We conclude our draft coverage with a review of the NL South, featuring a heated rivalry between Jackson and Memphis, and two up and coming teams in San Juan and Charleston. Let's see who came out on top in the draft.
NL SOUTH
Charleston Chew
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Charleston Chew selected RP Wilt Gaetti with the 17th pick. Gaetti has superb durability, to go with excellent control, splits, and 2 great pitches. His downside is velocity is average, and he tends to leave the ball up in the zone. Gaetti looks to have closer type stuff, however, if he can hit or come close to his projects. Charleston went relief in round 2 again with Matt Heving. Heving has great pitches and RH split, but there’s a concern with his control. He may be a setup B guy in the bigs, which isn’t bad for a 2nd rounder. 4th rounder RP Lew Lawrence looks to be better than Heving. He dropped in the draft due to being a signing risk, but Charleston had the dough to lure him to the S.C. He’s a risk that paid off. They continued going pitching through round 17. We liked 7th rounder Irv Overbay, who’s short on stamina, but otherwise looks good, and could be a situational short inning reliever in the majors.
Final Analysis: Looks like they got some good bullpen arms, but it would have been nice to see a quality player or two taken at a different position.
Grade: B
Jackson Rockets
Jackson didn’t have a first rounder, their second rounder, SP Malcolm Mahoney, seems unlikely to sign, their third rounder is an RP that has less control than Mitch Williams, and their fourth rounder, another RP, while probably their best pick that signed, has extremely low durability and stamina, and probably will either have to pitch one batter per game, or only pitch once every 7 games. It’s hard not to call this draft a bust.
Final Analysis: Bad draft for Jackson. Not sure if it could have turned out worse.
Grade: F
Memphis Mayhem
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First rounder Anthony Spivey is a workhorse with excellent control, velocity and ability to keep the ball down. His splits are only average, and his pitch quality isn’t great, but considering they picked 32nd, Memphis got good value here. Supp round pick Zip Williams packs a lot of zip in his swing, as he can crush the ball, but his weak batting eye and mediocre splits will ensure that his barrage of HR’s comes with a lot of strikeouts and a low batting average, if he makes the majors. They had a 2nd supp round pick OF Logan Hayes, who’s pretty mediocre across the board, and his upside is as a major league backup, if that. They got a speedy, defensive 2B/CF type with their first 2nd rounder, but he looks weak at the plate. They rebounded picking up Luis Tavarez with their 2nd pick in round 2, he looks like he could make the majors as a long reliever. After that, the highlights were getting a decent reliever, and a defensive wizard at SS.
Final Analysis: Interesting draft, they got a nice first rounder, and then we thought they could have got more with their next 3 picks, but then had some good value picks after that.
Grade: C
San Juan Chinchillas
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San Juan got speedy RF Bryce Rizzo with the 16th overall pick. He has elite speed, and could steal a ton of bases, and has outstanding splits. On the downside, his batting eye isn’t major league quality, and his contact and power are average at best. All in all, this guy probably isn’t worthy of the 16th pick in the draft, we would have seen them get a little better value here. They had a 2nd first rounder at got Jim Purcell, a 3B who can mash the ball and has very good contact. His splits and batting eye are only average, but he should still be a decent major leaguer. They got another power bat in round 2 with Willie Gutierrez, who is basically a clone of Purcell, minus the great contact. 3rd rounder 1B Lou Newson was a nice value pick, he’s a pretty good hitter for a 3rd rounder. After that, they loaded up on minor league pitchers.
Final Analysis: Another interesting draft. Not doing backflips on the Rizzo pick, but they did get a few pretty good hitters after that.
Grade: B-
Well, that concludes coverage of this year's draft. We hope you enjoyed reading the recaps. Good luck with your draft picks, and with the rest of the season!