Day 5 - 2007 Round 5

1 RIC Anchormen Troy Patton (P HOU)
2 North Kingstown Friars Donald Veal (P CHC)
3 Poland Pandas Glen Perkins (P MIN)
4 Blind Dogs Kory Casto (OF WAS)
5 Bad Ass Bombers Travis Snyder (OF TOR)
6 Rhode Island Quahogs Bill Rowell (3B BAL)
7 The Names Jonathan O. Sanchez (P SF)
8 Modesto Nuts Humberto Sanchez (P NYY)
9 Rhody Rampage Clay Buchholz (P BOS)
10 Attack Pigeons of Connecticut Scott Thorman (1B ATL)
11 The Carbombs Felix Pie (OF CHC)
12 The Brew Crew Travis Buck (OF OAK)


By Brendan Hart

Best Pick- Clay Buchholz- Since the prospect draft began there has been a lot written/discussed about a possible “Red Sox bias” that exists in the NKFBL. While its up for debate whether that bias contributed to Lester’s pick, it is hard to argue that Buchholz is not the best selection of the 5th round. Before he was drafted with the 45th pick of the 2007 prospect draft Buchholz was ranked just 51st on the 2006 BA Top 100 list. His breakout season in 2007 started in AA Portland where he had a sub 2 ERA and K’d 117 batters in just 86 innings at AA Portland and ended in the bigs with a no hitter in only his second professional start. The success helped him ascend from 51st to 4th in the 2007 BA Top 100. Clay has had a hard time living up to the hype in the past two seasons but has still seen moderate success. At 25 years old in his third full time season many expect that he will turn into a more consistent starter which should help him be a more reliable name in the Smoke Monsters rotation.

Worst Pick- Too Many to Mention- Where to start? This round included the likes of Troy Patton, Donald Veal, Kory Casto and Scott Thorman – yikes. Even Quahog selection Bill Rowell, the 9th overall pick in 2006 by the Baltimore Orioles has failed to make it out of single A where he batted a non healthy 225. Needless to say most of the players in this round should not make an impact in real life or fantasy.

Still Could Make it- Travis Snider- At 22 years old Travis Snider has nothing to prove in the minors. In only 175 AB’s in AAA last year he batted .337 and slugged .663 with 14 hr’s. He found the transition to the majors to be slightly more challenging as evidenced by the fact that he struck out 78 times in 241 AB’s but still showed valuable power by hitting 9 homeruns. Look for Snider to take the next step in 2010 where he should be a safe bet for a better average and potentially 20 plus homeruns. With the Bombers loaded at outfield look for them to shop Snider, especially if Erik feels he doesn’t have room to keep him or Snider fails to live up to expectations.

% in MLB- 10 out of 12, 83%, highly deceiving with two players having under 15 IP and most players only being the dreaded “organizational depth” .