SB Nation User Blog: devo

All-Time Greatest MLB Position Players, #7

devo — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 18:45:41 -0000

#7 Lou Gehrig

As this series returns from far too long of a vacation, I have to start with this statement: If you have not seen The Pride of the Yankees, you are not a baseball fan. Please leave this site immediately and do not return until you have fulfilled this critical obligation.

"Lou was the most valuable player the Yankees ever had because he was the prime source of their greatest asset - an implicit confidence in themselves and every man on the club."
Stanley Frank

Atypical for this series, which has generally proceeded in a fairly linear fashion, for this great of the game, what he did on the field, as half of the greatest hitting duo the game has ever seen, as a man whose power was as prodigious as it was profuse, as the embodiment of durability and hard work that was unmatched for over half a century and as the seventh greatest player to ever swing the lumber, none of that mattered as much as the simple, inspiring reminder to always look on the bright side.

When this mountain of a man – who could do greater things with his body than most of us could even hope to dream was stricken with a horrible illness in the prime of his life, who played the game with the joy of a small child suddenly saw not only his talents but his basic ability to function on the ball field disappear almost and who was taken far too quickly from his young, beloved bride – was told that he was dying from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), his reaction was not one of despair, but instead he described himself as “the luckiest man on the face of the earth.”

On June 1, 1925, a young Lou Gehrig pinch hit for Pee Wee Wanninger, making on his 35th appearance in his third go around with the Yankees. The next day he took over as the starter at first for struggling veteran Wally Pipp. Two thousand, one hundred and twenty eight games later he took the day off, calling it a career because, eight games into his 17th seasons, health had robbed Gehrig of his strength, stamina and coordination – his ability to play the game at even the most basic level.

After going hitless against the Senators in the last game of April, dropping his OPS to .416 (an OPS+ of 10), Gehrig told his manager, “I’m bench myself, Joe … for the good of the team”. Before the next game at Detroit’s Tiger Stadium, the announcer began, "Ladies and gentlemen, this is the first time Lou Gehrig's name will not appear on the Yankee lineup in 2,130 consecutive games," and the crowd erupted into a massive standing ovation for the visiting great.

Joe McCarthy celebrated his great player, remembering that day and calling him “the finest example of a ballplayer, sportsman, and citizen that baseball has ever known – Lou, what else can I say except that it was a sad day in the life of everybody who knew you when you came into my hotel room that day in Detroit and told me you were quitting as a ballplayer because you felt yourself a hindrance to the team. My God, man, you were never that."

Over his long but too short career, Gehrig led the Yankees to six World Series titles, batted .340, with 493 home runs, 1,888 runs and 1,995 RBIs and an OPS of 1.080, the third best ever (behind only Ruth and Williams). He won two MVPs and a Triple Crown in 1935, when he finished an inexplicable fifth in the voting. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in a special vote the following winter, making him the youngest player inducted.

As I cut this article short, I leave you with the words Gehrig spoke on Lou Gehrig spoke on Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day, July 4th, 1939, a day when VIPs, teammates and members of the Yankee family showered him with gifts, praise and adoration and the loving crowd brought the great man to tears:

"Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.

"Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn’t consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure, I’m lucky. Who wouldn’t consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball’s greatest empire, Ed Barrow? To have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins? Then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy? Sure, I'm lucky.

"When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift — that’s something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies — that’s something. When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter — that's something. When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so that you can have an education and build your body — it's a blessing. When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed — that's the finest I know.

"So I close in saying that I might have been given a bad break, but I've got an awful lot to live for. Thank you."

Of course, a recommend is always appreciated.

via upload.wikimedia.org

All-Time Greatest Position Players
#10 Mickey Mantle
#9 Rogers Hornsby
#8 Hank Aaron
#7 Lou Gehrig
#6
#5
#4
#3
#2
#1

Staturday: Street Signs -- UPDATED!!

devo — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 22:42:45 -0000

Two of the more interesting stories for our beleaguered team this year are closer Huston Street and setup man and AN author Brad Ziegler. Having read the title (and not being an Angels fan), you have probably figured out which player will be the focus of this article. AFTER you finish reading this article and commenting on it thoroughly, head over to Hardball Times, where our own salb918 has written a fascinating article on Brad Ziegler and why his slow pitch softball delivery is so effective. He has graphs … I like graphs … I have graphs too, so stay and enjoy my graphs … then go check out his article.

