1980 Rookie Draft

[leecemark]

--I had Pena 4th on my draft board and depending on team need, could have seen him as high as 2nd. Good defender who is an everyday starter for 5 years on team contro, an above average hitter in 3 of them and an above average hitter for a catcher in a 4th. Catcher is probably the strongest position in the draft with 4 guys who should be multi-year starters and Pena is clearly the best of the lot.

[leecemark]

I am headed to work. hopefully i will be on the clock when I get back at 6pm pacific time.

--Your wish is granted. Great job everyone keeping this draft moving.

[rmadachik]

Pena was where I was going with my pick. crud

[rmadachik]

The Beavers Select

Lee Smith
Lee_Smith.jpg


The Gamblers Select

Steve Howe
steve_howe_autograph.jpg

[catcher24]

I wondered when Smith was going to go. In retrospect, I probably would have taken him over Corbett if I had the #7 pick, although I would have had to look at it more closely.

[rmadachik]

I really really hoped pena would be there when the Beavers picked. He would have been a good transition fom Simmons after this year.

[catcher24]

Would have liked to get Pena myself, but even if I had needed a catcher, I still would have gone with Valenzuela at #2. You can never have enough pitching. I could see him going third over Baines, though.

[leecemark]

--When I said as high as 2nd I meant after Valenzuala. Fernando was #1 on my board. Durham gives alot of value, but he only has one great season. Baines, Wallach and Pena also give alot of value, but their best seasons are not as good as Durham. Moseby may have the 2 best seasons of any position player drafted yet (or on the board for that matter), but he only has 3 seasons of any value (in team controlled years anyway - he has some HTD value too). Valenzuala has the peak of Moseby with the bulk of the others. I'll be very surprized if he doesn't make at least a couple All Star teams and he could win a CYA too.

[jaybird_1981]

For the Iron's pick it was between Wallach, Pena, & Smith. And I almost pulled the trigger on Pena if I didn't already have some catching but when the Cider were up it was a pretty easy choice.

[J W]

The Skipjacks will select pitcher Gary Lucas.

[catcher24]

--When I said as high as 2nd I meant after Valenzuala. Fernando was #1 on my board. Durham gives alot of value, but he only has one great season. Baines, Wallach and Pena also give alot of value, but their best seasons are not as good as Durham. Moseby may have the 2 best seasons of any position player drafted yet (or on the board for that matter), but he only has 3 seasons of any value (in team controlled years anyway - he has some HTD value too). Valenzuala has the peak of Moseby with the bulk of the others. I'll be very surprized if he doesn't make at least a couple All Star teams and he could win a CYA too.

I have to respectfully disagree regarding best seasons on the draft board. Durham has a 151 OPS+, along with a 136,131,123 and 120. Moseby has a 134 and 127 under team control. I think Durham has the best seasons on the board by far. Even more surprisingly, Durham is actually a better RF than Moseby over the first two seasons, before he pretty much moves to first base. Baines actually has a 142 and a 130 as well. Just sayin'.

[Erik Bedard]

Moseby is a Vg CF with speed though. Durham can play CF as well, but he's rated Fr and his speed isn't comparable to Moseby's. Still, Durham has five seasons where he's a very good starter compared to Moseby's three, and he also has the best of the lot. Plus his best season lines up better with my team than Moseby's.

[Sockeye]

Nice pick Garry. I was in trade talks with Jack also, and Corbett was the man I was looking to get. I'm a little surprised he lasted this long. A couple of mediocre seasons, but three really lights out years as well.

Nice pick on Pena, too, Jason. IMHO he's the best position player left in the draft.

Thanks Lew. Probably wouldn't have made the deal if Corbett wasn't still available. Like that 1980 season (81 and 84 aren't bad either) Just have to figure out how to get him the innings. Might not be such a problem as our rotation is medeocre at best.

Ditto on Pena. Had him as the best remaining position player in the draft.

[leecemark]

--Quite the run on relievers in the first round! RPing was exceptionally strong this year, but they usually don't go quite so high. I thought thats where the value would be when I got to pick at 14/15, but am pleasantly surprised to see I'll have some good value options elsewhere instead.

[Erik Bedard]

Can't say I expected Corbett to go as high as he did. He was a pretty distant fifth on my RP board. I was thinking he'd still be around when I picked in the second round. Even purely for 1980 I'd only have him second (maybe third or even fourth), and his two other good seasons don't match any of the future years of the other top RPs in my evaluation.

[leecemark]

--Corbett does have 3 excellent seasons, but he isn't a strike out pitcher and those types are very dependent on having at least a solid defense behind them. I'd expect a higher variance from him than some of the hard throwing relievers. What really surprised me about the deal isn't where he went, but that the Angels traded so much present value for a guy whose best year is this year. Mike Norris is a CYA candidate and I can't imagine trading him if I was hoping to contend this year - or trading up for Corbett if I wasn't. Of course Garry has had alot of success with game plans very different from my own before .

[catcher24]

Moseby is a Vg CF with speed though. Durham can play CF as well, but he's rated Fr and his speed isn't comparable to Moseby's. Still, Durham has five seasons where he's a very good starter compared to Moseby's three, and he also has the best of the lot. Plus his best season lines up better with my team than Moseby's.

If your plan is to play Moseby in CF then yeah, he's the better fielder (although he's only VG one season, in 1982 - average the rest of the time). However, Durham is actually the better corner man in 1980 (range the same as Moseby, better E-rating). In 81 Durham has better range in RF (his only OF position) but a higher error rate than Moseby, and in 82 and 83 Moseby is clearly the better fielder. As I recall, the Cubs pretty much had Durham during a good part of the 80s, until Mark Grace came along. I don't have fielding ratings for 84, 85 or beyond. And let me say that I was a big Blue Jays fan during the mid-80s and Moseby was one of my favorites.

[buppers]

Badgers take 1B Dave Stapleton

[catcher24]

The Lumberjaxx will take

joeprice.jpg

JOE PRICE, PITCHER

[leecemark]

--With the 14th pick the Corsairs take catcher Rich Gedman
--With the 15th pick the Knights select SP Mike Boddicker

[Erik Bedard]

Top two guys left on my draft board, and Mark takes them both. I knew the whole time Boddicker was going to be a Knight. Had him as a top ten pick, would not have been surprised if he'd gone top five, but had a hunch the whole time he'd stick around until #15.

[catcher24]

Boddicker was tempting, and might have gone to the Jaxx if I didn't need someone who could help this year AND had some value down the road as well. Gedman came within an eyelash as well, but I do have a serviceable if not spectacular catcher in Bruce Benedict for four years. Those were the next two guys on my list as well, though.

[Sockeye]

With the 16th pick of the 1980 draft Sockeye's Angels select....Bob Ojeda

[Erik Bedard]

Deciding between two guys here. Garry didn't make my decision easy like I sort of hoped he would. I'm sure I'll second-guess this a million times but the Gold Sox will take Charlie Lea.

[leecemark]

--I was very surprised to see Boddicker still available at #15. I had him #7 on my draft board and was actually expecting to use that pick for somebody with less upside but more immediate production. I'd still like to land somebody like that so if anybody is uninspired by whats available in this draft I'd be willing to swap a future 2nd for any of the next 5 picks in this draft (perhaps deeper depending on who comes off the board).