This week we've got exciting non-game action, more fun baseball fights, and USB contributors meeting up at GABP to watch the Reds! Let's get it started!
MLB Draft!
This week was a huge week for the half of the National League that's been tanking for the past year or so. Major League Baseball held their 2016 Draft in Secaucus, New Jersey at their network studios. To their credit, MLB has been trying to make their Draft a bigger deal over the past few years, televising the proceedings on their network and hyping up the top prospects on shows in the weeks ahead of the draft. It's a tough thing for them to sell for several reasons:
-Nobody really follows college baseball. Even less than nobody follows high school baseball. People love watching college football every week, and they love filling out brackets for the NCAA Basketball Tournament, so they're infinitely more familiar with the kids getting drafted by the NFL & NBA than the MLB kids.
-It's 1216 picks. That's a lot of people to keep track of. The NBA Draft has 60 picks, lasts one night and is the best televised draft. The NFL Draft has 253 picks, and we pay attention to 32 of them.
-We won't see the people being drafted anytime soon. The top NBA draftees are expected to carry their crappy teams on their shoulders. NFL draftees have to produce right away or they'll be cut. In baseball, these kids get sent to the minor leagues for a few years. It's a better system, no doubt, but in today's society where we want everything right now, it's tough to make us care about people we won't see for a few years.
-Something Todd Bergman & I noticed while watching the MLB Draft pregame show was that most of the top prospects looked like the type of people that would get punched, not the type of people that would do the punching. That's a problem.
Big Draft For Louisville
The University of Louisville baseball program has seen great advancement under the tutelage of coach Dan O'Connell, and UofL had a very successful draft for themselves. Shortstop Corey Ray became the highest MLB draft pick in UofL history, being selected with the fifth overall pick by the Brewers. Relief pitcher Zack Burdi went 26th to the White Sox & catcher Will Smith was taken by the Dodgers with the 32nd pick, giving Louisville the most first-round selections of any school in this year's draft.
Other selections included second baseman Nick Solak in the 2nd round by the Yankees, pitcher Drew Harrington in the 3rd by the Braves, and pitcher Kyle Funkhouser in the 4th round by the Tigers. The one downside of the draft for Louisville was Funkhouser slipping from the 35th pick in last year's draft to the 115th pick this year due to some struggles in his senior season. Lincoln Henzman was the final draft pick from the Cards, going to the Mariners in the thirty-first round.
Unfortunately for me, the Reds decided to ignore Louisville players with their draft selections, which is especially confusing with the success of former UofL outfielder Adam Duvall this season. Not only has Duvall been one of the few bright spots for the 2016 Reds, he's bringing in fans from Louisville traveling up I-71 to see him and hopefully get an autograph or buy some merchandise or whatever. (Duvall shirts are flying off the racks at GABP, from what I'm told.) The Reds would be wise to exploit the growing appetite for collegiate baseball in Reds Country along with the upgrade in collegiate talent, especially when they don't plan on contending for anything for the next couple of years.
(After I wrote the previous paragraph, the Cardinal Nine shit the bed in their super-regional, losing two straight games & getting knocked out of the NCAA Baseball Tournament. Zach Burdi blew a 3-run lead in the bottom of the ninth as UCSB hit a grand slam to win the game & the series. So...maybe the Reds brass is on to something here?)
Anywho, here are some of the selections that got some attention over the weekend.
Mickey Moniak: The outfielder from La Costa Canyon High School was the first overall pick by the Philadelphia Phillies. I don't really have much to say about him other than he reminds me of Mickey Morandini, a longtime Phillie second baseman. Morandini made an All-Star game and was a decent enough player, but Philly will probably hope for a bit more from Moniak.
Nick Senzel: The Reds took Senzel, a third baseman from the University of Tennessee, with the second overall pick. He's referred to by experts as the most sure thing in this year's draft, meaning he's the most likely to be able to hit on the major league level right away. The Reds have a weak farm system when it comes to position players, and their early selections focused on addressing that issue. We'll find out in five years if they addressed it or not, but experts seem pleased right now.
Riley Pint: Good news: He got picked fourth overall. Bad news: He got picked by the Rockies and he's a pitcher. Good luck living up to those expectations in Denver.
A.J. Puk: Despite never being the ace pitcher at the University of Florida, Puk was hailed by multiple draft experts as the top prospect in this year's draft. The A's got him at number six, so we'll see if he's the frontline starter the experts think he is, or the back of the rotation guy his college coaches thought he was.
Jason Groome: Groome was the top pitcher on MLB.com & Keith Law's draft board, so the Red Sox have to feel pretty good about getting him at the 12th overall pick. With a top-notch fastball and what's referred to in draft circles as a plus-plus curveball, the sky seems to be the limit for this kid from Barnegat High School.