So Huston Street has been a pretty frustrating player for a lot of us. I had always seen him as the heir apparent to Dennis Eckersley. In celebrating that, I hung my signed, framed SI with Eck on its cover next to my signed, framed Beckett with Huston on the cover.

But, see, there is a difference between Huston Street and most closers. Health issues this year, aside, Huston Street is a really, really good pitcher. Over his career, he has done a great job of not allowing the opposing team to score very many runs. The problem, though, is that he has just been too darn consistent. Whereas his overall numbers have generally been in line with the bottom of the top tier or the top of the second tier (depending on how you define them) of closers, he has blown quite a few more saves than you would expect. Why? Because, in accumulating saves and avoiding blown saves, consistency is a bad thing. The more evenly his runs allowed are distributed, the more blown saves he will have. Because of that, though, the A’s win a lot of games that Huston blew the save in. They are 2-3 this year, for example. Because of that, saves and blown saves underrate Huston’s ability as a closer. How much, exactly, is a story for another column.

This year, though, it has been different. Huston has given up more runs, hits, homeruns and walks than he has in the past. Why? Well many suggest that it is due to a declining fastball, likely due to health problems. But is that true?

Well, at first glance, his fastball has definitely slowed down a bit over the years.
2005: 91.2 mph
2006: 91.7 mph
2007: 90.4 mph
2008: 89.8 mph
source: fangraphs.com

Yep, that is slower – but I am still not convinced. This is Staturday and we demand more rigorous analysis than that. Thanks to 74mk, that analysis is now possible. Note, this data does not include games in Japan, as those did not have reliable pitch data and runs through July 27.

As you can see, his fastball velocity has trended down over the course of the season but it is pretty all over the place and it is hard to make much out of it.

All of a sudden -- when we use a rolling average, instead of single games – the data becomes a lot more clear. Huston’s velocity plummeted in late May. In April and most of May, he was typically working at nearly ninety miles per hour. Since June, though, his velocity has typically been around eighty-eight. So, yes, I think it is pretty clear that Huston as lost velocity – but that leaves the question, is that loss of velocity the reason for his sub-par play?

To determine this, I separated games by the speed of his fastball. Based both on simplicity and comparable sample size, I broke the games into three categories – those in which his average fastball was 88.49 mph or less, those where his average fastball was 89.5 mph or more and those in between. The difference in results was stark:

When Huston was working in the upper range, he was flat out dominant – striking out more than a batter per inning and only allowing a hit every third inning, a batting average of roughly .120.

The middle group of games sees a small drop in strikeouts but a huge increase in hits, homeruns and, not surprisingly, runs.

The slowest group is event worse. He strikes out very few, gives up more than a hit an innings and allows a ton of runs. The only redeeming quality of this set is that he managed to keep the ball in the park.

So Huston’s fastball becomes very hittable when it drops below ninety? Not so fast.

Ninety-one of the batters Huston faced saw their plate appearance end with a fastball. In those at bats, batters put up a .200/.253/.341 line. Clearly, hitters have not done much damage to Huston’s fastball. What is more, it does not really matter how fast the fastball was thrown:

Batters have been even less productive against Huston’s slider, with a .194/.237/.333. No, the damage has almost entirely been done against his changeup, allowing a .280/.333/.520 line. It seems that the loss of velocity does not make Huston’s fastball any easier to hit – but the loss of separation from his changeup makes it much, much easier to hit. Perhaps Huston should start throwing fewer changeups until he gets his velocity back. He has not made that adjustment yet, though, as he has been throwing it about 16% of the time all season. Hopefully the couple of hours will not make this article someone else’s problem … unless it is Tampa Bay’s problem.

UPDATES:

Spurred on my grover's questions, here are a couple more charts.

Average velocity and movement of change up by outcome:

As you can see, there is no real difference in the velocity or movement of his change ups based on the results of that pitch.

Separation between average velocity of fastball and change up:

The results are a bit interesting, but somewhat rational. The less separation he has, the more hittable he is -- but in games with the least separation, he also has the best control. Curiously, it is the last group of games when he threw the most change ups. The first two were virtually identical, with 2.38 and 2.32 CU/IP, respectively. The group with the least separation, however featured 3.5 CU/IP.

As far as Faust's question, it seems that his change up's velocity has more or less tracked his fastball velocity.

Most Knowledgeable Fan Contest

devo — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 21:10:01 -0000

Okay, so there's no actual contest ... but I need some help on A's knowledge. I'm planning a future Staturday column assessing BB's overall success or failure in trading. I still need some information on PTBNLs and cash that completed trades.

