Archive for the ‘Rule 4 Draft’ Category

To be honest with you, I wasn’t planning on doing a whole lot with day two of the Rule 4 Draft, save for perhaps an update later on with some of the more interesting names that the Jays selected. But then a funny thing happened on the way the Jays clearing money so they can sign Matt Smoral: they selected Anthony Alford.

“Alford has tools galore and the ability to do a lot of exciting things on the baseball field,” writes his scouting report at ESPN.com (Insider Only). “On the negative, he also has that on the football field and has told teams he won’t want to sign if selected.”

Commenter North York Jays has been following along and adds this tidbit underneath the previous post: “The last 2 guys the Jays have taken have left the MLB guys at a complete loss for words, as if they’ve never heard their names mentioned even once. Both were crappy college relievers. They are probably trying to save as much as possible for Smoral and Alford, and I’m curious to see if they’ll punt all the picks from round 4 on to make sure they sign all the guys at the top.”

It’s certainly an interesting notion, and not necessarily a crazy one, but there are perhaps other possibilities too.

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22nd pick Marcus Stroman of Duke. No… the one in the middle.

We’re into the draft’s equivalent of the flyover states, as rounds two through seventy jillion are underway in Secaucus– and you can follow along with MLB.com’s Live Draft Tracker– but before we move on, I think it’s best we tidy up some of the stuff that’s buried in last night’s giant clusterfuck of a post, specifically having to do with the Jays’ first round, which Keith Law listed among his honourable mentions at ESPN.com (Insider Only), and their three key picks ones, DJ Davis, Marcus Stroman, and Matt Smoral.

DJ Davis – #17 – OF – Stone County HS (MS)

In his first round analysis for Baseball Prospectus (Paywall’d), Kevin Goldstein writes that the Jays “decided to spread their risk, and went conservative with their first pick in order to spend a little more money later.” Fireballing lefty Matt Smoral, picked 50th, seems to fit that bill, though Davis is certainly no slouch. I pointed out last night that ESPN’s Top 100 draft prospects list (Insider Only) had him at 65, but that a report from Lone Star Ball mentioned that he was at number 20 for Baseball America, and 30 overall for Goldstein.

Baseball America, like just about every other source, says he’s not quite a five-tool prospect, as his arm strength is suspect, and MLB.com suggests it will at least play in centre, where Davis can utilize his crazy speed. At SB Nation, John Sickels adds that Davis is fortunate he’s got the range for centre, “because he doesn’t have the arm for right field.”

In ESPN’s pick-by-pick analysis piece (Insider Only) Jason Churchill says that he thinks that he “could be a table setter if he maxes out the hit tool.” That seems to be the big question on Davis, as he’s reportedly got some power– “gap power,” tweeted Goldstein– and “the athleticism and bat speed to look like a potential star in the big leagues,” according to his ESPN scouting report (Insider Only). The same report refers to a “noisy lower half,” and suggests that he’s “a great upside play but will likely require a lot of patience as well as some work to calm down his swing.”

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