2011 Draft: Day One LiveBlog
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Tonight’s draft broadcast will begin at 7pm ET on MLB Network (simulcast on MLB.com), and from the looks of things, it’ll last about four hours. A total of 60 picks will be made tonight, covering the first and supplemental first rounds. The Yankees will be making just one pick (51st overall) tonight while the Rays lead the way with nine (!!!). The Tigers are the only team that will not make a pick tonight, their first rounder went to the Red Sox for Victor Martinez. The full draft order can be found here.
Use this to talk about all things draft. The regular nightly open thread can be found here for everything else. Please follow our ground rules and keep your conversations in the appropriate places (same rules as last year, no sense in re-posting them). The next three days will be both hectic and fun, so thanks for helping keep things orderly. Fun starts after the jump…
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The Mason Williams Watch
Keith Law needs to get a new tailor!
Purke and Norris on the board……….they go with a 3B?
Dante Bichette Jr
Let the whining begin by all the know it alls
What.
And suddenly I don’t care what we lost in the Soriano signing. I don’t see how this is BPA but whatever.
BA Ben Badler and MLB Analyst Jon Hart both concur Bichette’s makeup is off the charts
Dante Bichette Sr. is Joe Giardi’s son’s namesake. I wonder if that had anything to do with this pick?
/not really’d
So if Dante Bichette Jr. needs braces … ???
FWIW, Bichette, Jr. was #108 in BA’s Top 200.
This is Girardi’s fault for being best friends with his dad! Fire Girardi!
/internetexpert’d
so what’s the verdict on Jr.?
Can’t tell for sure but seems like an overdraft. not as bad as Culver but there was better talent on the board.
thanks for the insight.
Translation: Yankees messed up again
At least that’s how some fans will see it
Any other team, Culver would be playing somewhere. The time in EST will be great for Culver. Cold waether players are at a disadvantage but the Yankees can be more patient than other teams bringing these guys along.
From the ESPN draft chat:
Kevin Goldstein:
51. Yankees: Dante Bichette, Jr., 3B, Orangewood Christian HS (FL). Kid can hit, even looks like his dad, but does he have other tools?
keithlaw:
I laughed. Jr. didn’t make my top 100 (report: http://es.pn/jJzYLw )RT @jslyuan: Yanks realize it’s not actually Dante Bichette right?
keithlaw:
Wait till you see the hack. RT @Bloogart7: @keithlaw Yikes, just saw footage of Bichette running. Not impressed.
Jim Bowden:
Dante has the bloodlines…power hitter…can hit …..loves the cage….I guess he’s not going to Georgia now….should develop into a below avg LF…but bat and pwr will play….GREAT make-up
So … Jim Bowden liked it!
Make of that what you will …
Here’s a Project Prospect tweet:
Steve Carter
@SteveCarterPP Steve Carter
Pick a day. Any day. Dante Bichette Jr. will have a different swing each day.
Dayum.
You know when a player is drafted on the first day, and they go on, and on about his makeup, they don’t think he has enough of everything else.
Did they say the same thing about Jeter or were there things about him that clearly stood out?
Umm, Jeter was picked #6 and it was rumored that he fell that far becaue of signability.
Jeter was a stud coming out of HS.
Here’s an article highlighting that he probably should have been #1 if the Astros owner would have ponied up $50k.
http://www.baseballamerica.com.....68905.html
Good read
Thanks for clearly that up. I appreciate it
Wasn’t the best player available. Probably wasn’t the best 3B available.
That seems to be their thought process. We don’t care who everyone thinks we should pick we’re going to take who we like
the yankees passed up on 2 left hander and a super good outfielder, to get a 3B wow. i hope it works out for them.
i thought it was a terrible pick for the yankees.
It has begun lol
I don’t know if it was terrible, but there were certainly better players available.
And how would you know?
He’s probably going off what Axisa said.
That seems to be a belief that many fans have even the ones the like the pick.
that like the pick*
I remember him at the LLWS. He was so proud that his dad didn’t take PEDs.
Slot signing if I ever saw one.
The Yankees just picked a guy with the ceiling of Shelley Duncan. Someone please wake me up from this terrible dream.
The dude has big time power, pops was legit…so I’m guessing that his approach will at be more advanced than most because of his bloodline being there help him.
Also The guy was a nationally ranked tennis player on the under 18 circuit (so good he could have been pro) so I’d imagine that his eye, and reflexes are beyond good even for a baseball player. (Even though Tennis and Baseball are two different sports they both rely heavily on fast twitch reactions, and surgical precision contact)
He’s an interesting pick, with what seems to be big upside so let’s see what he can do.
I don’t mind the pick. Obviously the Yankees really like the talent. I usually don’t like drafting players who’s relatives played in the early rounds, since I think it just their ranking. I’m disappointed they didn’t take a gamble on any of the committed guys. Maybe one will fall tomorrow.
My only real complaint is that he looks locked into a corner somewhere. I’d rather a reach like Culver, where you’re trying to find an up-the-middle HS reach.
if he even comes close to bieng a 270 hitter ill be surprised this kid has about 0 upside i really do not like this kid. i guess we are gonna have to go hard in the international draft. WHO IS THE BEST INTERNATIONAL PLAYER? ANY ONE KNOW?i would have loved Josh bell.
You know he’s still availible right? And falling.
“this kid has about 0 upside”
it’s that bad?
