I’ve been thinking long and hard — note my general absence of late, and the lack of quality posts over the past few weeks — about the best way to share the information that I’ve accrued over the past 18 months on 2012 MLB Draft prospects, and, with less than four full weeks until the draft’s first day, I’m finally ready to submit my plan for the next month with my beautiful, adoring public. I’m feeling as much pressure as somebody who runs a free, infrequently read, one-man operation of a baseball draft website can feel because all kinds of pesky life commitments keep getting in the way of me getting some quality time working on the site. I don’t want the hard work of the last year and a half to go to waste simply because I don’t have a few extra hours each day to do exactly what I want to do with the site, so it is time to improvise.
At some point this week, a new page will go up on the site. The page will serve as an index of all of the 2012 Draft rankings that I’ve put together (largely behind the scenes) thus far. It will look a little something like this…
(Ongoing) 2012 MLB Draft Catcher Prospect Rankings
(Ongoing) 2012 MLB Draft First Base Prospect Rankings
(Ongoing) 2012 MLB Draft Second Base Prospect Rankings
…but with two major differences: 1) the titles above will all be hyperlinked to the pages that actually contain the rankings, and 2) there will be rankings for every position on the diamond. I’m still debating on whether or not I want to differentiate between college and high school lists, but at this point I’m inclined to throw every player together and let the chips fall where they may. This may be hard to imagine for now, but it will make a lot more sense by the end of the week.
For the first few days after the links go live, the rankings will look like a total mess. That’s by design, believe it or not. I really liked the way Rotoworld’s Josh Norris organized his 2012 NFL Draft coverage using a constantly evolving public Google document, and I think this site could use some of that same forward thinking. Rankings are fluid, and it is silly to continue to pretend otherwise. Note the word “Ongoing” at the start of each ranking. By adding names and information as I have the time, the site should be continuously refreshed with new information each and every day between now and the day before the draft. It may not appear that much is going on, as “new” posts won’t be popping up on the main page like before, but the links in the index will be constantly updated as new players are added.
One last important consideration that I can’t believe has taken me this long to get to: the rankings won’t just be a name and a number. This rankings will have a little more meat than previous lists on this site. That’s one of the things that makes me happiest about this plan. Instead of writing up paragraphs on each player in the top twenty (like last year), I can now go deeper with ranking guys by focusing on far easier to write and organize random player notes. In addition to the basic biographical information about each player, I’ll include as much from my personal scouting database — I don’t mean for that to sound fancy in any way; it’s just a Word doc that I use to jot down any random player note that comes to mind — as necessary along the way. Statistical information will also be provided whenever possible. Here’s an example of what I’m talking about (stats are current as of 5/2):
Florida JR C Mike Zunino: legitimate plus raw power, but expected to be above-average in-game professionally as length in swing could cause some issues on high velocity arms; plus arm strength; good athlete for his height and weight; plus defensive tools behind plate, surprisingly mobile; calling card is his power, but underrated as a natural hitter; value comes on field, obviously, but added bonus of being a take charge leader is nice for the position; more than just a flashy strong arm, also really accurate; swing can get too long at times which could expose him against good breaking balls going forward; also gets bonus points for calling own pitches; 6-2, 220 pounds
2011: .398/.469/.720 – 34 BB/49 K – 264 AB
2012: .365/.418/.713 – 17 BB/25 K – 167 AB
That quick blurb on Zunino may be all I wind up writing about the guy between now and draft day. Or maybe something will come up that will make me want to go back and add something new. Again, we’re stressing the ever-evolving idea of player evaluation here. The idea behind including notes on each player is to quickly sum up a prospect’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as (hopefully) sharing a general view of what kind of player we’re talking about. I’ll be sure to send out updates when player information is revised or rankings are changed. Updates will also be provided after I go through and get the most current statistics for each player.
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In all honesty, I’m not 100% sure this is going to work. I do, however, think the opportunity to approach draft coverage in a slightly different manner is worth the risk. I suppose in that way, I’m confident this will “work.” Sure, it won’t work in an increased traffic to the site kind of way — I’m 99.99% sure this approach will submarine any chance I had of increasing the number of eyeballs who come here, but I’ve come to accept and appreciate that covering the draft like I do only appeals to a very small subset of the baseball loving world — but if I can get as much information out as humanly possible between now and June 4, then this will have worked.
You wouldn’t know it by looking at the site, but I’ve shifted focus away from 2011 draft reviews in favor of 2012 college/high school preview stuff. The realization that college ball is so close hit me last week, so I’ve been in a scramble to pull as much data off of College Splits (word count is currently at 34,848 in my 2012 “College Follow List” Word document…how cool am I?) as I can before they roll their database into 2012. Expect to see some good stuff in the near future – I’m thinking quick conference previews for college ball are in order, as is a badly needed update to the Big Board. I also have notes on some of the summer/fall/winter showcase events I’ve seen, so keep your eyes peeled for that.
