The Phoenix Report

Draft Results

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 20:38:16 GMT

The 2008 TBL draft was held in February. The Phoenix went into the draft room with two completely divergent goals in mind:

1. Add some killer cardboard to help get us to the next level.

2. Add some kids and build up for a run in 2009.

Couldn't do both, so it all came down to the first pick. We were looking at Billy Butler and Carlos Pena. I did not expect either one to be there when we picked at 13.

As it turns out, both Pena and Butler slipped to 12, and our entire draft strategy was riding on the selection of one of our main rivals - Mahopac. Jon picked Billy Butler, leaving Carlos Pena (9 hits, 6 walks, 1-1-0-0-0) for us.

Who could argue? We took him, and the rest of our draft was dictated by this first pick:

Bonus - Tim Redding. 30 years old. Washington starter. Grade 12 for 15 starts.

Round 3 - Ryan Ludwick - 30 years old. St. Louis outfielder. 9/4 1-5-6-6, R+3. Our new left fielder.

Round 4 - Lenny Dinardo - 29 years old. Grade 7 for 20 starts. 34 innings of Grade 20* relief.

Round 6 - Joe Dillon - 12 hits, 5 0s, 2 walks. L+11. Best lefthanded pinch hitter available.

The hitting attack is much improved with the addition of Pena and Ludwick. The pitching got reinforced with Dinardo in the bullpen and Redding in the starting rotation. We're in a scrum with Mahopac and Maracaibo for the Aaron division title.

Targets

Mon, 31 Dec 2007 17:54:43 GMT

Using Steve's phenomenal draft tool, we are starting to focus in on a few guys who could help us. We would, of course, love to add a Hunter Pence to the lineup, but that isn't going to happen because of our draft position. We are picking 13th, so some guys are going too early for us to grab:

Ryan Braun, Justin Upton, Hunter Pence, Tim Lincecum, Carlos Pena, Alex Gordon, Daisuke Matsusaka

Those guys are going in the top 10, unless something very strange happens. Daisuke and Pena are candidates to slip, but they have so much current value that it seems unlikely that they'll get to us.

The next group down looks like this:

Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Peter Moylan, Jacob Ellsbury, Yovani Gallardo, Mark Reynolds

These guys have jobs and bright futures. Moylan is 80+ innings of a bullpen hammer. Gallardo is a great young starter. Salty is the best Catcher in the draft.

The Year just Past

Sun, 09 Dec 2007 05:31:06 GMT

The news was generally good for the Phoenix in 2007. David Ortiz had another phenomenal season for the Red Sox. His next card will be an 11 hit, 6 walk monster in the middle of our lineup.

Four players established themselves as rising assets in 2007:

Chris Snyder - We got 103 games of a C8 with a good throwing arm from Snyder this year. The hitting isn't there yet, but he's going to be around a while.

J. J. Hardy - 26 homers from a shortstop. At 26 years old, we may have finally found the shortstop we need to fill the sinkhole we've had at that position for years.

Jeff Francoeur - We burned the second pick in the draft on this guy, and waited a couple years while he swung at everything in sight. This year, he pushed his average to .293 and garnered the first of what should be a string of OF3s.

Ian Kinsler - He's a player. He hit for power this year, and stole 23 bases. He draws walks. His defense is average, but he's young enough to improve. It's hard to figure where his ceiling might lie. I don't think he's Chase Utley, but anything short of that is possible.

Kick-Starting this Party

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 15:31:13 GMT

Yeah, so, I've been lax...

It's been almost a year since I wrote anything for this crazy blog. The 2007 season (86-76 record) came and went. Success, and continuing improvement with intermittent frustration - and no playoffs. But, another offseason cometh, and next year, while the Phoenix may not be much better, we will most assuredly be interesting.

Here we go again.

Two weeks until draft day

Mon, 29 Jan 2007 18:52:10 GMT

Steve and I are still knocking around various ideas on how we're going to handle our downstream picks. 35 looks to be a starting pitcher. 41 will probably also be a starting pitcher. The bonus could be absolutely anything.

We could grab a first baseman, preferably one with power and a positive lefty shift. We could take an extra starting pitcher. We could take Esteban German, who plays everywhere. He even plays first, which might work to our advantage.

Two Deals

Thu, 28 Dec 2006 02:56:51 GMT

We pulled off two deals! The first was with Columbus:

Mark Grudzielanek to Columbus for Frank Catalanotto

Catalanotto has 10 hits, 4 walks, 0-0-0-0-7, 3 31s. Nice hitting card. He'll play left for us. He's an OF2, but he has a 29 arm.

The other deal was with Walter Hunt, of all people:

Juan Encarnacion to Maracaibo for Jaret Wright.

