depending on what the team was looking for, I think Anderson was in that group. Has nothing to do with what the Braves said.

Just look at Anderson and the players picked after him.

BaseballAmerica has 60s on his fastball and change, a 55 on his curve and a 55 on his control. Those grades match up just fine with ANY pitcher in the draft last year, maybe you prefer Pint/Puk and their 70+ fastball, but that also comes with a 45 grade control.

If you look at Anderson compared to the 6 pitchers picked after him (Pint, Puk, Manning, Quantrill, Groome, Garrett, Manning) Anderson and Garrett are the only two pitchers with better than 50 grade control and BA thinks higher of Anderson's fastball/changeup combo.

Just look at how scouts grade these pitchers out, look at their performance to date, try to forget that you saw a random list in the summer that didn't have Ian Anderson as a top-15 pick.

Certainly the fact that the Braves saved money was a factor here, but its also possible they got one of the guys they considered BPA in that slot while ALSO saving money.
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Also most of the players the braves could have picked signed for less than four million so there is no guarantee that they actually saved a great deal of money on Anderson.

Maybe they did, maybe they didn't.

We do know that the media members who compile draft lists valued/value the big fastball guys higher than Anderson though it's unclear if that will hold in the mid season amendments.

I can see the argument for valuing the best single pitch above a package and that was where I leaned before the draft. But I'm not going to fuss about it because it doesn't really matter what I think about it and these guys are all relatively likely to bust anyway.

Also Anderson has been great.
 
Imagine my surprise when I discovered we were going to re-draft the 2016 class all over again before we start with 2017.
 
Preacher said:
What source are you using to determine that he wasn't? Signing bonus? That's a data point sure, but that's far from perfect.

I've never said I think Anderson was BPA because the Braves said so, every team in every sport always says 'WE GOT OUR GUY' after the draft, so drop that nonsense; that's just something you like to say to people when you troll.

Two things, I don't think its usually really clear who the absolute BPA guy is in a draft, especially one like last year with a ton of guys that all had some type of question marks, there was no Harper last year, there was no definite 'BPA' at #3 in the eyes of most people. I think there was a small group of players, who all had the talent and upside to be reasonably considered BPA depending on what the team was looking for, I think Anderson was in that group. Has nothing to do with what the Braves said.

Just look at Anderson and the players picked after him.

BaseballAmerica has 60s on his fastball and change, a 55 on his curve and a 55 on his control. Those grades match up just fine with ANY pitcher in the draft last year, maybe you prefer Pint/Puk and their 70+ fastball, but that also comes with a 45 grade control.

If you look at Anderson compared to the 6 pitchers picked after him (Pint, Puk, Manning, Quantrill, Groome, Garrett, Manning) Anderson and Garrett are the only two pitchers with better than 50 grade control and BA thinks higher of Anderson's fastball/changeup combo.

Just look at how scouts grade these pitchers out, look at their performance to date, try to forget that you saw a random list in the summer that didn't have Ian Anderson as a top-15 pick.

Certainly the fact that the Braves saved money was a factor here, but its also possible they got one of the guys they considered BPA in that slot while ALSO saving money.
Click to expand...

They took the best player that would allow them to also afford Wentz and Muller. That is a perfectly acceptable draft strategy, and perhaps the best strategy to use considering the talent available and the position the Braves were in.

However, Anderson was not BPA at #3 (the B stands for "best", and by definition, there is only one).

I have no issue with what the Braves did in the draft overall (even though I would have preferred Lewis), but posi-Braves that insist on calling Anderson BPA at #3 are wrong, period. Literally nobody unaffiliated with the Braves agrees with the argument he was BPA. Nobody. Anywhere. Ever.

For some reason, the posi-Braves throw a tantrum any time someone mentions Anderson wasn't BPA as if it means we think he is nothing more than org filler, and they start foaming at the mouth while they attempt to prove that he was despite all evidence pointing to the contrary. Just because a guy wasn't BPA doesn't make him a bad prospect...it doesn't mean he won't be a good player...it just means he wasn't BPA at the time.
 
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