Post-Draft Review: Da Jesus

Da Jesus had an interesting draft. He went strong on pitching in the first two rounds, taking guys that the Dynasty Killas would have considered histop 2 pitchers on draft day: Aaron Harang and James Shields. Subsequently trading strength to plug weakness (and strengthen keepers), Da Jesus traded Harang for Troy Tulowitzki prior to opening day in the US. While on the surface, it appears Dynasty Killas got the better of this trade as of April 28th, there is no reason to expect that Tulo won’t turn his game around and post a 100-25-100-10-.370 line for the year. For the Dynasty Killas, this was a trade that would allow him to seriously contend this year, although, it would take the Reds scoring a few more runs for him. For Da Jesus, he picks up a strong SS that he lacked coming out of the draft.

In the draft, Da Jesus was hurt by some early season demotions and a few selections that seemed early. Raul Ibanez in the 10th round seemed too high, but his early season production so far has made the pick seem reasonable. Evan Longoria (11th) and Josh Fields (14th) were both sent to AAA to start the season, which hurt for the first couple of weeks until Longoria was recalled.

The pitching staff, even after trading away Harang, is in OK shape with Hamels, Shields, Jeff Francis, and Gregg Maddux. The reliever core is headed by Jose Valverde and Brad Lidge. Hopefully, Valverde can hang on to his job.

The infield of Joe Mauer, Mark Teixeira, Rickie Weeks, Tulo, and Longoria looks good, and should look better next year when Teixeira is tossing on a New York uniform. The outfield, with Grady Sizemore, Bobby Abreu, Raul Ibanez, and some utility guys shows some decent power/OBP potential. Outside of Weeks and Sizemore, the speed on this team is inconsistent. I don’t know how many steals to count on from Abreu and Longoria, but I wouldn’t expect more than 30 between the 2 of them.

The late round crap shoot of players has been decimated already: Slowey was dropped, Rajai Davis was included in the Harang trade and subsequently dropped, Moylan looks done for the season, and Aaron Hill was traded for Akinori Iwamura. Corey Patterson looks destined for the bench, Adam LaRoche has been dropped, same with Bob Howry. Jose Guillen has looked terrible, and Josh Fields has been dropped. That leaves only Maddux and Francis from the final 10 round still on the team. It’s difficult to win much that way, but Da Jesus has made terrific waiver wire moves to get his team to 7th place thus far in the season.

Best Pick: In the draft: Greg Maddux, 20th. Honorable mention for Jayson Werth and Micah Owings off waivers as of the end of April.

Worst Pick: JJ Hardy in the 13th. Hardy has been a terrible disappointment, and he looks like he might have been a one half wonder for the first half of 2007.

McJunk’s prediction:

Da Jesus seems like he’s playing a little over his head right now, but not too much. I think he finishes in the 7th-8th area with around 75 points. Overall, the draft was pretty good up through the 12th round and very weak following that round.