Epstein eager for draft
Sox have 7 picks in first 5 rounds
Major League Baseball's amateur draft has gone uptown - national television coverage today (ESPN2, 2-6 p.m.), a 120-page selection guide for those covering it - but for Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein, MLB could hold the draft in Bud Selig's garage and it would still be his favorite time of year.
Epstein can poker-face with the best of them, and the stress and drudgery that are companion pieces to the glamour and rewards of a high-profile existence have tempered the ain't-life-grand attitude with which he first approached his job.
But when it comes to the draft, and trying to invent a better mousetrap than the other 29 teams in divining the best talent available among the high school, college, and junior college players ripe for the picking, Epstein makes no attempt to mask his enthusiasm.
Maybe it's because it reminds Epstein of his roots in the game, learning to scout while apprenticed to Kevin Towers, GM of the San Diego Padres. Maybe it's because this is still one place in the game where having the most money, while still an advantage, does not guarantee success, that hard work and innovation and passion and a smarter way of evaluating talent can still make a difference.
"It's a good feeling sitting in the draft room, knowing we have a sound player development system," Epstein said in a media briefing this week that included scouting director Jason McLeod. "And for me, it's a great feeling as a GM, looking around the draft room and seeing our scouts. We've had a lot of continuity in this department the last few years. I think four or five years ago, we were trying new things and trying to get all on the same page as to what we're looking for, and now we know."
One need only look at the Sox as presently composed to see the impact the draft has had on the team. Jacoby Ellsbury, Craig Hansen, Jed Lowrie, and Clay Buchholz all came in the 2005 draft and were in the big leagues within three years. That was historic: The Sox became the first team to place its first four picks in the big leagues within three years of the draft. Michael Bowden, who pitched six perfect innings Tuesday night for Double A Portland and is another member of the Class of '05, could soon follow.
"I think what makes a good draft is hitting on players in the first few rounds," Epstein said. "If you look back on our most successful drafts, they've been the ones on which we've hit at the top of the draft. We point to [2005] a lot of times in the room as sort of the ideal model of what we're shooting for."
The 2005 draft was the first in which McLeod, imported from San Diego, was in charge. McLeod's 2006 draft already has produced Justin Masterson, who has won two of his first three starts in the big leagues and pitched well in all of them. Lefthander Nick Hagadone, the Sox' top pick in 2007, looked to be on the fast track to the big leagues until hurting his pitching elbow and needing Tommy John ligament replacement surgery.
The Sox will have the 30th and last pick of the first round today. Teams pick in reverse order of their records the previous season, regardless of league.
But they will have seven picks in the first five rounds (Nos. 30, 45, 77, 85, 108, 142, and 172). Only the Brewers, with nine, and the Padres, with eight, will have more. The Sox received a first-round sandwich pick (No. 45) as compensation when Eric Gagné signed as a free agent with Milwaukee. The Sox had counted on getting another first-rounder for Gagné, because at the time they traded for him last July, he projected as a Type A free agent, but he pitched so poorly down the stretch he dropped to a Type B. Their other extra pick was as compensation for an unsigned draft pick from 2007, third baseman Jeff Morris.
Baseball Prospectus, the highly regarded website, notes that this year's draft is more unpredictable than usual, which is saying a lot because the baseball draft usually defies forecasting. That said, Baseball Prospectus is projecting that the Sox will take a lefthanded reliever from manager Terry Francona's alma mater, Daniel Schlereth of the University of Arizona, with their first pick.
"Even though they have a good lefthanded bullpen arm in Hideki Okajima, Schlereth would be the best college reliever still on the board, and his power stuff makes him possibly closer-worthy and anything but a one-sided specialist," the website wrote. "The son of former NFL player and television analyst Mark Schlereth, he's built like a bulldog and brings a gridiron mentality to the mound. More importantly, his velocity was up to 97 m.p.h., and his slider was a true wipeout offering."
Schlereth, 22, is 6 feet 1 inch, 210 pounds. He was selected in the eighth round last year by Oakland but elected to return to school.
Baseball America, the trade publication unrivaled in its draft expertise, had the Sox taking Reese Havens, a shortstop from the University of South Carolina who last summer was an all-star for the Cotuit Kettleers of the Cape Cod League. Havens, 21, is a lefthanded hitter listed at 6-1, 195 pounds.
