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Thursday, February 12, 2004 |
Draft Dodgers: Hittin' 'Em Where They Ain't
The Dodgers best drafts in recent years occurred under the Dan Evans/Logan White administration, so I have to wonder what the effects of adding Beane, Jr. to this will be. Of course, one nice thing -- if you can call anything about this ugly affair "nice" -- is that DePodesta is working without a contract at the moment, so acquiring him won't cost anything in prospects (at least, not immediately -- more on this in a bit). If the newspaper reports are to be believed, Frank's clearly being disingenuous with the public about his actual projected budget levels. Hence all the talk about "how you spend it", as well as the itch to get Billy Beane -- or Beane, Jr., DePodesta -- in town. It's well-known that the A's like to acquire college players in the draft, for two reasons: first, they have playing time against teams with known quality (i.e., their stats, unlike high-school players, have some meaning). Second, because they've played at a higher level of competition, it takes less time for them to get through the minors. Both these factors are appealing to a team on a budget. Other teams have seen this and are emulating it -- except for the Dodgers, who, last year, made a pointed effort to pursue toolsy prep players:
"A lot of teams are pressured and afraid to take high school players. They'd rather take college players they can sign easier," said White. "A lot of college players we'd take in the third round are taken earlier and it leaves high school players for us in the early rounds. We'll see in five years how it shakes out."We already know how Jackson and Miller worked out. By pursuing guys the other teams aren't, we get some good deals, and in some cases, great ones.
I only hope DePodesta's economics background doesn't let him forget that. But, it may not matter. With Beane, Jr. in the Dodger henhouse, and a treasure chest of talent Beane couldn't get to under Schott, will we trade away that bright future for a quick fix? Beane gave a clue at the recent Oakland Fanfest:
"You always like to see the people you work with branch out and succeed," Beane said at an A's fanfest event last weekend. "If he goes down there, trust me, you'll see a lot of Oakland-Los Angeles trades."Yeah. That's what I'm afraid of. Or, what else besides prospects do we have that Beane could (a) afford and (b) want?
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