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Monday, June 07, 2004

DRAFT, DAY ONE
A complete list of who the Lads drafted on Day One, along with the MLB scouting summaries (and in some cases video), can be found here.

I should emphasize that I don't know anything about any of these men, except for Weaver, and that the below reflects statistcs and the opinions of others I have gathered online.

MLB offers video of several draftees, including high school LF Luis Rivera, so you can watch him make offline throws and strike out. Gee, thanks ...

One intriguing draftee is Nicholas Adenhart, a high school pitcher who measures at 6'4'' (or 6'3'', if you believe Baseball America) and can hit as high as 93 on the gun. The MLB scouting report pegs him as a "definite blue chipper" and a "potential frontline [major league] starter," and BA ranked him as the second-best high school pitcher in the country (he actually held the number one spot for much of the season). Why did he go 413th in the draft? Well, he's having the Tommy John surgery. (The video shows that he has very smooth mechanics, but scouts had idenified him as having a "stiff front side" prior to his injury.) Adenhart has a full ride at North Carolina, and his father speaks glowingly of the chance for him to get an education.

So, is he signable? It will be interesting to see. I would suspect that he'll go to college and up his stock, but you can't blame the Angels for trying, and it may work out.

In my entry on Jered Weaver below, I allude to Craig Burley's work with college stats; he's really the first person in the public domain to attempt a lot of the stuff he's doing, so I thought I'd report on what his numbers say, if anything, about our college draftees, and complement it with the MLB scouting info.

Weaver, we know about.

Our 173rd pick went to Joshua LeBlanc, a lefty-swinging 2B out of Southern University A&M. He ranked 247th in Burley's ratings, and hit 376/447/786 last season (not counting HBP). He only had 117 at bats, so his raw totals don't really jump out at you, but those aren't bad numbers, and though you can seemingly question the level of competition Southern faces, Rickie Weeks seemed to fare pretty well emgerging from the same school (though he hit .500 in college, as well). Scouts see potential for average power emerging from his frame (at 6'2'', 185, he's the same size Wally Joyner was when he came up), and they like his hands on defense.

Andrew Toussaint, drafted 383rd, also played at Southern, notching time at 3B and the outfield (though MLB lists him at 2B). Though drafted much lower, he rated higher in Burley's rankings, placing 119th in the country. He hit 384/480/781, demonstrating a nice combo of walks and power (though the level of competition caveat still applies). Scouts like his tools with the bat, as well, though at 6'2'', 175, he may need to fill out more before maintaining the power with a wood bat.

Freddy Sandoval, drafted 233rd, is a switch-hitting third baseman out of the University of San Diego. His 320/393/522 doesn't really jump out at you, and comes out to about 8 runs above average (ranking 698th in Burley's rankings). The scouting report pegs him with a quick bat and good power. Like Benji Gil, Sandoval's from Tijuana, and there's a pretty interesting story on his arrival in the States here.

Clifton Remole is a lefty first baseman out of Georgia Tech, and is compared to J.T. Snow and Will Clark. Hey, a smooth fielding 1B with gap power? The Angels practically patented that ... he hit 345/397/454 last season (689th for Burley), but scouts see room for more physical development, and, presumably and hopefully, power.

Anyway, that's all I've got for today ...

UPDATE: Richard has a similar take on Adenhart (I call "Jinx!") and also provides a breakdown by position and class.

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