Wright (Grade 8, C-24, HR+34, 27 starts) is a competent starter, which is all I'm going to get for Encarnacion, who is a competent outfielder. Wright's 27 starts put us at 127 for the coming year. Two of our draft picks are targeted at starters, so we should be half decent in the rotation once the dust settles.

The Draft

Tue, 19 Dec 2006 22:15:07 GMT

Steve and I are getting our draft preparation finalized. We are ahead of schedule, because a year ago we had no idea who to take with our #2 pick.

This year, we pick #11, which means that we don't have the range of selections we had last year. This is a better draft, though, so we may be happier with our pick this year than last.

The hot spots we need to address are the starting rotation, second base, and outfield. There are several good second basemen in the draft - Ian Kinsler, Dan Uggla, Josh Barfield, to name three. There are several excellent starting pitchers in the draft. A few that I like for the early pick are Josh Johnson, Anibel Sanchez and Francisco Liriano.

Guys we won't get:

1. Hanley Ramirez

2. Stephen Drew

3. Delmon Young

4. Justin Verlander

5. Joel Zumaya

6. Jared Weaver

7. Nick Markakis

8. Carlos Quentin

9. Chris Duncan

10. Melky Cabrera

- Bob

The End is Near

Sun, 01 Oct 2006 05:34:35 GMT

The baseball season is about to end. The Phoenix are a game or two over .500 with 40 games to play in the 2006 season. Next year, we look better - a lot better.

The starting rotation is two pitchers deep - Halladay and Carlos Zambrano. There are 65 terrific starts there. Andy Pettitte's 2006 odyssey ended tonight when he pitched 7 terrific innings in his 35th start, lowering his ERA to 4.20. He allowed 238 hits in 214 innings. He'll be either a 7 or an 8.

Pettitte Crosses the Rubicon

Mon, 11 Sep 2006 17:19:55 GMT

Sure, it might only be a symbolic advance, given the rude treatment that Grade 8 lefty starters are given in TBL, but considering where The Big P came from earlier in the year, we'll take it. Steve puts it like this:

With about 7/8 of games played:

Starters: Pretty good, not deep. 90 starts of 8+; 118 starts total: We may get 3-4 more starts each of the big 3.

NAME TEAM Grade starts total

Zambrano ChC 16 -53/22 30 30

Halladay Tor 12 43/22 29 59

Pettitte Hou 8 15/-11 31 90

Williams NYM 3 22/-22 12 102

Ponson StL 2 -22/14 16 118

Relievers: 60 innings of closer, 327 innings of 13+ (including a lefty), 500 innings of 8+ (and they're good 8s), including 2 lefties. Easily the best pre-draft bullpen we've ever had. And it includes some good YOUNG arms.

NAME TEAM Grade IP Total

Soriano Sea 19* -21/16 60.0 60.0

Downs Tor 1/16* 11/-11 53.3 113.3

Street Oak 14* 36/33 59.7 173.0

Proctor NYY 13* 14/0 89.0 262.0

Weathers Cin 13* -23/-24 65.7 327.7

Halsey Oak 4/11* -15/14 49.3 377.0

Timlin Bos 8* 32/15 56.0 433.0

Medders Ari 8* 15/33 67.0 500.0

Trade

Fri, 25 Aug 2006 13:46:54 GMT

We pulled off a trade with Las Vegas. The deal went like this:

Robinson Tejeda and 2007 NBO #5 for 2007 LV #2 and Bobby Kielty

Tejeda's value as a grade 15 starter is high for playoff-bound teams like Las Vegas. After our 6-6 performance at home in August, Steve and I have abandoned the idea of making it to the Dance this year.

The 2007 #2 will help a lot, giving us a chance to add a competent rotation arm for the 2007 season, when we should be fairly formidable. Tejeda is up for Texas and pitching well, but after 2 excellent starts his ERA stands at 6.42. I have big expectations for the guy long-term, but 2007 is lost. So, off he goes.

Kielty is a big help for next year. We were going to need a #5 outfielder because of the injury to Nixon. Crisp, Encarnacion and Francoeur will be the regulars, but that is a rather uninspiring group. Nixon will play all of his 92 games. Kielty will be useless against righties, but he's hit .330 and slugged .604 against lefties so far this year.

So, the move was made and our draft is looking a bit more phat for next year.

On the field, David Weathers has been incredible, lowering his ERA to 4.22 with another shutout inning yesterday. Mike Timlin pitched 1 2/3 innings without giving up a run, which is a miracle of sorts. David Ortiz hit #46, but was hospitalized for an irregular heartbeat over the weekend. (Oh... just fabulous!)