1 RIC Anchormen Akinori Iwamura (3B TB)
2 North Kingstown Friars Eric Hurley (P TEX)
3 Poland Pandas Dustin Nippert (P ARI)
4 Blind Dogs Garrett Olson (P BAL)
5 Bad Ass Bombers Angel Villalona (3B SF)
6 Rhode Island Quahogs Neil Walker (C PIT)
7 The Names Drew Stubbs (OF CIN)
8 Modesto Nuts Jaime Garcia (P STL)
9 Rhody Rampage Gio Gonzalez (P CHW)
10 Attack Pigeons of Connecticut Chris Nelson (SS COL)
11 The Carbombs Sean West (P FLA)
12 The Brew Crew Brian Barton (OF CLE)
By Brendan Hart
Best Pick- Drew Stubbs- In most rounds Stubbs would be considered a “Still Could Make it” candidate instead of the choice for “Best Pick”. Fortunately for him his only competition for the title was the light hitting Akinori Iwamura. It took Names draft pick (RIP Conor) Stubb’s 8hr in 180ab’s last season to show that he had the potential to hit for some power in the future. At 25 yr’s old his overall numbers between AAA and the Majors for 2009 of 11 hr’s and 56sb’s show he could develop into a Franklin Gutierez/Nate McClouth type player. Look for Stubbs to get drafted in the first few rounds of the upcoming MLB draft.
Worst Pick- Angel Villalona- The bad picks on the 8th round were Top 100 prospects that just didn’t work out. I could have really picked any of them (Nippert, Nelson, Barton), but I chose Villalona simply because he is currently accused of killing someone after a bar fight last September. Additionally he tried to buy his way out of jail time by paying the victims family between 2 to 5 million pesos (55 to 130,000 real US American as JRad would say) to drop the charges against him. The prosecutors in Mexico didn’t seem too amused by this and have vowed to proceed with the charges. Needless to say the United States revoked Angel’s passport and chances are slim to none that he ever resurfaces in the MILB or MLB. It seems Villalona will likely be in a Mexican jail and the Monsters minors for a long long time.
Still Could Make it- Gio Gonzalez- There’s no doubt that Gonzalez has the ability to turn into a solid starting pitcher. In his last four seasons he’s struck out no less than 162 batters per year and even led the minors in strikeouts in 2007. However things are not all positive for Gonzalez. In his limited time in the majors over the last two seasons he has an era over 6 and a whip at almost 2. At only 25 yr’s old Gio still has time to put it all together and has the fact that “leftys take longer to develop” on his side. Far gone from Jeff Lester and Rampage who drafted him with the 9th pick in the 8th round Gonzalez is likely only to be a last round MLB flier or potential waiver wire pickup during the year
% in MLB- 8 out of 12 = 66.666666666666%
No way Villona is the worst pick of that round, sure he'll probably never have a chance to live up to his lofty potential but at least when the draft went down he was 16 years old and oozing with potential where as Dustin Nippert and Garet Olson were two pitchers who were past their prospect prime and already looking like guaranteed organizational depth.
ReplyDeletei rather be deep on the organizational depth chart than have my cell-mate deep in me.
ReplyDeleteDustin Nippert 1, Angel Villalona 0
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with JRad on this one. This round is so terrible from top to bottom, that you really can't go wrong listing anyone as the worst pick. Might as well get some humor out of it and go with Villalona. In all actuality Villalona was probably the best pick of the round but he killed somebody and will most likely never be in America again.
ReplyDelete