It's starting to get hopeless for us baseball fans of MSU.....

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DiamondReb1083

Guest
You can say teams are starting to look more at college players and that is a trend but it's not going to last long. That thought went through the roof when moneyball came out. The upside is you draft guys that are potentially more major leauge ready. The downside is they are three years older and still haven't lived the professional baseball lifestyle. It's more a new school vs. old school thing. The Braves are going to draft probably 5-1 highschool vs college. They have the best farm system in the game. Just think of the guys they've put out. Then go over to moneyball.

I read that book and ate it up like everyoen else. 5 or 6 six years since it came out it's interesting to look back. Billy Beane made a big deal that he hoped someone would draft the fat first baseman that was overhyped thanks to his famous father. He wanted that to happen so Nick Swisher would fall to the A's. Yeah that guy was Prince Fielder. The fat catcher that they made a huge deal about from Alabama that none of the scouts wanted cause he didn't have a projectable body but Billy and the other geek that became GM at the Dodgers loved because he walked a lot, his name was Jeremy Brown, he retired a few weeks ago at the old age of 27. Sure some of those guys have made it to the majors but they aren't good. Beane made a huge deal of comparing Eric Chavez to A-Rod. See where that's gotten him. Sure it's a good plan to stay competitive in a low market but I doubt that type of strategy will ever be widely used let alone widely successful.

Other notes. A highschool pitcher the A's did take that they soon gave up on was Jeremy Bonderman. He is a moderately successful major leauge pitcher that wasn't good enough for the A's. The A's passed over David Wright I believe 2 maybe 3 times as he was selected in the supplemental first round by the Mets. It's not always the best strategy to avoid the highschool guys.
 

The Lord Humongous

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Mar 1, 2008
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someonestolemyusernamedamnit said:
so far this year, have you?

I told him not to waste his time that it would be Bittle.

No kidding. Bittle might (just saying might) be the top Mississippi player taken in the draft. He throws around 88-90 which most people don't realize. He has a good fastball. It's the cutter and slider that make him special...nasty, nasty stuff. He flat out choked in the big games last year (SEC) and couldn't throw a strike with his "movement" pitches to save his life. Scouts absolutely love his nasty pitches and with a fastball that can touch 90-91 he throws as hard, when he needs to, as quite a few major league starting pitchers. He'd be in the MSU rotation right now....and more than welcome as well.

For a brief time there on Saturday, I thought he was going to choke again after the walk and 2 singles. That didn't last long. It will still be interesting to see him come in during an SEC game that's tight LATER than the 6th inning when the game is truly on the line to see if he can get past his woefulRebelchoke-itis. His nerves haven't been truly tested yet.</p>
 
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