Hopping Over the Chalk with Coby Green

Here is just a taste of the type of column's our very own Coby Green will be posting throughout the year. The rest of the breakdown will come in the next few days, but for now.... enjoy some light reading....

(as an aside, this is meant to be fun and flippant, as none of us are experts..... so please, no emails in outrage over a perceived slight.... but if you do want to complain, remember, lynch is our leader, fire off your emails his way.....)

PHI:

So with the #1 overall pick, who else would you draft but Mike Trout??? And after spending $20.8 million on the teams 1st pick, the team went low salaries all the way with spending only half a million on each of his next 4 picks including Matt Adams, Gerrit Cole, Alex Wood, and Wil Myers leaving $92.2 million for the remaining 35 players. Not a bad start at all. Only concern I might have for the inaugural season is the low games started for each of the teams 1st two pitchers taken, as well as the low at bats and low defense of Wil Myers.

CLE:

If the #1 bat has been taken then you could never go wrong with taking the #1 pitcher in baseball, right? Well this team definitely thought so, spending $30 million (largest contract in all of baseball) which is over a quarter of his salary cap on that ace pitcher. He also followed that up with another couple of large contracts when he drafted Kyle Seager and Starlin Castro as well, before slowing that cash spending down with picking up Jorge Soler and Zack Wheeler. One thing is for sure is this team is definitely confident with spending nearly half of teams salary cap for the next 5 years on their top 3 picks.

MIL:

This team went for value for sure with their 1st 5 picks. Spending under $9 million on Giancarlo Stanton, Josh Harrison, Marcus Stroman, Marcell Ozuna, and Tanner Roark. This team definitely values the outfield defense and has one of the top bats in the business, but will Stanton's short term contract hurt the future of Milwaukee? Or could not spending the money for a true ace or top infielder in the business hurt the team this year? These are the questions I have for the Wallbangers but one thing for sure is I love the value picking and can’t wait to see who’s next for this team.

BOS:

Boston might have had the best top 5 picks combined, in my opinion, of the entire draft. Spending under $28 million to receive 4 of the best defense players we have, including McCutchen, who is one of the best value picks that could have been taken. He is a #1 defense player, only $11 million for 4 years and is a great power speed combo. He would have been my #1 overall pick for this draft. Boston also picked up Brian Dozier, Andrelton Simmons, and Nolan Arenado who are all top caliber defense players and that includes both of the team’s middle infielders, which are hard to come by. And to top this all off, Boston also picked up a top 20 pitcher in Jeff Samardzija who can bring on the heat. Let’s see what this team can continue to build and see if taking 1 pitcher in the top 125 picks is enough.

BAL:

I am very torn with this teams draft so far. I love the talent of the team, so far with drafting Felix Hernandez, David Price, Corey Dickerson, Hunter Pence and Adrian Beltre. But how can you draft 35 other players with just roughly $800,000 per player. Spending $50 million a year, on 2 pitchers, is risky to say the least. And spending 75% of your salary cap on your top 5 picks is even riskier. Let’s see what happens when Billy Beane has to take over the New York Yankees. We might just have the right ingredients to make 1 great Parmesan Sub here, or we might just have 1 overpriced wish sandwich on our hands.

SF:

1st thing I have to talk about with this team is their top pick Paul Goldschmidt. I don’t think you could get a better long term contract than this guy, 5 years at $6 million for a top defender who can hit for power, some speed and a great avg, with the counting stats to match. This fellow Texan is just reaching his prime and will be the best 5 year contract for sure. Next up is Kolten Wong, another great contract at ½ a million for the next 3 years. This 2nd baseman has shown to be just as good in the field as he has at the plate in his small sample size. San Fran followed this up with Jon Lester, Jason Heyward and Craig Kimbrel. This unknown team has some good players in the field as well as at the plate to go along with his ace, and still the top closer in the business in my opinion. Let’s see if this team can build on that strong start in the draft.

KAN:

The pigeons seem to be flying high with a solid top 5. They spent roughly 40% of their salary on their top 5 picks, which is a bit rough, but we will see if he can fill in 35 other roster spots with that $70 million he has left, and have a competitive team for this year and beyond. Starting off with Rizzo and Encarnacion could seem rough for defense. Encarnacion can play the OF, but does not have the glove for it that most owners would like. They can always fill their outfield later, but that still leaves the problem of having their top 2 bats both 1b, unless he runs with the DH. But we know that at least 8 teams the Pigeons will be facing will be going without a DH spot. Will Encarnacion be enough defense in the OF to make this work?

SEA:

Some people say Seattle is a depressing city, but I don’t know how they could say that after seeing the Hipsters top 5 picks. Let’s 1st take a look at 2 of the top middle infielders in the business. Seattle picked up Rendon for 3 years and Desmond for 2 years. These 2 players are great on the field, and at the plate, and can cover 2 of the harder positions to fill with top quality players. And on top of that, you have the flexibility of moving Rendon to 2b or 3b. Max Scherzer is a top pitcher for sure, but drafting him for only 1 year and him being your only pitcher in the top 125 picks, could be a problem for the future. Then Seattle follows up the top 3 picks with 2 average defensive outfielders who can bring some questions at the plate as well. 1st is Justin Upton, whose numbers at the plate were fine last year, but will the move to the Padres hurt this team in the future. And can Gregory Polanco live up to the hype and be the future of this team?

HOU:

So the Astros top 5 picks are 1 of the most intriguing group of picks so far. So, 1st round they pick up Josh Donaldson which is a great value, great bat for the lineup, and great defender of the hot corner. I love this pick and then the Astros throw a curveball some would say with their 2nd pick and pick up Dallas Keuchel. Most people would want to draft a top 20 pitcher as their 1st pitcher or a higher level prospect. Maybe the Astros wanted to stay true to their team, maybe they are just a Keuchel fan, or maybe they know something we don’t. I can’t wait to see what happens with this pick. Next they pick up Salvador Perez which is top glove on the field who brings some nice numbers and at bats from last year but he is only signed to a 1 year deal. Then we end the top 5 with Cespedes and the flying salmon himself Hisashi Iwakuma which are good players as well. At the end of it all, all I can think about is what does Dallas Keuchel have to take in the 2nd round over names such as Scherzer, Cole, Samardzija, Lester, etc…