In the immediate future, however, all I can offer is a far too long for a grad program supposedly designed with working professionals in mind (yeah, I’m a little bitter) term paper on fetal alcohol syndrome. Should I post that? Any interest? Anybody? No? Cool. Paper is due Thursday night, so expect something new on Friday (if I’m feeling frisky as I enjoy the brief post-deadline submission high) or, at the latest, Monday.
First, a big thank you to all that have stuck with the site since we started things up a mere thirty-five months ago. With literally over half a billion websites banging around the internet these days, there is a lot of competition for your time and energy. The fact that so many have checked in over the years is pretty mind-boggling to me, and much appreciated. Even crazier is knowing that there are people out there who check in daily, something I simply could not imagine back when this began. Interest in baseball’s amateur draft has grown in ways I could have only hoped back in 2009, and I’m glad to be even be a teeny tiny part of the boom.
Now, let’s talk business. A quick look to the “Recent Posts” sidebar shows that the focus of late has been on wrapping up all things 2011. With the calendar now officially turned to 2012, the short-term plan remains simple: finish these damn 2011 MLB Draft in Review pieces. By my count, we still need to cover 10 teams: Tampa Bay, Toronto, Minnesota, Texas, Philadelphia, Washington, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, San Diego, and San Francisco. If I keep my current pace of one per week going, then 2011 draft talk will bleed into March 2012. Considering the college baseball season starts February 17th, that’s unacceptable. Work and grad school have slowed my writing considerably since both started back up in September (funny that it isn’t so much the actual time devoted to attending work/school, but the time spent reading, writing, and researching on the computer – my old eyes can’t keep up that kind of pace and there are some days when I can’t imagine looking at this glowing screen any longer than I absolutely have to), but I really, really want to find a way to wrap up everything I want to say about 2011 before really diving into 2012 coverage. I’m not yet sure how I’ll do it, but I’ll do it. Getting that into writing = hopefully providing motivation to get it all done…
The long-term plan is a little bit more muddled, so I’m happy to hear any suggestions about what specific content you’d like to see. As it stands now, 2012 coverage will be similar to what we’ve done in the past: position rankings, college team profiles, weekend updates, and, yeah, maybe even a mock draft or two. I’ll also probably try to do a little more stream of consciousness type stuff because, honesty alert, those kind of posts require a great deal less time and planning.
So, to recap: finish all things 2011, move on to 2012 coverage (suggestions welcomed!), and, eventually, turn our attention to 2013 and beyond. I’ve always wanted to keep this going as long as it was interesting to me and, despite slowing down the pace somewhat, things are definitely still interesting.
Quiet around here lately, but I think the title of this post says it all. Only so many hours of the day — 22ish if it were up to me, with 2 hours of sleep mixed in — can be spent on baseball, and a good chunk of that time gets swallowed up by playoff baseball every year at this point.
Cleveland’s draft writeup is 90% done, so expect to see that up on the main page by the end of the week, if not sooner. After that, I’m open to requests on the next team. Big party once I finish all the 2011 recap stuff because I’m really itching to get on with 2012…
Forgetting my password needed to log in to the site: a sure sign I’ve neglected this thing for too long. As I’ve mentioned in the past, September is the craziest time of year for me from a real life work standpoint. Perhaps the most telling example of how hectic things have been of late is how I actually prepared a few yet to be published pieces over the summer in anticipation of my time crunch, but haven’t even had the ten minutes to hop on WordPress to edit and publish. Not cool, real life, not cool at all. This year has brought the added stress of grad school into the mix, but I’m close to finding the sweet equilibrium that will allow me to organize all the glamorous demands of my superstar lifestyle in such a way that frees up some time for the site to soldier on.
The current plan of attack is to focus on finishing up the 2011 Draft review things that I started at the end of August. That would mark the first time I’ve ever finished a draft review (or any string of posts meant to be a complete series) in three years of doing this, so you’d better believe I’m motivated to get those pieces done no matter what. After that, all 2012 Draft all the time. Every day that I don’t update the 2012 Top 100 a tiny piece of me dies, especially now that I’ve got more information to work with…not to mention a Baseball America list that is undeniably well researched, but full of rankings that have me more than a bit confused. I can’t wait to get into that, but will try to put a lid on it until 2011 is in the rear view mirror. The sooner we plow through the 2011 Draft, the sooner we get to 2012, right?
For now, expect a 2011 Draft review for the Oakland Athletics soonish. I’ll keep going in my random order of teams unless somebody has a special request. Otherwise, Oakland sometime later this week. As always, thanks for being patient and sticking with the site through the occasional dead periods.
Chicago, San Diego, and now back to the dreary reality of signing day. Coincidence that three of the biggest days of the draft season fell on three consecutive days? Either way, it has certainly pulled my focus in all kinds of competing directions of late. We could talk about the wildest comp I’ve ever heard in my life — what high school outfielder’s swing had a salty veteran scout muttering the name of a Hall of Fame third baseman as an honest to goodness comp? — or we could talk about how I couldn’t place Lance McCullers similarity to somebody I “knew” (turned out to be pretty embarrassing, but the rising senior looks a lot like the actor Penn Badgley in a certain light) until well after the fact. I suppose we could also talk about who will sign, who won’t sign, or why Major League Baseball allows this entire joke of a mid-August signing day to exist in the first place. Or we could just delay all of that time-sensitive stuff by going on aimlessly about what we could discuss but never actually get to the discussing. Good times.
