2009 Rookie/FA Draft - So Far, So Good??

Burlington, VT

This is not a Mel Kiperesque post, no grades will be given of judgments made. It is a simple review of the 1st round of the 2009 NASBL Rookie and Free Agent Draft pairing the players drafted with their '09 NASBL and MLB numbers. OK, only one judgment will be made. Kevin Burns put on his Halloween costume and got himself a couple of franchise cornerstones; trading for the #3 spot and grabbing Evan Longoria and trading up 2 spots to #10 and getting Justin Upton. Don't know about the rest of you, but I find that a pretty good draft day haul considering all it cost him (more or less) was Carlos Quentin, HC Kuo and Jose Valverde. Kudos to you Mr. Burns, kudos to you.

We now enter the No Spin Zone portion of the article.

Pick - Player - Team - '09 NASBL #s. '09 MLB #s

1. Jon Lester, NYK - 2-5, 4.42. 2-3, 6.31, 1.57 WHIP, league high 8 HRs surrendered, impressive 10.7 K/9
2. Geonavy Soto, TRY - .240, 2-13 (HR-RBI). .175 avg, .505 OPS, zero HR, 4 RBI, league high 9 GDP
3. Evan Longoria, LVI - .284, 7-25. .362, 1.165, 11 HR and the following are league leading numbers; 95 total bases, .748 SLG, 16 2b, 45 RBI
4. Matt Garza, GCG - 3-2, 3.44. 3-2, 3.56, 1.04
5. Jay Bruce, NJT - .248, 5-19. .250, .860, 10-21
6. Cliff Lee, SPL - 4-3, 3.39. 2-5, 3.00
7. Joba Chamberlain, OJW - 2-1, 2.45. 2-1, 3.89, 1.56
8. Edinson Volquez, ILL - 3-4, 5.69. 4-2, 4.40, 1.30, league best 5.9 H/9
9. Joey Votto, NJT - .307, 6-40. .374, 1.056, 4-26
10. Justin Upton, LVI - .351, 3-10. .295, .931, 7-18
11. Denard Span, DFW - .259, 0-21, 11/11 SB. .299, .742, 1-16, 8/10 SB
12. HC Kuo, LCC - 2-1, 3.00. 1-0, 6.75
13. Ricky Nolasco, PCM - 4-4, 5.52. 2-3, 6.63, 1.61
14. Chris Davis, HHA - .313, 3-9. .231, .806, 9-17, league high 50 Ks
15. Clayton Kershaw, LCC - 0-2, 6.43. 1-3, 5.21, 1.34
16. Shin-Soo Choo, SPR - .293, 1-15. .265, .830, 3-18

Three teams had two picks in the 1st round. LVI's success was chronicled above, NJT got themselves a couple of big LH bats for the future and LCC went against the grain and took two LHP. Think those rookies now mooring their Boston Whalers in Lake Champlain are the lone portsiders on the lake, not me - plenty of LHP there for Moneyball Beard.

That left GRK, MSU and VFS with no 1st round picks.