Questions:
How much cash did we get for Kevin Melillo?
How much cash did we send to Atlanta with Kotsay? $5.3m
How much cash did we send to Chicago with Kendall? $6m
Who was the PTBNL we sent to Washington for Jermaine Van Buren?
How much cash did we get for Adam Melhuse?
Who was the PTBNL we sent to San Diego for Jack Cust? Cash, $100k
Oy, it takes too long to type out sentences ...
Cash for Langerhans (the first trade)?
PTBNL (along w McBeth) for Denorfia? Ben Jukich
PTBNL on each side for Saarloos? Denham/Manon
Cash paid for Murphy?
Cash paid for Karsay?
Cash paid for Ryan Glynn?
Cash acquired with Dotel?
Cash acquired for Jose Flores?
Cash or PTBNL with Kielty for Lilly? $10k
Cash with Lilly?

Thanks for your help!

Update: Making progress, thanks everyone ... keep it up!

Staturday: Jack & Ichiro: Still Two of a Kind?

devo — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 19:29:57 -0000

Back in March I commented on the similarity between the way Ichiro Suzuki and Jack Cust produce very, very dissimilar results. Ichiro has confounded PECOTA for years because he is a truly unique player. Jack Cust, with his limited MLB experience, had not had the chance to prove whether his own uniqueness was merely a function of small sample size or whether he was truly unique.

In that article, I noted how unique Jack Cust was in that he had the 8th highest line drive percentage in the league, a fairly low fly ball percentage but the highest HR/FB percentage. Also, particularly remarkable, given his relatively high ground ball percentage, he was the only player to fail to get a single infield hit. Each of those added up to an acceptable batting average, despite a ton of strikeouts and mammoth amount of power. Oh yeah, he also walked a lot.

So where do those things stand now?

Strikeout rate:
His strikeout rate has improved slightly – from 41.5% down to 39.5%. That is better … but still the worst in the league by a fair amount.

Walk rate:
His walk rate has fallen off more, though – from 21% to 18.5%. Although he has fallen off, that is still good for the second most in the Majors, behind kissing cousin Adam Dunn.

So while his strikeout rate and walk rates are still extreme, they did both converge towards the mean a bit, which should have been expected, given the extremity of their extremity, even if we take for granted that Jack Cust is a unique player. Also, keep in mind that we still have to deal with small sample size issues. The changes only amount to a difference of 2 or 3 strikeouts/walks.

No one really doubted that Jack Cust was going to continue to walk and strike out a lot, though. The question was whether he would be able to keep up with the Suzukis in terms of the productivity of his balls in play.

Ground ball percentage:
Cust’s ground ball percentage ticked upwards slightly, from 42.2% in 2007 to 42.9% this year. The difference is only one ground ball, so it is essentially identical.

Line drive percentage:
Somewhat troublingly, his line drive percentage has fallen a fair amount, from 23.2% to 20.3%. Small sample size warnings definitely apply, but this is not a good sign. To this point in the season, after being 8th best last year, he has dropped to the middle of the pack, 74th out of 169 eligible.

Fly ball percentage:
Given the drop in line drive percentage and the only moderate increase in ground balls, we should all know where the bulk of those line drives went – up, becoming fly balls, increasing from 34.6% to 36.8%. We should all recall that fly balls are generally good for power numbers but bad for batting average.

Homerun to fly ball percentage:
Given his increase in fly balls, this number becomes even more critical. Unfortunately, he has fallen off a fair amount in this regard, from a league leading 31.7% last year to a mere third best 26.9% this time around. That is a difference of a bit over 3 homeruns.

Batting average on balls in play:
And here comes the reality check. From an excellent .366, Cust dropped to a merely above average .311. Most of this drop is actually directly attributable to the drop in line drives. 3% fewer line drives usually means 3% fewer hits. Not at all surprisingly, a fairly normal line drive percentage led to a fairly normal batting average on balls in play.

Isolated Slugging:
In 2007, Jack Cust was 14th in the league in Isolated Slugging, with a .248. This year, though, he has dropped to 48th, with a .209. If you add in those 3.2 HRs he has lost to the decreased HR/FB%, though, he would be back up to .242 – so there is your difference.

