4 Mariner Draft picks on day 1

TheRoarOfTheCrowd

The Mariners had 3 first round picks this year and went for 2 infielders and one OF high school player in the draft... the second round pick was a 3rd baseman so this draft is offensive minded
with the desire to up their home grown infield talent going forward [good idea since 2nd base has been a black hole for a while now]

https://mlb.com/news/colt-emerson-drafted-no-22-by-mariners-in-2023-mlb-draft

DerekJohnson

Thanks Taft!

BleachedAnusDawg

Can't wait for the 8 year process before any of these guys contribute!

Fishpo31

BleachedAnusDawg said:

Can't wait for the 8 year process before any of these guys contribute!

#itshard

chuck

I like that they went for bigger dudes with some power potential.

BleachedAnusDawg said:

Can't wait for the 8 year process before any of these guys contribute!

It's at least 50:50 that any of these guys who flash will be trade bait anyways.

dnc

Aidan Smith in the 4th gives them 4 high schoolers, not sure I can remember them taking so many so high. Certainly not since the bonus pools were implemented. Teddy McGraw's a really interesting 3rd rounder too as a first round talent battling injuries.

I like this draft a lot. We'll see if they can develop these HS bats.

Fishpo31

Back in the day when the draft went 50+ rounds, the percentage of players who signed a contract and made it to the bigs, even for 1 day, was around 10%. That is why I have never begrudged the money they make, especially since most of them never make it to free agency, with the average career lasting about 5 years...

dnc

Fishpo31 said:

Back in the day when the draft went 50+ rounds, the percentage of players who signed a contract and made it to the bigs, even for 1 day, was around 10%. That is why I have never begrudged the money they make, especially since most of them never make it to free agency, with the average career lasting about 5 years...

Well that and tim in the minor leagues is mostly hell.

HFNY

The MLB website liked their draft: https://mlb.com/news/teams-with-best-hauls-in-2023-mlb-draft

This kind of draft also tells me Dipoto and the rest of the front office feel confident in their job security or else they would have gone after more college players. Of course they can still trade some of the H.S. talent in a year or two for MLB level talent to try to get over the hump but the point still (somewhat) stands.

dnc

HFNY said:

The MLB website liked their draft: https://mlb.com/news/teams-with-best-hauls-in-2023-mlb-draft

This kind of draft also tells me Dipoto and the rest of the front office feel confident in their job security or else they would have gone after more college players. Of course they can still trade some of the H.S. talent in a year or two for MLB level talent to try to get over the hump but the point still (somewhat) stands.

Yep that was my big takeaway too.

I'm glad they went the route they did, it's a really interesting haul.

chuck

dnc said:

HFNY said:

The MLB website liked their draft: https://mlb.com/news/teams-with-best-hauls-in-2023-mlb-draft

This kind of draft also tells me Dipoto and the rest of the front office feel confident in their job security or else they would have gone after more college players. Of course they can still trade some of the H.S. talent in a year or two for MLB level talent to try to get over the hump but the point still (somewhat) stands.

Yep that was my big takeaway too.

I'm glad they went the route they did, it's a really interesting haul.

I love the obvious plan to load up on hard throwing bullpen guys with nasty sliders. That's a great market to have a corner on. They'll flip a few of those guys within a couple of years to teams who then have to overpay for leverage relievers because they don't develop their own.

The minors system was depleted in terms of potential impact bats and now it doesn't look to be. I love the two guys they got at 29 and 30. Big dudes with speed and power.

TheRoarOfTheCrowd

Best draft I’ve seen in a while… lots of talent even if it is super young…
This bodes well if the team is willing and wanting to take on payroll ASAP to flesh this out

BleachedAnusDawg

Fuck the draft. Sign Ohtani and win now. MLB prospects wash out at the highest rate of any sport.

dnc

BleachedAnusDawg said:

Fuck the draft. Sign Ohtani and win now. MLB prospects wash out at the highest rate of any sport.

Good franchises draft well. Of course sign Ohtani too.

Abundance.

DerekJohnson

dnc said:

Aidan Smith in the 4th gives them 4 high schoolers, not sure I can remember them taking so many so high. Certainly not since the bonus pools were implemented. Teddy McGraw's a really interesting 3rd rounder too as a first round talent battling injuries.

I like this draft a lot. We'll see if they can develop these HS bats.

BleachedAnusDawg

dnc said:

BleachedAnusDawg said:

Fuck the draft. Sign Ohtani and win now. MLB prospects wash out at the highest rate of any sport.

Good franchises draft well. Of course sign Ohtani too.

Abundance.

Only team in MLB to never get to the World Series. 46th season as a franchise. Trying to sell M's fans on their great draft is an insult. They need to open up their wallets and buy a championship. No one cares about the draft in MLB other than the baseball super nerds because 81% of the players drafted either wash out or are traded.

chuck

BleachedAnusDawg said:

dnc said:

BleachedAnusDawg said:

Fuck the draft. Sign Ohtani and win now. MLB prospects wash out at the highest rate of any sport.

