Dave Saltzer

Thanks again for another great report!

Ellen is an incredible writer and I am really excited to see what she does with this series!

Thank you all for some of the best laughs I've had all day. Keep 'em coming. I needed the good laugh!

Regarding Grichuk, you realize that after posting a 165/242/325 line in April, he has gone on to post a 311/347/644 in May, and a 324/381/378 line in June. I call that making an adjustment to the league and playing in a cavernous park. He was just named to the league's all-star team. I see plenty of upside in Grichuk.

Thanks for all the updates. You are better than BA!

Let's give him some time to sign some, but I am looking forward to a good post-draft chat.

Thanks for all the draft updates.

So we have an entire rookie ball rotation and bullpen, a SS, 3B, and OF so far.

Nice!

Well someone has to catch all those pitchers that they drafted. They don't want a scrub in the 50th round doing that do they?

Ding! Ding! Ding! AO got it!!!!

TJ surgery has become more common, more refined, and less risky, so teams are willing to gamble more on the upside for a pitcher recovering from it. Many who have had it at a young age have recovered all of their velo. So, it's a chance to pick someone with better upside when you have lower picks.

I probably would have picked Anaheim Angels over California Angels if it weren't for the periwinkle unis and that horrid logo. It always looked like the wing was raping the letter A on it. And I intentionally never got a periwinkle jersey. Those things were fugly. On the bright side, being the Anaheim Angels always had us listed first on websites and things.

While Hawpe is doing well in Salt Lake, I would have much rather seen the Angels call up Kole Calhoun.

Why do I feel like playing Journey right now?

I would take Anaheim Angels over the current name, but preferred California Angels.

Is this our first FL pick? I wonder how much not having Tom Kotchman would affect the draft. It seems that we are picking a lot more of the Midwest guys. Maybe that's where the talent is, or, maybe that's where the strength in scouting is in the organization now.

I think it means that they are set internally for offense for a while, but what they need down the road is pitching. They have enough offense at the ML level (even if it isn't showing itself right now), and for replacements have Grichuk, Cron, Cowart, Lindsey, Borenstein, etc. As those players rise up, it would be nice to have some good pitching to go with it. And, as Ric Wilson told us, the depth of pitching was where this draft was, so, go after the strengths of the draft while the teams with the better picks fight over the few hitters in the crop.

One more thing: Thanks to everyone for updating this thread. I can get to AW but can't get to draft sites, so, this is a very helpful distraction.

That's a cool story. Congrats. That was a very nice post. I'm having a brutally long day and needed a refresher on civility.

Don't let some other sources of rankings upset you all regarding the draft. What other organizations think and how they rank players isn't as important as what the talent is that we get on the field. I recall some organizations ranking Trout lower than where we picked him. That turned out okay. In fact, all the other organizations that drafted ahead of us had Trout ranked lower than where he should have been picked. Not all of these picks are money saving moves--it's just a desire on the Angels part to get the best talent they can overall. The Angels do their own talent evaluations and rankings, and it is clearly different than BA's. Just because it is doesn't make it wrong.

If you haven't driven out to see Mike Morin make fools out of opposing hitters on his changeup, you should. It may be the best one in the system.

I was interviewed by XM radio at the time about this trade (I was in the middle of Yellowstone National Park--trying to get reception for the phone call was a challenge!). At the time, I said we gave up a lot of talent to get talent. Considering all the variables that could happen to a player between the Minors and Majors, it was a fair trade--one that is working out for the Diamondbacks now. Interestingly, remember who it was who made the call on it. If anyone doesn't think that Dipoto can evaluate talent, that was his call.

That was the most passionate and animated I've seen Scioscia all season. He needs to keep that up.

I can just see the team trying to figure out a clause on that one for his next contract . . . "TEAM agrees to pay PLAYER the sum of $1,500 for the sole purpose of purchasing paper plates. PLAYER agrees to only use paper plates for the entire season and post season unless eating in a restaurant or other establishment where PLAYER does not have to do the dishes." Then, imagine him on a date . . . sorry honey, I know you cooked this nice meal for me, but it's in my contract. I just CAN'T do the dishes!