As we start to move down the list of draft order, we're starting to come across teams that have had some playoff appearances. Burlington is one of those teams. Consistently a 90+ win team under current ownership, Burlington fell to a .500 record last season, but has righted the ship this season and is squarely in the playoff hunt once again. Let's take a look and see how Burlington did in trying to add some players to their farm system.
1st rounder William Perez remains unsigned, and is reportedly demanding a bonus around $7mil. Since cutbacks to Gazette budgets have impacted our ability to view all prospects, Perez is one of those I just don't have much information on. We're hoping that maybe someone who has seen a little of Mr Perez may be able to comment, but for $7mil he better be darn good to demand that kind of money. Little wonder why he's gone unsigned.
In the 2nd of their 3 first round picks, Burlington picked up Daric Lowery. Here we find one of the truly great defensive SS prospects in the draft. Lowery has very good, but not great, speed though one would think he'd be better on the bases than he is. Unfortunately, given Lowery's inability to do anything with RH pitching, his future is most likely a platoon mate (as he does show at least some ability against lefties) or a super sub defensive specialist. Considering the lack of talent in the draft, Lowery wasn't a bad choice, though typically teams hope to do better here.
The third of the #1's for Burlington: Max Ingram (also) remains unsigned. He's a solid enough reliever prospect in that he can generate groundballs like nobody's business using his plus fastball and above average curve, but for a reported demand of $5.5mil it isn't hard to see why he remains unsigned.
2nd rounder B.C. Hernandez has a devastating fastball that has late movement and backs it with an above average slider that allows his already impressive velocity to play up when facing lefty batters. He is a very good LOOGY candidate.
3rd rounder Oscar Beckett is a very interesting pick that may go largely unappreciated. Has an ability to play RF on a spot-start basis, he probably ultimately projects as a LF who would have a very good arm for that position. Oscar comes out of HS, but already shows an advanced ability to control the bat, and should develop a solid batting eye to go with what could be an incredible ability to make contact with the baseball. Insanely fast, Oscar is already a good baserunner, and may develop into one of the best baserunners in all of Cobbfather by the time he's done cooking in the minors. At the very least Beckett should be a valuable bench player but maybe can develop into more. The definition of a sleeper. This was a very good 3rd round choice.
When a team doesn't sign 2 of 3 1st round choices, that usually leaves the organization with a pitiful draft. Burlington managed a C for its score largely on the quality of the specialists they drafted in rounds 2 and 3. Better 1st round results would have resulted in one of the better drafts this season, as it is Burlington still did ok.