The above was from our draft PREVIEW! Yes, and your Texas Rangers felt obliged to take a guy who has all of 6 walks this year as a leadoff hitter. Yes, they are regressing.
The first pick isn't terrible, he is a cocky son-of-a-bitch who just might back it up... But probably not. Again, he isn't a terrible pick, it's just when you have Porcello on the board, it is a devalued pick from that aspect. Beavan has a couple attributes I like in a high school pitcher; he has very good command, which is a bit surprising for a guy as tall and lanky as he is. Also, he has performed very well at high-level international competitions. and, he is hyper-competitive. We here at Sportsbullies generally prefer college prospects early in the draft, but Beavan was one of four high school pitchers we thought was worthy of a first round pick (Porcello, Harvey, Aumont, and Beaven -- in that order.) Beaven's mechanics also worry me a bit, but I do think they can be smoothed out by a keen teacher. Much has been made of Blake throwing across his body. He turns his front shoulder very far in in his windup. This added hip rotation increases velocity but also muscle strain and lengthening any mechanical motion increases the odds of something going wrong. Beaven's windup, while not the paradigm, is merely unusual. He's always thrown that way, and his muscles have been sculpted to support this action. The added torso twist in and of itself aint going to hurt him. What will hurt Beaven is the fact that he changes arm angles on his slider. He lowers his forearm which is a big signal to hitters what is coming, now high school hitters couldn't do anything with him because he throws 95 but pros will catch on and Beaven will have to make this, somewhat minor, change.
But the Rangers redeemed themselves with pick 24, right??? No, apparently Porcello is too expensive for the 5th largest market in baseball so the Rangers go with the kid Main from Deland High School (FL.) I could think of at least 50 other players I would rather have here. The most astute of our readers may have noticed that Main was not one of the four HS hurlers that we felt worthy of such a high draft pick, two of the 4 were still on the board. We felt this way because Main does not have good secondary pitches, his fast ball while pretty fast is also pretty straight, and most importantly he is Tommy John surgery waiting to happen. (Click here: and press the "watch now" button to view his mechanics)
To the untrained eye...like the Rangers' scouts... you may not notice much wrong with Main's throwing motion however to a genius...like me... there is something VERY disturbing. Main holds his pitching arm back, still, for a very long time in his delivery. His low leg kick also exacerbates the problem as he tends to fall forward too early. What holding his arm back so long does, is place way too much force on his arm, as it has to catch up to the rest of his body that now has momentum built up towards the plate... in addition too being very ineffective Main's arm action is very dangerous! Notice the hard recoil on his arm after he releases the ball, that is literally a wave of force that is not imparted on the ball now moving towards the plate but trapped in his arm; hitting his muscles, ligaments and tendons.
We give EVEN money odds that Main has a major arm injury before he turns 23.
This leads us to the worst Ranger pick of all time: Julio Borbon.
Lincoln: Tap the brakes, are you forgetting about Drew Meyer?!? Jonathan Johnson?!? Dan Smith?!?
JJ: You've made your point, which saddens me.
All you have to do is scroll back up to see what we thought of Julio. He does have a modicum of skill but his biggest asset, speed is one that is easily removed via injury...he had a freaking leg injury this year!!! What is a really fast guy with a foot injury? Just a guy, and that's all Borbon is.
What really vexes us about the Rangers' top picks is that it really shows either complete ignorance of or disregard for empirical evidence. The great thing about being a baseball fan in this age is that there is so much information, so many smart people working so hard to increase our knowledge of and entertainment in the game. Millions of people now know that drafting a high school pitcher in the first round is usually a bad investment. Even more people know that a leadoff hitter needs to walk more often than 6 freaking times a year. So either the Rangers aren't amongst the millions of people that we could categorize as "knowledgeable" about the game of baseball, or they just don't care.
Passing by Porcello twice in the first round, and especially at #24, troubles me so much because it's not like the organization came out and said that they have a philosophical difference spending that much money on a high schooler...they took 2 in the first round!! They didn't even say that we think giving an 18 year old a major league deal will hinder his development, something I actually disagree with but more on that in a second, they didn't take Porcello because he cost too much. Again this organization and Tom Hicks chose mediocrity over premium.
On a personal note: The Rangers have officially made me crazy. Listening to BaD Radio after the draft Dan made a very good point. He brought up my favorite definition of "crazy": doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Well I was hoping the Rangers would do whatever it took to get a top-level talent. Ever since the A-Rod signing, Tom Hicks has done his best Uncle Scrooge impersonation at every opportunity. The payroll is in the bottom quartile of the league, Texas has a General Manger and Field Manager who both make in the bottom five of their positions in the league. Hicks is far more concerned with turning a profit than doing everything it takes to win, or even more than the bare-freaking-what-can-I-get-away-with minimum. George Stienbrenner was once quoted as saying, "I'd rather over pay for a winner than under pay for a loser." Hicks doesn't share that view. I was crazy for thinking he did.
On giving a major league deal to a high school pitcher: in general it is not an optimum situation for sure, but I think the Rangers would have been in the best possible situation to make it work.
- They have a major need: Not breaking news here but the Rangers, even moreso than most teams, have historically needed high-ceiling young pitching.
- They could spare the roster spot: Oh no! John Reinicker can't stay now because we have Ric Porcello!
- They aren't going to contend soon: which is important when considering whether or not to allocate playing time to young guy. Porcello spends a couple years in the minors then is moved into long relief then the rotation. I don't think that's inherently damaging to a young guys career path.
P.S. Think three years from now the Rangers will spend a Rule 5 pick on someone? Don't know for sure, but the odds are pretty good; JD has already shown that he's not afraid to target Rule 5 guys, i.e. Fabio. So if the Rangers do Rule 5 someone in the next 3 or 4 years they are saying to us, the fans, that they aren't afraid of using a roster spot on a guy who may not contribute right away but that's ok. Now you can send a Rule 5 back down to the minors after the year's over, which you couldn't with Porcello on a major league deal....but Porcello would be 22 or 23 at that point and how much more time would he need in the minors anyway? Not much, that's for sure. The biggest difference?...and the real/only reason the Rangers will Rule 5 someone and never go after the Porcello's of the world = money! Rule 5 guys are cheap.
It's really hard even to fault Jonny Boy, because I'm sure the decision not to go way over slot money was passed down from above.
However it makes no sense to be cheap in player development!!! Teams overpay for mediocre free agents because they don't have anyone in their own farm system available. Going over slot bonus money, while frowned on by the Commish, is smart business. Companies that are continuously innovators in their fields are ones that spend the most on R&D... the Rangers don't spend any money on their R&D...or PR... but that's another rant!
Penny wise and pound foolish!
So now I would like to unveil the team the Rangers should have drafted, with the SportsBullies at GM and an Owner who actually knows baseball and cares about winning!
These crazy Bizzaro-Rangers would have added: Joe Savery RHP Rice, Ric Porcello RHP HS, Brett Cecil LHP Maryland, Wes Roemer RHP CSF, Corey Brown OF OSU, Tony Thomas Jr 2B FSU, Matt Harvey RHP HS, and Kyle Russell OF UT in the first 4 rounds. And Justin Friend RHP OSU, Chance Chapman RHP ORU, Logan Johnson UT UofL, Justin Baum 3B Pacific, Jordan Smith C TTU, Wes Etheridge P UC Irvine, Seth Garrison RHP Texas Christian, Brian Spear IF UK, and Collin DeLome OF Lamar U in the later rounds.
We'll take these guys over all 50+ the Rangers actually drafted.
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