Conclusion:
All told, with the exception of walks and strikeouts, this season Jack Cust has not been terribly unique. He has even risen to the middle of the pack in infield hit percentage. He gets about the number of hits we should expect, given the number of line drives he has hit and he has good – but not unworldly power. While small sample size issues definitely apply, there is serious cause for concern here. If Jack Cust is not unique, Jack Cust is not a terribly good player. So watch his LD% and HR/FB%. His drops in those two numbers are almost entirely responsible for his loss of 100 points of OPS. If those numbers increase, so will his value. If not … lets just hope they increase.

Ichiro Suzuki, by the way, is still unique.

Staturday: Pitch, Blease: The Final Pitch

devo — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:50:41 -0000

I present to you the fourth and final installment of Pitch, Blease. We have looked at the wide variety of pitches thrown in the majors as identified and described using PitchFX data. To this point, the key things we have learned are that having a good fastball is important – but having reliable secondary offerings is the key to being a high level pitcher.

Building on that, in this final installment I wanted to look at a couple of larger issues, the first being, how many pitches is the right number of pitches?

	Pitchers	K/9	K/BB	ERA	FIP	WHIP
5+ Pitches	18	5.78	2.60	4.39	4.40	1.34
4 Pitches	60	6.15	2.08	4.65	4.64	1.43
3 Pitches	58	6.67	2.34	4.28	4.31	1.37
2 Pitches	6	6.49	2.59	4.31	4.20	1.31

This is based on a pitcher throwing each pitch at least five percent of the time.

As you can see, the more pitches each pitcher throws, the worse they are likely to be. This actually makes a lot of sense, because pitchers throw more pitches because they need to throw more pitches. Mariano Rivera has enjoyed unparalleled success throwing nothing but cut fastballs. Randy Johnson was one of the best pitchers in the game for many, many years, throwing only fastballs and sliders. In more recent years though, as he has aged and his performance has fallen off, he has worked to add a splitter to his repertoire.

As far as the six pitchers who only threw two pitches, Daniel Cabrera was the worst of the lot, throwing only a 94 MPH fastball and an 83 MPH slider. Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine use guile to go along with a slow ball and a slower ball, keeping batters off balance and/or really, really bored. Ben Sheets and Eric Bedard match good fastballs with nasty curves to be among the best pitchers in the game … on the rare occasion that they are healthy. Finally, Tim Wakefield matches his knuckler with the rare fastball to round out this diverse group.

The next thing I did was group pitchers into various categories, based on how reliant they are on their fastball and how fast their fastballs are.

Fastballers were in the top quartile of pitchers in terms of the percentage of fastballs thrown. Junkballers were in the bottom quartile and Neutral Pitchers were among the 50% in the middle.

Fireballers threw fastballs in the top quartile in terms of velocity. Slowballers were in the bottom quartile and Neutral were in the middle.

		Pitchers	K/9	K/BB	ERA	FIP	WHIP
Junkballer	Fireballer	8	7.70	3.09	3.72	3.81	1.29
Neutral	Fireballer	18	7.97	2.95	4.02	3.92	1.29
Fastballer	Fireballer	9	6.66	1.85	4.23	4.32	1.42
Fastballer	Neutral	21	6.05	2.12	4.48	4.44	1.39
Junkballer	Neutral	14	6.14	2.47	4.56	4.48	1.37
Neutral	Neutral	36	6.35	2.17	4.52	4.53	1.39
Fastballer	Slowballer	5	5.13	2.09	4.42	4.67	1.41
Junkballer	Slowballer	13	5.55	1.99	4.66	4.73	1.41
Neutral	Slowballer	18	5.23	1.95	4.92	4.95	1.49

Notice that this list is ordered by FIP. I know it looked like it was ordered by velocity grouping, didn’t it? What can I say? Speed kills.

Not surprisingly, the best pitchers are the guys who bring the heat but do not rely on it. Guys like Dan Haren, Felix Hernandez, Kelvim Escobar, John Smoltz and Boof Bonsor highlight a stellar group. Yes, THE Boof Bonsor. Amazingly, Bonsor was the only pitcher in the group with a FIP of more than 4. Not surprisingly, all of these fireballers match their high-end fastball with a slider and all but Haren have a changeup to compliment their heat.

Curiously, among the slowballers, the best group are the ones who rely most on their very slow fastballs. In a small group, Greg Maddux throws his 85 MPH fastball 73% of the time. His impeccable command and unparalleled knowledge of pitching earned a 3.54 FIP and buoyed an otherwise extremely mediocre group.