Good franchises draft well. Of course sign Ohtani too.

Abundance.

Only team in MLB to never get to the World Series. 46th season as a franchise. Trying to sell M's fans on their great draft is an insult. They need to open up their wallets and buy a championship. No one cares about the draft in MLB other than the baseball super nerds because 81% of the players drafted either wash out or are traded.

I don't feel anyone is "selling" the draft. It just happens and some of us have no lives so we follow for entertainment purposes.

The Astros and Braves haven't bought their championship teams. They developed them for the most part. The teams that overspent this off-season aren't faring well as a rule.

Gotta do both, draft and develop plus be willing to spend in the right situation. I didn't think so before, but I am coming around to the idea of paying Ohtani $60 million+ per season. I didn't want to see them turn into the Angels, with a superstar or two surrounded by a losing roster. Now I think it would pay for itself and not necessarily freeze up the whole salary budget.

chuck

I guess I still have issues with Ohtani commanding 600 mil over 10 years. No way on earth he keeps up this pace, where he's two great players in one, for 10 years. Eventually he's just going to be a DH.

How many years until that becomes reality? The return on investment would be there on and off the field for a while for sure. Would they still be getting acceptable ROI in the back half or are you accepting a few years of the franchise being hamstrung in exchange for 5 or so glory years?

I'm leaning toward yes, as long as his bat doesn't fall off a bunch. Thinking about it still makes me glad they didn't tie themselves down with Trea Turner or Xander Bogarts for the next 10 years. 10 year deals are shit for guys at or near 30 years old.

BleachedAnusDawg

If Ohtani brings a title to Seattle he's worth the money. Doesn't matter what the last 3-4 years look like. By that point they have an updated media deal, etc and his contract is a smaller percentage of revenue, etc.

HFNY

chuck said:

I guess I still have issues with Ohtani commanding 600 mil over 10 years. No way on earth he keeps up this pace, where he's two great players in one, for 10 years. Eventually he's just going to be a DH.

How many years until that becomes reality? The return on investment would be there on and off the field for a while for sure. Would they still be getting acceptable ROI in the back half or are you accepting a few years of the franchise being hamstrung in exchange for 5 or so glory years?

I'm leaning toward yes, as long as his bat doesn't fall off a bunch. Thinking about it still makes me glad they didn't tie themselves down with Trea Turner or Xander Bogarts for the next 10 years. 10 year deals are shit for guys at or near 30 years old.

I think the M's see themselves more as an analytics-driven Tampa Bay type franchise than big-spending teams who are more comfortable spending oodles of money on 1 player.

If anything, I don't see them tying up that much money for so long. Maybe the M's offer a 6 year, $450 million deal instead of going out 4 more years and $150 million more. No matter what, I'm sure the M's will make a decent run but will be outbid by one of the LA teams, SD, SF, or even East Coast teams like Boston / NYY / NYM.

Regarding other positions, they still need to figure out how to upgrade 2B, if they are going to resign T. Hernandez, if Kelenic is the medium / long-term answer in LF (or RF), what their plan is for DH. The starting rotation should be good because of Woo, Miller, and Hancock offering some innings in 2024 while Ray will be coming back at some point during 2024 so Othani doesn't offer as much bang for the buck as a pitching desperate team.

chuck

HFNY said:

chuck said:

I guess I still have issues with Ohtani commanding 600 mil over 10 years. No way on earth he keeps up this pace, where he's two great players in one, for 10 years. Eventually he's just going to be a DH.

How many years until that becomes reality? The return on investment would be there on and off the field for a while for sure. Would they still be getting acceptable ROI in the back half or are you accepting a few years of the franchise being hamstrung in exchange for 5 or so glory years?

I'm leaning toward yes, as long as his bat doesn't fall off a bunch. Thinking about it still makes me glad they didn't tie themselves down with Trea Turner or Xander Bogarts for the next 10 years. 10 year deals are shit for guys at or near 30 years old.

I think the M's see themselves more as an analytics-driven Tampa Bay type franchise than big-spending teams who are more comfortable spending oodles of money on 1 player.

If anything, I don't see them tying up that much money for so long. Maybe the M's offer a 6 year, $450 million deal instead of going out 4 more years and $150 million more. No matter what, I'm sure the M's will make a decent run but will be outbid by one of the LA teams, SD, SF, or even East Coast teams like Boston / NYY / NYM.

Regarding other positions, they still need to figure out how to upgrade 2B, if they are going to resign T. Hernandez, if Kelenic is the medium / long-term answer in LF (or RF), what their plan is for DH. The starting rotation should be good because of Woo, Miller, and Hancock offering some innings in 2024 while Ray will be coming back at some point during 2024 so Othani doesn't offer as much bang for the buck as a pitching desperate team.

I actually think they might be willing to go big for Ohtani. Ichiro mania was a real thing, and profitable, and this guy is in another stratosphere.

If the Angels keep fading and the Ms keep playing well, and there are trade talks, it's a sure sign that Seattle thinks they're going to sign him. They wouldn't bother trying to trade for him otherwise.