Shaken, not stirred.
I wonder if the Phillies brain trust is rethinking their approach to pitching arms, they've gone with a bunch of hard throwers, but have had little success with these players out of college other than Kerkering. With pro arms, mixed bag, a bit hit with Hoffman, mddlin' success with Sosa and Marte, frustration with SD.
Maybe they've decided there's a big gap between the potential 1-2 starters at the top of the draft and the rest.
That you're looking at back of the rotation starters starting in the 3rd rd or so, or RPs, and the difference between the pitchers in rd 3 and rd 7 is minimal.
Burkholder's consensus ranking was right about where we picked him if not a bit below. DeMartini I'll concede, I missed him . The MLB rankings are usually not all that good, BA or PG or FG are more reliable (my opinion, but shared by most draft enthusiasts).
In the 7th Round of the 2024 Gathering of the He-Man Pitcher's Hating Club, the Philadelphia Phillies select:
Joel Dragoo, OF, Presbyterian College, Jr.
441 on BA.
FYI. I have to check out so I will miss Rounds 8-10. I will find out the names of our newest outfielders later.
Dragoo had a 1305 OPS in his small school this year so he can hit. 644 OPS in the draft league though small sample there.
I had to google this.
And thanks @Squire I literally laughed out loud at "future outfielders of America"
I can probably stick out the next 90 minutes, to see three more picks. (This is ridiculous; I really, really, really liked the old way. We'd be through thirty rounds, at least, by now.)
The outfielder run has to be a schtick or a Moneyball thing. Those guys are going to be running into each other at camp. The outfield will be like Times Square at rush hour.
I will repeat, "Seems we may have succumbed to the "smartest guy in the room" strategy.".
I'm thinking it's more likely that they just have a list in preferential order, and at this point aren't worrying about positions. There would have been pitchers on their list, but they're not at the top of the list of remaining players when we're on the clock.
Man, I wait all year for this day and it’s like opening a gift from Aunt Bethany on Christmas. “She wrapped her damn cat.”
We are potentially in the money saving portion of day 2 also. The Phillies usually don't go for the $10,000 bonus guys, but they could easily save a few hundred thousand in the next couple of rounds so they can sign another outfielder with their 11th round pick.
They've drafted five outfielders, so far.
Last year, they drafted three outfielders. But in both the 2021 and 2022 drafts, they took six.
Now, if they continue to draft outfielders 70% of the time...well. But we won't know until tomorrow evening.
If they see a bunch of pitchers lumped together on their board, and expect plenty of candidates between say rd 8 and rd 20 that don't have a lot of separation, taking a few OFs back to back won't faze them.
They are focused on speed, I think that reflects having Harper and Walker on long-term deals, and possibly extending Bohm. So limited opportunities in the future for 1B/LF/DH types - they want prospects who can play the field and protect hit first guys.
