East Lake (FL) High School’s Eric Hanhold. A 6-foot-4, 190-pound right-hander, Hanhold was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies with the 1238th overall selection, the lowest number for a final pick since 1986 (891) thanks to new rules that capped the length of the draft at 40 rounds. Hanhold is the second consecutive high-schooler taken with the final pick in the draft, following last year’s Mr. DCHO Kolya Stephenson, and the eleventh draft pick from...
MLB Draft
My Favorite Names From The Last 25 Rounds of the 2012 MLB Draft
These 25 rounds were interesting to go through because it constantly felt like there were long stretches without any great names, which made me wonder if I would ever find a great name again, followed by crazy runs where like four names in thirty were absolutely nutty. For a while, I thought Storm Throne was the clear winner of the Best Name In The Draft Award* (apologies to Shaq Green-Thompson, Brock Dykxhoorn, and the...
My Favorite Names From The First 15 Rounds of the 2012 Draft
It has been somewhat sobering to look at my Twitter feed the past couple days and realize that I know absolutely nothing about most of the players being selected in the First-Year Player Draft. Fortunately, I still know silly names, so I took a look through the first 15 rounds to see if any stood out. Of course, several did. I originally had a few more on here (Byron Buxton, for example), but ended...
Gateway To The World Series
In late August, the Cardinals were at various points 10.5 games behind both Milwaukee in the NL Central and Atlanta for the Wild Card. They were a complete afterthought. After an incredible run to sneak into the playoffs and somehow take the World Series away from Texas, the outlook is much better even without Albert Pujols. At the time I started writing this, they were in control of the NL Central and tied for...
Mock Me
I’m very deserving. Only a fool would attempt an MLB mock draft this early without any sources or connections in the game. Even those that do can barely use those connections anyway since it’s too far out to hear much buzz about teams being interested in specific players. Yet here I am, actually posting a mock draft in the first week of May just to satisfy my draft craving. How many picks will be...
Prospect A-Z Day 20: Tim Beckham
I hope everyone had a good holiday. Last week, Prospect A-Z wrapped up with Tyler Skaggs, the lefty Arizona received from Anaheim in the Dan Haren trade during the 2010 season. Skaggs has emerged as a very good pitching prospect and has advanced through the minors quickly. Just three years after he was drafted by the Angels, Skaggs could make his ML debut sometime in 2012. He was a part of a rotation at...
Prospect A-Z Day 16: Matt Purke
Outfielder Oscar Taveras was the subject of yesterday’s Prospect A-Z. His breakout season helps strengthening a Cardinals farm system that’s starting to look much stronger compared to recent seasons. That being said, everyone saw a number of homegrown players chip in contributions to their World Series run, and sometimes it’s hard to argue with results. With Albert Pujols signing elsewhere, St. Louis will need to look to its farm system to fill the void,...
And The Winner Of The Mr. Don’t Count Him Out Award For 2011 Is…
Ocean City (NJ) High School’s Kolya Stephenson (I keep wanting to type Kostya Kennedy; I blame the book excerpt that I read in Sports Illustrated earlier). Stephenson is a right-handed pitcher who told MLB.com that he had planned on attending college, but may reconsider given the circumstances: “I was actually in the pool with a few friends. The Phillies called and told me that I had been drafted, and I didn’t know what to...
The MLB Rule IV Draft Is Tonight (V.2011)
6:36 PM – Last year, I wowed the internet with my knowledge of the players and personalities involved in the Rule IV Draft. This time around, I tried to get Scott to put a little something together, since he actually knows a thing or two about the sport, but it turns out he’s actually doing something crazy like going to a live baseball game or something, so once again, anyone who happens upon this...
Hall of Famers and the Draft: Who Went Where, and When
For the third part of my I-Don’t-Know-How-Many-Parts-It-Will-Eventually-Be series on the draft, I took a look at where current Hall of Famers were taken. As an added bonus, I used Baseball-Reference.com to look at the other players from that draft position who played in the major leagues, and included their career WAR. Comments are included below, where necessary. Reggie Jackson (1-2, Kansas City Athletics, 1966) – 74.6 Played In Majors: Will Clark (57.6), J.D. Drew...
Bus Leagues Photos
2012 05 14 Scranton Wilks Barre/ Empire State Yankees vs Pawtucket Red Sox
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