Thursday, February 25, 2010

Andy Seiler's Rays Draft Preview

Andy Seiler has posted his Rays 2010 draft preview, which includes a review of the past four drafts. Definitely worth your time to read the entire article, especially on the Rays affinity for the Pacific Northwest, and for the West in general. Here is a snipit from the preview section:
Since Rod Barajas is about to make his contract official, I can say with confidence that the Rays own picks 17, 31, 42, 66, 79, 98, 131, and every 30 picks after that. That kind of bounty could easily result in a draft budget of over $8 million, and that’s my expectation after a down year in 2009 for spending. That’s not saying that the money rolls over year-to-year. I’m simply saying that the Rays have a chance to add a large amount of talent to an already booming farm system, and I think they realize their opportunity. It’s not every day that a team has six picks in the top 100.

Connecting players to the Rays is especially difficult, since it’s hard to know how much signability will be an issue with picks 31 and 79, which are compensation picks for Washington and Diekroeger respectively. Not signing picks in those slots means they lose any sort of compensation, so a lot of the leverage slips to the player at that point, so more conservative drafting in those slots might be in order. My latest mock draft has the Rays going with Yordy Cabrera, Brandon Workman, and Robbie Aviles with their first three picks and that generally makes sense. Cabrera’s athleticism and power bat fit the traditional Harrison mold, and Workman and Aviles are bigger pitchers, Aviles with the upside that the Rays typically prefer for their development program.
He also has the final 2010 draft order, including compensation picks, here.

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