I wouldn’t say he has no upside. I suck at this but Mark Reynolds seems comparable for pure upside.
well if he does pan out and the coaching crew is still here maybe Long can work his magic
Reynolds was still a decent runner into his 20s and stuck at 3B. I don’t think Bichette qualifies, atleast based on what I’ve read.
Mark Reynolds without speed then? Not too bad if it happens.
All that time and effort analyzing the draft and projecting possible picks and the Yanks pick someone not even on the radar-two years in a row. That’s exactly why I don’t get worked about this.
Mike wrote like dozens of article for naught again. That sucks.
That happened last year too right?
Yeah. Cito was a projected 3rd or 4th rounder so he didn’t bother.
and then the Yankees threw a Dwight Gooden curveball
Oppenhimer really fucking loves bloodlines. If you wanted power there’s Fisher out there.
i hope am wrong with this kid. but were is he gonna play if he is good from now to 4 years? outfield maybe.
LOL @ the idea of A-Rod blocking someone at 3B in 4 years.
We’ll go through that road if he amounts to something good.
Cashman complains about losing the 31st pick then they pick roughly the 115th best player at #51. What a joke. Sadly pathetic.
Seems like a Oppenheimer pick to me.
Yeah. I’m not saying this was necessarily Cashman’s pick. Oppenheimer usually likes toolsy athletic guys. Not totem poles with holes in their swing.
Why let the facts get in the way of a rant. Just fire Cashman and the entire amateur scouting organization, and hire Avi to phone in picks based solely on the next-highest available player off of BA’s list.
Go play in traffic. You guys are clueless about the draft. Most of these players never make it.
i know Josh bell is Available but he is not gonna sign as a 2 rounder. if we do pick him he wont sign.
It doesn’t matter where you get drafted, it matters how much money they offer.
You do realize there’s a ‘reply’ button, right? So you can confine your uneducated ‘wisdom’ to one chain instead of spreading it out. Just lettin’ ya know.
they get paid for doing this so ill just sit back and see what happens.
I know every scouting report says he’s got big time pop but did anyone else groan (for a second time) when his highlight was a texas leaguer plus some awkward running to turn it into a double?
I did.
It seems like you did a lot more than groan twice.
I love draft time. People gnashing their teeth and pouting over bunch of kids 99% of you have never seen play, outside of Division I college prospects,
And even then, 90% of people who claim to have seen Trevor Bauer pitch are probably lying.
There’s no one pouting but okay. Sorry we all can’t automatically praise the Yankees like the media does Theo Epstein.
That’s not the point, just the positive flipside of un/dereducated draft pick complaints.
Then that should include any praise too since if 90 percent of people haven’t seen them play then all praise too should be funny as well.
But only for naysayers right?
Its both. Really, any reactions to the baseball draft are just echoing which makes strong reactions seem dumb.
Yeah, this was my point. I wouldn’t know Dante Jr. from the kid down the street, and neither would the vast majority of you guys. Is it a good pick? I don’t know. Is it a bad pick? Don’t know that either. The sudden popularity of the MLB draft over the last few years is something that has just kind of baffled me, for the simple fact that college baseball really isn’t very high profile and then there are high school kids. Basically, we’re left to parrot what the Keith Laws of the world say. Now, I enjoy Keith Law’s columns, but he’s not a)infallible b)necessarily the greatest talent scout in the game.
I don’t know, just don’t see what there is to get worked up about.
Keith Law…Another sucker of Theo Epstein.
No one’s pouting…your right about that
Its more like bitching over someone and something none of us would be able to do one 64th as well as any pro scout employed by an MLB team.
The only people bitching in this thread really are people complaining about people who dislike the pick.
Yes there are one or two people who hate the pick but who cares? There are legit arguments either way, yes even the negative side.
KLAW ‘s comments are … WOW. He hates the Bichette pick. I wonder if Law’s using the eye ball test however. Bichette has that Nick Swisher kind of frame.
Bichette has that Nick Swisher kind of frame.
——————————
so he’ll hit in the regular season but not the PS and then crap the bed in yr 3
I keed I keed
Here’s hoping the Yankees drafted the next BIG DONKEY.
Kid cant run to save his life.
Adam Dunn was drafted 50th overall in the 1998 draft. But you’d have to be batshit insane to expect that same kind of production from Bichette Jr.
Well, no kidding – you’d be crazy to expect virtually ANYONE in this draft to produce like Adam Dunn. Adam Dunn is 31 years old and has hit 359 home runs in his career. He’s a lock for 400 and has a shot at 500.
Of course.
I can’t believe I have to do this, but since all of you are going crazy, I have to be the voice of reason.
DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMED!!!!!!!!!
The Javier Vazquez curse just won’t die.
This pretty much sums it up.
http://www.google.com/imgres?i.....38;bih=667
you forgot his pops was a 4 time all-star, career .299 hitter and 274 career homeruns (.835 ops)
what was his WAR?
And this from Keith Law on twitter:
I laughed. Jr. didn’t make my top 100 (report: http://es.pn/jJzYLw )RT @jslyuan: Yanks realize it’s not actually Dante Bichette right?
More Klaw on Bichette:
Wait till you see the hack. RT @Bloogart7: @keithlaw Yikes, just saw footage of Bichette running. Not impressed.
NESN National strikes again.
It really doesn’t matter what the Yanks were thinking; unless they’re sure that
1) Bichette is the best player available, or the most desirable player available for their drafting criteria, whatever they may be, and
2) He wasn’t going to be available at #88
…then it’s a bad pick.