In the coming days and weeks we’ll tackle all those subjects and more, with the heaviest emphasis on recapping everything that needs to be recapped about the 2011 draft. It’ll be your typical “how did my team do/how did these players do/how did that college do” thing with my silly pre-draft lists and rankings as fun a jumping off point for discussion as I can come up with. We’ll also bring the 2012 draft back into focus as we finally go back and talk about what in the world I was thinking when I put this beast together: there will be explanations, justifications, rationalizations, and, of course, updates(-tions) to the high school rankings, though I don’t think the college side of the equation will be altered much at all. Then we’ll kill some time in the fall between working full-time and grad school (can’t wait!) by chatting about the upcoming college baseball season. Next thing you know it’ll be Spring 2012 and we’ll be on the precipice of another crazy draft season. Like I said, good times.
My schedule for the next few weeks isn’t totally set in stone just yet, but I do know that I’ll be on assignment (lots of good amateur ball to watch in August) and won’t be around much this coming week. Fear not, as I’m ready with a nifty little backlog of draft retrospectives that should be up Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. So, really, this announcement isn’t much of an announcement at all, other than to say the summer schedule I’ve slowly tried to phase in (M/W/F) will continue at least through the end of August. Thanks for sticking with the site.
More 2012 thoughts to come (plus responses to anybody who hit me up via email or in the comment section), but I wanted to start the week off with something totally different. I’ve already spent tons of time this summer doing homework so I could best look forward to next year’s draft class, but now want to switch it up and look back at prior draft classes to see what has happened to some of the big names of the past two years. The year-round nature of a draft site doesn’t always allow for much retrospection, so I figured it would be interesting to take advantage of the mid-summer lull by digging into the archives in sort of a “Where Are They Now” kind of way.
First up, a look at what the top junior college prospects of 2009 are up to now. Thrilling, I know. Should be ready by mid-day…
Been a pretty crazy couple of weeks as I was unexpectedly called upon by an out of the blue third party (more on this to come if I get it cleared, but no guarantees) to head down and check out the Prospect Classic and other assorted games and practices from both the great state of North Carolina and Florida. Sorry for just falling off the map like I did, but internet access and downtime were both harder to come by than usual. I’m also sorry that my terrible College World Series prediction was up on the main page for a week and a half. A few disorganized idle thoughts from my time away…
I have no idea how best to disseminate the mountain of notes I accumulated during my time away from the site, but the information on prospects and contacts with scouts, college and high school coaches, and fellow draft and prospect obsessed internet peons give me lots to work with as we begin our 2012 MLB Draft discussions in earnest over the coming months. Speaking of my fellow draft and prospect obsessed peons (said with nothing but love, of course), one of my big takeaways from the events over the past few weeks was the realization of just how many people are now doing what I do and, quite frankly, doing it just as well, if not a billion times better. I didn’t get the chance to meet a few of the guys that I would have liked, but was still blown away at the passion shown for by those that I was lucky enough to talk to. I really have to update the links on the side of the page to reflect all of the wonderful additions to the internet draft community.
I’m also now back to square one when it comes to how I want to approach the summer months in terms of content for the main page. There is still much work to be done with respect to the accumulation of information (i.e. watching more games and video, talking to people in the know, sifting through notes) and the overall design of the site (I’m a restless tinkerer by nature), but I don’t want to ever go more than a two days (give or take) without some form of worthwhile content. Lots of 2012 college stuff (I like the conference profiles), lots of 2012 high school stuff (still unsure how best to lay this out), maybe some reflective stuff (perhaps on individual players breaking through to the big leagues and a look at how bad some of my rankings have turned out), and, because I’m just a little crazy, a 2012 mock draft with a money-back guarantee to be 100% accurate. I’m going to let all of those thoughts marinate for a day or two, but be sure to check back on Friday for some new content.
I don’t say this nearly enough, but thank you to the readers and email subscribers who have continued to check in daily even after I’ve gone off the grid during arguably the slowest point of draft season. It is exciting to get tens of thousands of hits on draft day thanks to search engine driven traffic, but I take much greater pride in couple hundred readers that click right through every day even after all the thrill of early June draft mania is gone.
I’ve tried to stave off this announcement for a few days, but I can’t fake my way through any more non-research required pieces (like, say the Alex White retrospective) any longer. An accident at work has left me with my second cracked computer screen in ten months, so things will be quiet on the site for a few days while I find a way to get back into my hard drive. Until I can plug my laptop into a working desktop and/or replace the screen, there will be a slight delay in posting.
To make it up to the three or four loyal readers who’ve read this far, I’m hoping to have a mock draft (my first in what seems like forever) ready to go by the time I’m fully operational again. As always, thanks for reading and thanks for sticking with this site.