Guys like Ervin Santana, Edwin Jackson and Brett Tomko dragged down the most star studded group’s overall performance. Neutral/Fireballers were led by Cy Young winners Jake Peavy and CC Sabathia as well as Johan Santana, Josh Beckett, Roy Oswalt and Tim Lincecum.

In conclusion, I thought I would list off a few lessons I think we should have learned:

1. Fastball velocity is key. If you can only know one thing about a pitcher, know his fastball velocity.
2. Over reliance on the fastball is a bad thing. Pitchers who can compliment their fastball with good breaking stuff will have the most success.
3. Under reliance on the fastball is a bad sign. Pitchers who try to get too cute probably are doing so because their principle offerings are not very good.

I hope you all have found this series interesting and informative. I now find myself in need of a new topic. I would encourage suggestions. I will be in Colorado, visiting my grandmother when this is published, so I probably will not be around much to discuss the article. Sorry.

Staturday: Draft Edition

devo — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 07:00:33 -0000

Some readers of this site may have noticed that there has been quite a lot of activity surrounding a recent event, the 2008 Major League Rule 4 Draft. Although it is not typically accompanied with the same fanfare of the NFL or NBA’s draft, these two days in early June have more of an impact on the fate of our beloved franchise than virtually any other in sports. As such, loyal readers must forgive this author for taking a break from his ongoing series, Pitch, Blease, which, you need not worry, will be picked up in three weeks, to delve into some numbers surrounding the draft.

No, the topic has not yet been beaten to death. The numbers I will be exploring are very different from the extensive set provided by Taj Adib and others over the last two days. Instead of focusing on the players drafted, I will be looking at trends over the last few years and what that tells us about this class.

The data is courtesy of Baseball America and runs from 2005 through 2008. I would have preferred to go back a couple more years, but that is as far as they do and this author is lazy. In case anyone has become interested, Staturday is in search of an intern to help out in compiling the basic data that allows us to do our work.

Rounds 1 through 3
With their first pick, the team selected the super-athletic Jemile Weeks. The younger brother of Brewer second baseman Rickie and the child of two track stars played baseball for the U.

With the second pick, the team selected Tyson Ross, a converted infielder who is still learning to pitch. He has the athleticism of a shortstop who outgrew the position. If he were still playing the field, I would imagine he would be a top defensive right fielder (assuming he can catch the ball). Instead he will be king of the hill, throwing nasty sinking fastballs and a wicked slider at a very low minor league level and working on his mechanics, trying to bounce back from a disappointing season at the University of California.

Arizona State catcher, Petey Paramore finishes this year’s opening troika. He is a patient hitter with a line drive approach but a lack of homerun power. The polished soon to be pro is a defensive wiz behind the plate, with a quick and accurate, but average arm.

So we have a second baseman, a right handed pitcher and a catcher, each drafted after their junior year out of top tier colleges. How does that compare to the previous three years? As it turns out, fairly normally. Eleven of the sixteen picks the team has made in the first three rounds were college educated, six were pitchers and two were middle infielders. Paramore was the first catcher the team has taken in the first ten rounds over this period, though. Perhaps more importantly, all sixteen picks signed with the team.

Rounds 4 through 10
In the fourth round, the team went for Anthony Capra, a lefty starter from Wichita State. Many think his future is in the bullpen but he pretty much is what he is, a left with an average fastball, good control and good secondary stuff who should move quickly through the organization.

They followed that up with Jason Christian, the Michigan Wolverine’s shortstop. A nice combination of a sweet glove and a frame that could add some real muscle, he is someone I like a lot.

In the sixth round the team switched gears and went with junior college super athlete Tyreace House. The outfielder has not really learned how to play baseball yet, but if he does, this is a pick that could pay off in a big way.

In the seventh the team grabbed Brett Hunter, another high upside player, coming off a season wrecked by injuries at Pepperdine, The fireballing righty has electric stuff, with a plus-plus fastball and a nasty 12 to 6 curve but inconsistent command and mechanics that make scouts wonder if he can ever stay healthy.

The team rounded out the group with JC outfielder Jeremy Barfield, who features major league bloodlines and, apparently, a temper to match, JC catcher Mitchell LeVier and high school outfielder Rashun Dixon.

All told, it adds up to two pitchers, one from each side, a shortstop, a catcher and a trio of outfielders. Three went to college, three to JC and one was drafted out of high school.

