Draft Day
MLB is holding the 2009 Amateur Draft tonight, starting at 6pm. Rounds 1-3 will be held tonight. The Red Sox have 3 picks today, 28, 77 and 107 overall.
Peter mentioned his desire for the Yankees to add position players in this year's draft. The Red Sox have done a decent job of in recent years with drafting, but the one missing ingredient is the classic slugger. Lars Anderson at AA Portland might be that player, but he has been slow out of the gate and hasn't shown his power yet in 2009.
Sure Kevin Youkilis (a Duquette pick) has developed more power than any of use would have imagined, but his power seems to be in the mid-20 home run range. The Red Sox did take Matt LaPorta 2 years ago, but couldn't sign him.
It'll be interesting to see where they go and if any of the players taken in the 2009 draft have the chance to be helpful in the next 24 months to the big league club.
MLB.com and the MLB Network will televise the draft offering us insight we've never previously had access to. The fact remains, however, that because the MLB draft covers so many players from so many different places, very few people, including hardcore baseball fans, really knows much about the inner workings of the draft and the potential draftees involved. We all know Stephen Strasburg will go first overall, but beyond that, we don't know much and once you get past the first 5 picks or so, there is a good chance you won't recognize the players being taken.
That said, local media outlets give you decent exposure to the Red Sox minor league teams (The Boston Globe has a weekly minor league report as an example).
As for the Red Sox team, tonight marks the start of another Yankees vs. Red Sox match-up. The Red Sox are struggling with their defense and much has been made about Julio Lugo's lack of range at shortstop. Also, with David Ortiz still struggling overall (he is hitting .300/.333/.500 over his last 5 games), there is talk about what can be done to boost the offense.
My take is that the Red Sox will make due at shortstop until Jed Lowrie is back (3-4 weeks) and if Ortiz doesn't come around, they will address that issue closer to the trade deadline. They might package Brad Penny and a prospect sooner than that of course because with John Smoltz one start away from being ready, the Red Sox have a starting pitching logjam. But we know a glut of pitching has a tendency of fixing itself (a trip to the DL by Matsuzaka, a hang-nail to Tim Wakefield and suddenly the Red Sox are calling up Charlie Zink as an emergency starter).
For a look at the Red Sox first round picks over the years, take a look at this feature by Baseball-Reference.com.