Delvin Perez: The 17 year old shortstop from Puerto Rico tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug the day before the draft, but that didn't stop the St. Louis Cardinals from drafting him with the 23rd overall pick. Another cheater in St. Louis? Stop the presses. The Cardinals have ensured with this pick that other minor leaguers get the message that taking PEDs is the best way to get paid. If they haven't gotten it already.
Mario Feliciano: The catcher from the Carlos Beltran Baseball Academy in Puerto Rico was picked by the Brewers in Lottery Round B. I did not know there was a Carlos Beltran Baseball Academy, but apparently it's a big hit. There's also a heavy focus on academics, so it's not like one of those agency-run sports schools where kids spend 50 hours a week on a tennis court.
Bo Bichette: A number of famous player offspring make the draft board every year. Occasionally one of them will end up catching on, but they usually pale in comparison to their famous relatives. Bo, the son of Dante Bichette, has the potential to be even better than his dad was. He batted .569 with 13 home runs in his senior year of high school and committed to Arizona State. Committing to a school typically doesn't stop teams from drafting kids, and the Blue Jays opted to take Bichette with the 66th overall selection.
Cavan Biggio: The son of Hall of Famer Craig Biggio & second baseman for Notre Dame was selected in the fifth round by the Blue Jays. Making it more special for the Biggio family was the pick being announced by Cavan's older brother Conor, who's currently working as an intern in the Commissioner's office.
Ryan Howard: Not to be confused with the Phillies' first baseman or the character from The Office, Howard's a shortstop from Missouri that got drafted in the fifth round by the Giants. Since the TV show ended a couple of years ago and the first baseman should be retired by the time this guy would be in the big leagues, there shouldn't be too much confusion in a few years.
Preston Palmeiro: The first baseman from NC State went to the Baltimore Orioles in the seventh round. Preston is the son of Rafael Palmeiro, who was considered one of the best players in baseball for a good percentage of his career but will never be considered for Hall of Fame consideration due to his usage of steroids. I can't say "alleged" because he did test positive in 2005. Rafael's career ended with the Orioles, so it's nice that his son's career will begin with the same organization. He's a good hitter too, so perhaps he'll restore some honor & prestige to his last name.
Chad Hockin: Another player with family ties, this pitcher from Cal State Fullerton is the grandson of Twins Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew. The Cubs took him in the sixth round, so he'll have a lot of talent to compete with for an eventual major league spot.
Jacob Heyward: Jacob is the younger brother of Jason Heyward and was selected in the 18th round by the Giants. He can play all the outfield spots and has a heck of an arm, so even though he's not considered on the same level as Jason, he could have a solid career.
Trey Griffey: The son of Ken Griffey Jr. is playing football at the University of Arizona and hasn't played baseball in quite some time. You won't be seeing him on a baseball field anytime soon. The Seattle Mariners still thought it would be nice to draft him in the 24th round to honor their greatest player of all time and a man that will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame this year: Trey's dad.
Yeah, it's a nice gesture, but it's not exactly an argument in favor of paying attention to the MLB Draft. On the bright side, it wasn't as much of a nepotism pick as the Angels drafting Torri Hunter Jr., a little-used Notre Dame outfielder, in the 23rd round so his dad could announce the pick. Hunter is currently the Notre Dame football team's top wide receiver, so I wouldn't expect that pick to lead to anything.
Reds Update
Actually, things have been going fairly well for the Reds since the last time we checked in with them. They won series with the Rockies, Nationals & A's, and even won a game against the Cardinals. Don't get me wrong, they're not making a push into contention or anything like that. They're still six games out of fourth place. But their run differential is no longer looking like record-breaking stuff...the Braves & Twins are worse now.
Speaking of the Braves, the Reds head to Atlanta on Monday for a four-game set that should set the world on fire. If you're one of those people that likes watching bad baseball, that'll be the series to keep an eye on. Blooper videos are fun.
The highlight of the Reds' week, perhaps the Reds' season, was the visit paid to Great American Ballpark by USB contributors Jeremy Lambert & Todd Bergman for Thursday night's game against the hated St. Louis Cardinals. Those of you that follow us on Twitter or Facebook (and if you don't, why the hell not?) were bombarded with pictures of the three sexiest beasts rooting for the Reds. I must say that both men were very negative about the team's prospects that night, and that might have helped lead to the loss the Reds suffered that evening. Other than that, and the disappointment I encountered when the Taste of Belgium waffle didn't live up to my two years of anticipation, it was an enjoyable evening. One of these days we'll have to get Dustin out here to ensure we all end the night in prison.