The team definitely leaned much more heavily on the junior college ranks than is typical. Only once in the previous three years had the team drafted a junior college player this early. Chad Lee, a right handed pitcher from Barton Community College was drafted in the 4th round in 2006 but washed out quickly. He is the only player the team has selected with any of its first twenty picks over the previous three years. The entire draft was JC heavy, as the team selected seven, while only having pick 9 over the previous three years.

The team has signed 81% of its picks in this portion of the draft over the last three years, so there is a good chance one or two will not be starting their professional career with the A’s.

Rounds 11 through 20
11th Chris Berroa OF, Junior College
12th Zac Elgie 1b, High School
In the 13th the team took injured college RHP Daniel Thomas.
14th David Thomas OF, College OF
15th Nino Leja SS, High School
In the 16th, college RHP Matt Fitts, drafted for the second time out of Lewis-Clark State, but he is eligible to return.
In the 17th, college 3b Bradley Glenn who you can watch take on Weeks’ Hurricanes in the NCAAs.
18th, Rayan Gonzalez RHP, High School
19th Michael Hart RHP, College
In the 20th Rodney Rutherford 3b, College

That makes for a total of six college kids, one JC player and three high school players. Over the past three years the team has gone much more heavily towards college talent at this point of the draft, selecting at least eight each year.

The team has seen four of their thirty selections in this group return to school, so one or two from this group may be lost.

Rounds 21 through 30
21st Mathieu LeBlanc Porter RHP, Junior College
22nd Preston Guilmet RHP, College
23rd Chris Rusin LHP, College
24th Ken Smalley RHP, College
25th Trey Barham, College
26nd Ryan Doolittle RHP, Junior College
27th Brent Warren OF, High School
28th Dusty Coleman SS, College
29th Justin Murray RHP, College
30th Kevin Jernigan 2b, College

That makes seven college players, two JC, one HS and a total of seven pitchers. I would guess that this will surprise many, that this late in the draft the team is still drafting so many college players. Even more surprising, perhaps, is that the team actually usually drafts even more. The three non-college players the team drafted this year matched the number it had picked over the previous three combined.

The team managed to sign the exact same portion, four out of thirty, as they did with the previous group.

Rounds 31 through 40
31st Mickey Storey RHP, College
32nd Ben Hornbeck LHP, College
33rd Shawn Haviland RHP, College
34rd Riley Welch RHP, High School
35th Virgil Hill CF, Junior College
36th Jonathan Berti SS, High School
37th Ryan Doiron RHP, High School
38th Bobby Crocker OF, High School
39th Dennis Clement RHP, High School
40th Jeffrey Dennis LHP, College

That makes four college players, one JC, five HS and six pitchers. It is only at this point in the draft that the team typically turns away from college players and focuses on younger talents. Over the last three years, only 32% in this group have come out of college.

We should not focus too much on these guys, though, as the team typically only signs about 25% of the players it drafts this late. Of the seven that signed, four went to college, three to JC and none only to HS – this, despite more than half of the team’s picks being spent on high school players. Additionally, the team only signed one pick in the last half of the group over those three years.

Conclusions
Overall, this draft looks fairly typical – with a heavy emphasis on college talent, especially in the late rounds and a ton of pitchers selected. The team has also continued its recent trend of going after high upside, high risk picks in the middle rounds. That said, while it may not show up in these numbers, the team did seem to move more towards athleticism and raw tools than it has in the past.

This leaves the question of whether the team will continue to sign its picks at the same rate – whether it will be able to bring any of the seven high school kids, some of whom have very live arms, into the organization.

How the team answers that question, I suspect, will have a huge bearing on how AN ultimately feels about this draft.

Poll

How do you feel about this draft?

Love it.

83 votes

Like it, after the first round.

107 votes

Meh.

161 votes

Not a fan.

38 votes

Fire Geren Now!!!!!!

40 votes

429 votes | Poll has closed

To Season Ticket Holders ... A Request ...

devo — Tue, 27 May 2008 15:54:14 -0000

Hello deal target audience.

My parents are celebrating their 28th anniversary this 27th of July and my dad wants to take my mom to the game for it. He was looking on the website, though and, naturally, couldn't find anything except mid caliber seats available -- the best being deservedly taken up by the team's loyal season ticket holders.

You see, my parents raised me and loved me and laid the groundwork for turning me into the A's fan that I am so I was hoping I might find one of ya'll on here who have awesome season tickets (fourth row behind home plate or something like that ....) who might be willing to let a single game go, at hopefully not much more than face value, for a good cause.

Thanks a lot!

~Devo