Todd Johnson

The Weekly: Draft News, Mock Drafts, IFA Rankings, Draft Cards, and the Strat-O-Matic Returns

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Draft News and Information
*According to Jon Heyman, MLB still plans on holding the draft starting on June 10. Yes, there will be fewer rounds, but the number of rounds is still up in the air. Also, the draft will be virtual just like days two and three are every year.  

*Jonathan Mayo of MLB Pipeline put out his first full team-by-team mock draft on MLB Pipeline this week. This is a little bit different than just ranking the prospects, which Pipeline has done since January. This was Mayo sitting down as the team and selecting players at that spot for that team. For the Cubs, Mayo picked catcher Patrick Bailey from North Carolina State. When I first read that, I let out a big sigh. It was not a sigh of relief, rather it was a sigh of “Don’t we already have enough catchers in the system?” I am starting to prefer, at this point, that the best option for the Cubs might actually be a prep hitter rather than a college bat.

*On Thursday night, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic released an article stating that the Players Association rejected MLB’s latest draft proposal. The article alleged that MLB slashed the amount of money going to players in rounds 6-10 and to nondrafted free agents. According to Rosenthal, both sides can still put forth new structures over the next month. If nothing is agreed upon before June 10, the draft will revert back to the agreed upon standards set in March.

*On Friday night, Prospects Live ran their own mock draft with columnists from all the over the blogosphere representing the 30 teams. Bryan Smith of Bleacher Nation held the board for the Cubs. When #16 rolled around, Bryan took lefty starter Garrett Crochet from Tennessee as the Cubs’ top pick. Crochet is an up and coming power lefty. At 6’6”, he’s been throwing in the upper 90s all spring. And those don’t grow on trees. There were some prep bats available on the board, but the Crochet pick was solid. It was a fun draft to watch to see just how these prospects fell in a draft by guys that cover the teams. I would have liked a bat, but that’s just me.

The draft continued, actually, for two more rounds. Being that I had to get up and yell at kids to get off my lawn in the morning (I kid), I fell asleep during round 2. Bryan picked fire baller Kyle Nicolas from Ball State in round 2 and  in the third he selected prep bat Jace Bohrofen, who is going to take some time to develop. It was interesting to see the picks unfold and who went where. In the big scheme of things, it means little as to what the Cubs will do, but it does show what the Cubs could do and what kind of talent might be available.

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A little early, I know

Jesse Sanchez Drops His International Top 30
MLB Pipeline also released Jesse Sanchez’s top 30 international prospects this week. Coming in at #5 was none other than SS Cristian Hernandez. The opening paragraph was a bit mouth-watering.

“Hernandez is a five-tool player with a chance to have plus tools across the board. At 6-foot-2, 175 pounds, the teenager resembles a young Alex Rodriguez and has a build similar to Manny Machado at the same age. He styles his game after Javier Baez, his favorite player.”

Hernandez was the only potential Cub signee on the list.

Still Waiting… Fangraphs now has 7 organizational prospect lists to go. That includes the Cubs. They are taking forever.

Down the Rabbit Hole – This is a new feature where I recapitulate how I got lost looking at something strange topic on the internet or something I became obsessed with in a weird way. Usually, this happens on YouTube where one video leads me to another which leads me to another…you get the gist of it.

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This week, my rabbit hole was about designing draft cards for this year’s picks. Last year, I went with a classic 1985 design. So I started thinking about what year I wanted to use for this year. I made several samples of years I had not used before. 

Anyway, what I decided to do this year is to have a tournament of 8 cards that you get to decide. I will start this Tuesday with the round of 8 (quarterfinals). The semi-finals will be on Thursday. It is a single elimination tournament and it is done by popular vote through Google Forms. I left it so you can vote Chicago style (as many times as you want). Next Saturday morning, I will put out the final two cards in a poll via Twitter. You will only be able to vote in that round just once.

Here are the years you will be choosing from next week.
Across the top are 2007, 1965, 1970, 1977. The bottom row contains 2017, 1971, 1973, and 1999.

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Tweet of the Week

It was cool to see this tweet that Strat O-Matic is making somewhat of a comeback during the pandemic. I played it quite a bit in college in the 80s and even up through the mid 90s. Between Risk, Dungeons and Dragons, and Strat O-Matic, I was up until 3 or 4 in the morning most every Saturday night/Sunday morning in the early to mid 80s.  Yes, I was a giant nerd (still am).

This Week’s Rewind
Ethan Hearn 
Alex Moore
What Could a Minor League Season Look Like?
Cayne Ueckert
April MiLB All-Star Team
Draft Risers

Track of the Week
I always knew this song was in an awkward meter. Thanks to Rick Beato, I learned it is in 27/4. For your listening pleasure, I give you Goliath by Karnivool from Australia. If you don’t like progressive rock music…you might not want to click it.