Originally posted by Greg Ambrosius:
quote:Originally posted by RoundTrippers:
in the scl draft last night do you believe pedroria warrants top 20 consideration??? side note.....how do signups(after today) compare to last year.....are you still feeling weiters love??? seems as though others are loving as well...10th rd last night...wow...is he this years longoria?? Yeah, Pedroia is Top 20 worthy for all the reasons I mentioned last night. If he gets 600+ ABs again and hits anywhere around .310, man, that really helps a team batting average. Then add in the runs and the steals and the moderate power from a very weak position, and what's not to like? Hey, didn't I say that a lot on the AFL Panel?? 
Weiters in the Top 150 is a bargain. You saw him. He's HUGE and this kid will hit. Not as much as Longoria, but from the C spot he will have a solid impact. He will go earlier than the 10th round come Draft Day.
We are about 25 main event signups behind where we were last year at this time, but I don't blame anyone for waiting a little longer to sign up this year because of the economy and I also think we'll get more last minute signups with the online option than we've had in years past. Plus we have one extra week to get signups this year because of the later Opening Day. Today we added about 10 main event signups, so I'm not worried about where we are compared to last year. I still see lots of interest in the auctions, Ultimates and Supers, and I feel good about selling out our debut Online Championship this year and building a new product with that. So we'll see, but I still feel good. [/QUOTE]We've seen another catcher come through big in his rookie year, granted, it was 16 years ago, Mike Piazza, hitting .318 with 35 homers and 112 rbi's. Does this kid have that kind of talent? I don't know.
I wouldn't be surprised to see Ramon Hernandez hit more homers and rbi's this year than Wieters and he could be taken with a much later pick.
It's just not the safest play to take a catcher early. Imagine if Jeff Clement never was brought up last year? Would we be talking about him as a potential 10th rounder as he mashed AAA pitching in the same way Wieters rocked A and AA pitching. And we all know how well Clement did when he was brought up. He was horrible.
My guess is, when spring training comes, Wieters' coaches will want him to focus more on learning how to handle their staff and calling a game than hitting. It's tough to expect a bigger year than .280-20-75 unless of course, he's Mike Piazza.
"Hit a home run - put your head down, drop the bat, run around the bases, because the name on the front is more - a lot more important than the name on the back."
Ryne Sandberg (my favorite player of all-time)
