Friday night was primed to be a fun night. Some patience was going to be needed to have said fun, but it could have been had.
Instead, Parker fell asleep on his desk.
It's OK. He has to rest up for the big Yu Darvish start on Wednesday morning.
And we are in great shape here on Saturday night, sitting in the 12th round as I type this.
Hell, there's a chance that by the time I'm finished typing this, we'll be finished with the draft.
Nobody listens when I say, "We'll be fine."
The draft always picks up steam and storms to a finish.
We started Saturday morning off in the sixth round, and, of course, the ninth round went rather quick.
Let's just give me an A+ on that round, right, Parker?
No, OK. Then, let's go round by round!
ROUND 1
I think the best picks in this first round are Carlos Correa and Ranger Suarez, with the note that Nestor Cortes could be one of those guys that many are punching themselves for not taking if he returns to his 2022 form.
The Cheese Steaks, as part of his Philly onslaught, should be good for wins and quality outings on a winning team. Suarez posted a 4.18 ERA with 119 Ks in 125 innings. He was up and down last year, and I think we'll see some more consistency out of him, and that's why I like him in the first here.
Also might have something to do with the fact that I'm like JV, I'm a Philly homer!
ROUND 2
Obviously, the best picks here are Rogers and Rodgers. OK, so Brendan Rodgers has to stay healthy, but Trevor Rogers looks to be back and that could pay huge dividends if he is healthy enough to return to his rookie form when he posted a 2.64 ERA with 157 Ks in 133 innings.
ROUND 3
The best pick in this round is Orion Kerkering. No, I'm not just going with Slammers and Phillies. Kerkering has a real chance to be a force out of the pen, and could even see save opportunities at some point.
I also like Quad's pick of Logan Allen here. He pitched to a 3.81 ERA with 119 Ks in 125.1 innings before getting shut down with shoulder inflammation. If he can power through 150-170 innings, it could really be one of the steals of the draft that we only ever see the Breakfast nab.
ROUND 4
DL Hall (Big League Choo) and Ceddanne Rafaela (Breakfast) are my favorites of the fourth. Hall will get the chance to thrive at the major league level with the Brewers, and he doesn't have to worry about the hook back to Triple-A like he did with the Orioles; the Brewers don't have enough starters to give up on him so quickly. And I think he has the stuff to stick with the Brewers.
Rafaela is growing and it sounds like the Red Sox are going to find a way to keep him on the roster, which includes giving him a chance in the infield. Breakfast traded for him in the offseason, one of the many 9th rounders to the Slammers, and even though he couldn't keep him, he found his way back to the roster in Round 4.
ROUND 5
Keibert Ruiz (Crox) is my favorite pick of the fifth round. I think many have prospect fatigue on him, but he's still so young, and he really turned it on in the second half. He batted just .226 over 73 games in the first half of the season. He then turned it on and batted .300 over the final 63 games of the season.
I think that last 63 is what we can start to see throughout most of the season moving forward, which is what Crox really needed. He has Gabriel Moreno starting for him now and Harry Ford in the pipeline coming.
ROUND 6
Now it's starting to get deeper in the draft where we all know it's a crapshoot of everyone taking stabs in the dark at players we all think could take off or play a key role.
In the sixth, I think Crox's selection of Garrett Whitlock and the Dude's selection of AJ Minter could be just that.
I also selfishly like my pick of Jonathan Aranda, and I only add it in here because several messaged me about that pick. For me, with Junior Caminero getting sent back to the minors, this pick made a lot of sense right now. Maybe it pays off even more than I could have ever thought.
Whitlock could still be the best of this round. He had a great 72 strikeouts to 13 walks last year, but his 5.15 ERA was an eye sore. I think that will come down a lot this year and we'll see something closer to what we saw in 2022 when he struck out 82 over 78.1 innings with a 3.45 ERA. The biggest difference between 2021, when he went 8-4 with a 1.96 ERA and 2023 was the loss of velocity on his fastball from 96 MPH to 94 last year and 4 MPH off of his slider. I can't find any data on him this spring when it comes to pitch speeds, but his WHIP is down and his K:BB ratio is right where we normally see it (11:1).
ROUND 7
Hector Neris (Quad) and IL stashes Jeffery Springs and Clayton Kershaw highlight the seventh round. I was hoping to snag Kershaw as my IL stash in the 9th round, but it wasn't to be. Now the Dude has Kershaw, Scherzer and Verlander ... and they're all on the IL. This trio would have been brutal 7 years ago. They still could be a tall task to go up against, but we won't know until at least July.
Tommy brought home Springs, which worked for him because he knew he couldn't keep all of his injured starters. It's honestly only fair that he gets him back.
ROUND 8
Can I say I don't like anyone in this round? I know I didn't pick in this round, but man, there is nothing that jumps out to me here.
ROUND 9
Oh, what a round! I like 10 of the players selected here! Let me know in the chat what you think about it!
Update, we are still in Round 12 of the draft, and I'll finish off the rest of the draft when I return home. I've reached my limit here. Can you blame me? I had such a hard day of work drafting all those ninth-rounders!
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