After 4 straight playoff appearances in the first 4 seasons of Cobbfather and 5 straight winning seasons, Austin finds itself in the second season of rebuilding. A very solid owner who is the only one Austin has known, we believe it won't be long before he has Austin back in the playoff mix. Let's see how the rebuilding effort was impacted with the Season 7 draft for Austin.
1st rounder Mike Worthington has good speed and is pretty good on the basepaths, though with his speed it's a bit of a surprise he isn't more dangerous on the bases. Of course, with his power potential, he may not have to use much speed to get around the bases. Can hit righties or lefties, though he does struggle from time to time to make contact. All in all though, this was a very solid pick up.
2nd rounder Ben Casian is a good fielding LF prospect who can really make good contact against LH pitching. Not a bad contact hitter, but not a great one either. Does have some power, but not a HR hitter by any means. Very smart baserunner. Casian is just one of those glue guys who every team needs and as mentioned before he does show some ability to potentially be very tough on left handed pitching.
3rd round pick Phillip Pillette throws hard. No, real hard. He's a flyball pitcher, but his fastball is so fast and has such good movement that hitters have a hard time making good contact -- especially right handed hitters. Backs that fastball with a solid slurve and curve, and throws a sinker in for good measure from time to time. Throws a change-up, but it isn't very good and lags significantly behind his other pitches. A good pitching coach would probably make him scrap it. Control is the only reason Pillette fell to the third round. He'll never have great control, probably not even good control, but if he can develop enough control to not walk 5 or 6 batters every 9 innings then Pillette might be a pretty decent pitcher. He's got a long way to go yet though.
Austin gets a C+ for their draft, though if Casian and Pillette pan out their draft could turn out better than that grade indicates. Worthington will be a good player for them someday.