2026 Draft

Just be happy and quit complaining.

All that lead up to the draft. And now it all boils down to wait and see in a couple of years.

Willie said

They did get some decent guys vut when ypur draft includes guys not ranked in top 500, that has to take away from your draft regardless of why you took them.

I wouldn’t really look at the BA and MLB draft board and consider them a true measure of talent especially the further down the board you go. Neither employs a full scouting org to come close to even getting fully accurate assessments of players. The talent also drops off massively after a certain point and the difference of #200 and #500 is a minor delta of opinion on what you favor on a guy.

Teams are drafting based off much more info available on assessments, but also on where guys will realistically go. They have a large amount of intel and a team isn’t going to draft a guy in round 7 for example if he would be available in round 15 aside from maybe a case of saving money. But teams generally have an idea of ballpark round range on guys and the Cards wouldn’t have drafted that guy if at least one other team didn’t have a similar round eval in them.

Teams also have development staffs that are evaluating these players. Their development staff will help provide input on who to draft on what they think they can do to improve that player. Even first round guys have things to improve, but especially as you go further into the draft guys have a lot more weaknesses. At that point it becomes what does our org think they can do to maximize the odds of this guy being successful.

@Albert – you asked whether it was Minasian or Moreno who came up with the Angels’ rush-them-to-the-majors strategy. This article seems to confirm it was Minasian:

Under former general manager Perry Minasian particularly the strategy was unyielding: draft a polished, low-ceiling college player, rush them to the major leagues in record time, and hope they patch a leaking roster.

“Since Mo has come in he’s really empowered me to run the room the way I want to run the room,” said Mcllvaine noting that every GM is different. The Angels scouting director explained that Mozeliak did not come to the meeting with noted for the scouts to follow. Rather, he listened to the scouting department’s input.

This is a huge change from the way Perry Minasian operated the front office. Perry would come in with objectives then trust the scouts to try and find him players that fit certain criteria.

They did get some decent guys vut when ypur draft includes guys not ranked in top 500, that has to take away from your draft regardless of why you took them.

Also, no team drafted entirely Top 500 guys. The Chicago White Sox had 11, the Tampa Rays had 9, the Cardinals had 8.

The White Sox and Rays had much larger bonus pools than the Cardinals.

I liked how the Cardinals draft started, but grew a little frustrated that almost all their pitching prospects seemed to be college relievers who weren’t very good at keeping runs off the board.

There is some emerging science concerning the effect on the developing physical structures of throwing too hard, too much, too young, and adverse consequences to throwing biomechanics going forward. Just as a general thought, there could be some idea that the most dominant 18 year old or 21 year old may not be the best bet for long term future performance. A response could be to draft some dominant types and some others who have appealing metrics but whose arm is hopefully not already baked.

It is possible that the dominant pitchers at the point of turning pro, are those who have been dominant since little league. It is they whose arm may have developed in an abnormal way due to the stresses while bone plates are active and other structures are developing. Some now theorize that this results in altered biomechanical stresses on the structures potentially leading to breakdown, and some theorize this contributes to the rate of pitcher injuries currently. A response could be to try to find some pitchers who have the potential to be dominant but have not damaged their arm already. They would not presently be as good but might offer a better chance of achieving and sustaining success. As I said, this is an emerging line of thought, so one does not have to be a science denier to object to it. As of now at least. Obviously, organizations would just be starting to grapple with it and devise actionable strategies which may or may work and in any case will evolve. I hope the Cardinals are out in front rather than end up dragged kicking and screaming.

Willie – there is no reason to bring science into the discussion about how large the world is. We should just rely on the sailors who have sailed around it to tell us.

Seriously, I realize how science seems to take some of the “game” out of the game. There’s a really good reason every team uses it though. It is just a better way to measure talent. You can absolutely screw it up. Data can always take you down the wrong path if you aren’t looking at it in the right way or collecting enough of it. But if you do a good job of collecting and analyzing it, it’s going to bring far better results than the qualitative analysis of several scouts sitting around a table giving their own projections. Just as in my world example above, science can tell you exactly how big the world is even if that scientist could never dream of having the skill or will to sail around it. That doesn’t make either the scientist or sailor better or worse than the other. It just means if they each harness their talents together, they can get a better result in the end. That’s what advanced analytics is trying to bring to the game of baseball and teams that do it well win more and make more money.