As for the Reds themselves, they still suffer from a pretty bad bullpen and the bats have went quiet lately. Zack Cozart's batting average went down 20 points this week and now he's right in the same range as everybody else on the team. The starting pitching has mostly delivered though, and Anthony Desclafani looked damn good in his first start back on the team. The bullpen may get reinforcements soon, as Michael Lorenzen & Rasiel Iglesais are expected to be relief pitchers when they return to the fold. Probably for the best. Iglesais has tremendous stuff but seems to be pretty fragile, so a lighter workload for him would probably be best. I could see him as a closer.
Until then, we have Mister Wonderful Ross Ohlendorf. I don't know why he closed the game on Saturday, but honestly, with this bullpen, any option is the same.
The Most Toothless Punishment In Sports
I think we can all agree that there are a lot of useless punishments in sports. Most of them come courtesy of the NCAA, the spectacular organization that exists to make sure that college athletes don't receive anything for their work. Honestly, I'm surprised they even let kids get drafted by professional teams. Most pro leagues specialize in fines and suspensions. Fines don't affect the tippy-top guys, so suspensions are typically the best way for a league to get its point across...
Unless, you're Major League Baseball and you need to punish a starting pitcher for doing something stupid.
Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Yordano Ventura is very talented. He's got good stuff that he hasn't harnessed quite yet, but you can see the potential for brilliance. He's also a complete asshole who often seems to cause trouble. He instigated three fights in the 2015 season by either hitting people with pitches or talking crap from the mound. He does the "talking crap" thing a lot. Way too much. So much that you had to figure that somebody would eventually get tired of his crap and punch him.
Manny Machado got tired of his crap. The Orioles & Royals don't exactly have a great relationship anyway since the 2014 ALCS when the Royals made t-shirts about the O's not being Royal. Machado's first at-bat against Ventura on Tuesday resulted in a hit after a number of inside pitches that Machado didn't appreciate. Ventura didn't appreciate Machado eventually scoring, and in the fifth inning he decided to hit him on the side with a 99 mph fastball. Machado didn't appreciate that, ran out to the mound and punched Ventura. They went down to the ground, benches cleared and things got crazy for a minute or two. Both men were ejected from the game, and on Friday MLB announced that Machado would be suspended for four games while Ventura would get a nine game suspension.
I mean, that sounds all well and good. Until you remember that Ventura is a starting pitcher and only plays once every five games. So basically, Ventura is being skipped in the rotation one time and that's his punishment. Missing one game. Getting some time to rest in the middle of the season and keeping that inning count down.
Hell, why don't more starting pitchers try & get suspended in the middle of the season? We could have avoided that Matt Harvey drama of will he or won't he pitch in the World Series nonsense last year if he'd just plunked a couple of guys in July and took a start or two off. Bartolo Colon's complaining about his back. so why doesn't he do something to get suspended and take a game off?
In Harvey & Colon's case...it's because they pitch in the National League. They have to bat. They have to worry about getting hit with a 99 mph fastball. They have to answer for their actions. Yordano Ventura pitches in the sissified American League where pitchers don't have to pick up a bat and try to help themselves. So he doesn't have to worry about anything. He never faces any consequences for being a douchebag in public. Unless somebody rushes the mound and punches him, which really doesn't happen too often.
Suspending starting pitchers is a waste of time. So what do you do to punish them? I'd like to make them hit, but that'd never get approved. I think the best thing to do is make them keep up their schedule, but take away their game check. A couple of weeks of that could make some of these guys stay in line, and it wouldn't give them that nice vacation in the dog days of summer.
Yes, we're already in the dog days of summer. Did you feel the temperatures this week? Global warming.
Three Series To Watch This Week
1. Cubs at Nationals (Monday-Wednesday): The Cubs have been a bit less awesome lately, but are still the best team in baseball by a pretty decent margin. They'll be going to DC this week, where the Nationals are building some momentum and putting a little bit of space between themselves and the Mets. A poor showing in this series wouldn't help matters, though the Mets will be dealing with a tough series themselves at the same time hosting the pesky Pirates.
2. Blue Jays at Orioles (Friday-Sunday): Baltimore has a pretty tough week in front of them...they lead the AL East as I write this, but they go to Boston for four games & then they'll host the resurgent Blue Jays this weekend. The Jays got off to a slow start but we figured it would only be a matter of time before they got on track. The O's are currently the hottest team in the AL, this week will be a good test for them.
3. Indians at Royals (Monday-Wednesday): Another of the hottest teams in the AL is the Cleveland outfit, who currently hold 1st place in the Central by 2.5 games over the Royals & Tigers, and 4 over the sinking White Sox. The Royals are hovering around .500 along with most of the rest of the division and will be looking to cut into the Indians' lead in this series.
Welp, that's all we have time for this week! Thanks for reading, and see you next time!
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