Thread: Draft Pick Values

Maybe Boras and Appel want to test the CBA and antitrust in court. They probably could not win on union issues, but on antitrust and lack of ability to move, he might win. Given the issues Boras has had win the new CBA, he may want a smart patsy to take this on.

MLB is partly immune to the antitrust laws....I don't think they'd win a suit, any more than did Maurice Clarrett.

I think Appel likely has the floor of a big league starter which is a pretty good floor of someone that hasn't played any professional ball. He's definitely good but to say anyone (leaving out the Strasburg level prospects) have a floor of a #3 starter is silly. It's like worrying about where the Twins are going to play Hicks, Arcia, Buxton, Kepler and possibly Sano/Rosario in the future. This board seems to be overrun with the optimism that almost all prospects work out. Great draft picks and prospects have a habit of finding ways to fail. It happens and Appel is no different imo,

I would hope that if Appel is available, the Twins will take into account the benefit of drafting someone who is close to ready to pitch in the majors.

Originally Posted by glunn

I would hope that if Appel is available, the Twins will take into account the benefit of drafting someone who is close to ready to pitch in the majors.

Seeing as that was supposed to be 90% of the reasoning behind drafting Wimmers, I'm sure it factors in. On the other hand, given how the Wimmers thing panned, out, it may make them a little gunshy to weigh "ability to move fast through the system" too heavily.

Originally Posted by beckmt

Maybe Boras and Appel want to test the CBA and antitrust in court. They probably could not win on union issues, but on antitrust and lack of ability to move, he might win. Given the issues Boras has had win the new CBA, he may want a smart patsy to take this on.

I highly doubt this - they would have no chance. Federal courts aren't going to intervene on collectively bargained issues.

Appel may be close to the majors, but he also has a ton of upside. Wimmers was close to the majors (alledgedly) and had a much lower ceiling. The reason you draft a guy close to the bigs is usually because the risk is low as is the reward. The Twins have since, or at least in the last two drafts, changed their approach a bit. They have taken alot of projection guys who are going to need time. The downside to that is that we don't have alot of Twins drafted pitching in the upper majors. Hopefully those guys will start getting to the upper levels this year and next. Another problem is that sometimes so much can go wrong with young pitchers between rookie ball and the majors. All in all i like the new strategy.