Podcast: 2011 MLB Amateur Draft Preview
Awful command could be Kevin Gregg’s undoing as the O’s closer.
On Sunday night, Rich Wilson, Tony Cincotta and I took the opportunity to talk some baseball on the FantasyPros911 Show over on Blogtalkradio. In this show, with the impending amateur draft, we deviated from our normal schedule and went with an expanded 1.5-hour show.
It simply wouldn’t be another Sunday if there wasn’t a discussion about the closer situation in baseball. It looks like the promotion of Aaron Crow in Kansas City could be a very short-lived one based on Ned Yost’s recent comments. Who will be the next closer to fall by the wayside this year and who is the likely benefactor? Kevin Gregg of the Orioles has to be near the top of the list of closers that could be removed from their post.
The topic of FAAB is always an interesting one and we took a few minutes to review some of the strategies that can be employed to successfully utilize this player acquisition process. There are no simple hard and fast rules when approaching FAAB, but we took some time to review some of our personal thoughts and strategies.
We then took a look at some players that could be falling through the cracks. Allen Craig and Jon Jay are making the best of their situations in St. Louis. Is Carlos Villanueva, who is currently sporting a 2.72 ERA and 0.98 WHIP, a viable option at this time? Zach Duke has now had two starts for the D-Backs with mixed results. Rubby De La Rosa has moved into the starting rotation in Los Angeles and is scheduled to make two starts this week, opposing Roy Oswalt and the Phillies and Ubaldo Jimenez of Colorado. Is Matt Joyce for real? He’s posting some great numbers for the Rays this season, but are they sustainable?
In our two-start pitcher segment we reviewed Josh Tomlin, John Lannan, Felipe Paulino and, surprisingly, Jon Lester of the Red Sox. Lester has fallen upon tough times lately and is going up against the Yankees and Jays this week — far from an easy task.
If you’ve taken the opportunity to review the early All-Star Game voting results, you must be left wondering if there are computers outside of New York. The Yankees currently have six of the eight starting positions filled with the only exceptions being Josh Hamilton and Jose Bautista. In a game that “counts” and with homefield advantage in the World Series on the line, are these early results an indication that it’s time to revisit this entire process?
In the final half hour of the show we discussed the 2011 Amateur Draft, which begins Monday. First off, we took a few minutes to review the 2005 Draft, considered by many to be one of the most productive drafts ever (even with the bust that was Jeff Clement). The first round picks from 2005 represent a who’s who of some of the top stars in the game today. Moving forward we reviewed some of the potential top picks for this year. Gerritt Cole, Trevor Bauer, Danny Hultzen and Anthony Rendon all have to be near the top of this year’s wish lists.
As always a fun time was had by all and a very active chatroom only added to the festivities. The show can be heard in its entirety by clicking the play button below.
[podcast]https://rotorob.com/podcasts/Baseball_Podcast_JUN0511.mp3[/podcast]
