Batter's Box Interactive Magazine

British Columbia's own Adam Loewen went literally to the stroke of midnight before signing with the Orioles, who originally drafted him almost a year ago today. Terms were as usual not available, but Baltimore's last offer was reportedly in the $2.5 million range. That would be much less than other top picks have been getting recently, but with Bud Selig ready to clamp down on high-draft signing bonuses, Loewen may have decided he wasn't going to do much better. Besides, the way this year's draft was shaping up, Loewen looked destined for the Brewers. Wow, Baltimore or Milwaukee? Firing squad or the guillotine? Good luck, Adam, and watch your pitch counts.

The Blue Jays weren't going to so much as sniff Loewen this draft, but the signing is still a spot of bad news: it takes away one more potential high draft choice and reduces the pool of talent that Toronto could snag at #13. But JP probably has his eye on a number of players. Mississippi State lefty Paul Maholm and Houston right-hander Brad Sullivan appear to be near the top of the Jays' wish list, but with the paucity of big bats in the lower minors, don't be surprised if JP takes a position player #1. The draft starts June 3.

Posted by Jordan on Tuesday, May 27 2003 @ 09:10 AM EDT.

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_Shane - Tuesday, May 27 2003 @ 09:30 AM EDT (#101641) #

...Quick little sidebar for a moment. My blood lust for both Yankee team and fan mass suicide hasn't been quenched. The Jays skunk the Bronx Bombers in four, and five New York newspapers spent more ink on women's lib articles and ones with themes like 'Oh who cares if we've lost a months worth of games, Roger's tryin' for a win'. I'm really quite surprised the amount of grace they're getting in the New York press because, that team has some real problems.

What i'm curious about is if there's a Yankee forum or blog that has some pretty regular attendance, though not populated by grade schoolers. I'm trying to find a pulse. Anyone know of any?

_DS - Tuesday, May 27 2003 @ 09:33 AM EDT (#101642) #

Loewen was also added to the Orioles 40 man roster as part of his contract agreement. Normally I would say this is a lousy idea, but they really needed to sign Loewen to help restock that awful farm system. They've been wasting roster spots for years on useless and inactive players (I'm looking at you Albert!). What's one more?

Pistol - Tuesday, May 27 2003 @ 09:58 AM EDT (#101643) #

That's too bad. That's one less player that can fall to the Jays now.

It looks like John Danks (HS lefty from Texas) has climbed into the top 12 and perhaps the Rangers or Mets (picking ahead of the Jays) take Ryan Wagner of Houston for their bullpens. The Reds didn't sign Nick Markakis and there's a chance he could go before the Jays pick as well.

The buzz seems to be that the trend will be for college players this year. I have a bad feeling that the Mets, Indians or Rangers will take Sullivan. Of course, none of those 3 teams need a SS and I really like Aaron Hill of LSU who's slugging .750 this year. I'd be pretty excited about either Hill or Sullivan.

_R Billie - Tuesday, May 27 2003 @ 12:14 PM EDT (#101644) #

I'm not really worried that there's one more player to be taken ahead of the Jays...the guys they're targeting are likely to fall to them anyway. Michael Aubrey is the one guy they really like who they wouldn't have gotten anyway. And I'm sure they'd like Tim Stauffer too but there is similarly no chance he'll fall to 13.

I wouldn't mind Hill or Sullivan. A few months ago I was all for drafting either Stauffer or Sullivan but the low-minors offence is pretty sad so a power hitting shortstop wouldn't be terrible. They might take Paul Maholm ahead of everyone anyway. He has that lefthanded thing going for him which makes a difference to Ricciardi and his numbers are comparable to Sullivan's.

In the worst case, if all those players are off the board, Ricciardi could take 3B Brian Snyder whom he really likes...although scouts expect him to fall to the second round or even the third round. Or one of the college closers like Wagner could still be around.

_Spicol - Tuesday, May 27 2003 @ 01:01 PM EDT (#101645) #

the low-minors offence is pretty sad

I wouldn't go as far as to call it sad. Thin maybe, but not sad.

Scott Dragicevich (3B), Jason Perry (1B), Eric Rico (OF), Russ Adams (SS), Tim Whittaker (C), Ty Godwin (OF) all have prospect stuff and are at A or below. Some of these guys have had poor starts, but shouldn't be written off just yet. You're right though...JP likely won't hesitate to take a position player in the first round, not because of a lack of depth but because taking the best available player is good draft strategy.

_Shane - Tuesday, May 27 2003 @ 02:04 PM EDT (#101646) #

Jason Perry's power seems zapped -- though his hitting stats greatly benefited from a hitter friendly short-season league last summer. It may not matter to Jays fans soon, anyway. There's a poster at a different locale who will scream up and down that Jason Perry is the PTBNL in the traded for Ford Griffin. (He apparently works for a Triple-A ballclub in some capacity) It would seem he'd be full of (blank), but you never know I guess?

_R Billie - Tuesday, May 27 2003 @ 02:08 PM EDT (#101647) #

Adams, Godwin, and Perry have a chance to be something above average. The other guys have a chance of making the majors in some role. Just about every MLB team has a similar collection of hitters or better.

I think the real measure of your organization's strength (in offence in this case) is where they stand in relation to the league. Charleston-WV sits last out of 16 South Atlantic League teams in runs scored. Dunedin fares much better, sitting 4th out of 12 teams in runs scored...once Adams, Godwin, and Perry move on (within the next year) then you'd better have some significant new hitting talents Class A teams.

_R Billie - Tuesday, May 27 2003 @ 02:11 PM EDT (#101648) #

Perry for Griffin MIGHT make sense if it's seen as the second leg of the Felipe Lopez for Arnold trade. Then you have Lopez/Perry for Arnold/Griffin. Griffin is basically a better version of Perry and that helps even out the Arnold/Lopez part which was slightly in Cincinatti's favour.

_Shane - Tuesday, May 27 2003 @ 02:27 PM EDT (#101649) #

Yip, constructed that way, I agree it would even out sensibly. The source of this, also claims there's a recent Stewart to (surprise!) Oakland deal for shortstop Bobby Crosby, with the caveat being Tejada's downtrodden '03 performance has made him eager to sign a very reasonable contract extension with the A's. But again..., this dude could be a wackado?

Pistol - Tuesday, May 27 2003 @ 04:39 PM EDT (#101650) #

http://espn.go.com/mlb/columns/rogers_phil/1559362.html
Here's the stats on Brian Snyder of Stetson - In addition to R Billie, Phil Rogers also mentioned that JP likes him from the Cape Cod league in an ESPN.com column (click on the homepage) on the Jays:

.379/.506/.687
1 HR/14 ABs
26% BB/ABs
1.9 BB/K

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