Day 23- 2009 Round 3

1	Blind Dogs	Lambo, Andrew OF LA
2	Pølskå Pandas™	Duran, Juan OF CIN
3	The Smoke Monsters	Freeman, Freddie 1B ATL
4	Attack Pigeons of Connecticut	Zimmermann, Jordan SP WAS
5	The Brew Crew	Arencibia, J.P. C TOR
6	RIC Anchormen	Hellickson, Jeremy SP TB
7	The Smoke Monsters	Revere, Ben CF MIN
8	The Brew Crew	Chacin, Jhoulys SP COL
9	The Smoke Monsters	Martin, Ethan SP LA
10	Wickford Walnuts	Skipworth, Kyle C FLA
11	Attack Pigeons of Connecticut	Dickerson, Chris LF CIN
12	Blind Dogs	Cecil, Bret SP TOR

By John Radzinski

Best Pick: With the 2008 draft so recent, it’s hard to pick a best/worst as has been noted. Of the 12 picks, only Brett Cecil has made any impact whatsoever in the majors. So, against my will, Brett Cecil is my pick for the best draftee thus far. To his credit, he looked pretty good at points last season but his eventual 5.30 ERA suggests there were struggles for the rookie, and it seems he may be destined to start in AAA. The Blue Jays rotation stands to be full of young talented arms and it appears Cecil is on the outside looking in 2010.

Worst Pick: Again tough to say, but I’ll vote against my own guy because it’s hilarious. At the time, Juan Duran was heralded by several to be a bit of a reach, but the Pandas loved him and only had 2 picks in the entire draft. So they scooped up the 16-year old. The trouble with picking a pubescent teenager is unpredictability, and in my wildest dreams I don’t think I could have ever predicted Duran growing 4 inches to become an NBA forward-like 6’7”. There have been several tall sluggers, derrek lee, adam dunn, richie sexson, etc that have had good careers, but the odds are against the 17-year old. There’s a lot of time though. Also receiving votes: Ethan Martin. Who the fuck is that guy haha.

Could Still make it: There are lots of highly touted guys picked in the 3rd round. Freddie Freeman, Jordan Zimmerman, Jhoulys Chacin, etc, but the consensus top pick is most likely TB pitcher, Jeremy Hellickson. Hellickson gets high marks across the board from nearly every authority on prospects. Baseball Prospectus, ESPN, Baseball America, AOL, each rank him as a top 20 overall prospect. Only the nubs at project prospect rank him outside that at 77, citing durability as a potential issue. Then again, PP puts durability as a knock against almost every pitcher in the minors, so it’s tough to really buy what they say about pitchers.