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Thursday, December 02, 2004 |
The Rule 5 Draft And The Joys Of Self-Congratulation
Wait Til Next Year goes over the Rule 5 draftees, and -- heh -- my (well, ex-) favorite minor league pitcher, Andy Sisco. You may recall I recommended a trade for him; we can get him now for nothing, but it's interesting to hear that my judgement on this one has been seconded by somebody of possibly (likely) more knowledge on the subject:
Of every player on this list, Andy Sisco provides the largest question mark. First and most glaring to me, a Cubs fan, is why the Hell did Hendry/Fleita choose John Koronka over Sisco? Yikes. Other questions associated with Sisco are, can a pitching coach find the stuff that made this kid a second-round pick? Is this guy the next Ty Howington, destined for an arm problem? And lastly, how can you not risk $50,000 on a 6-9 southpaw?Hell, the Angels can't even build their own starters; the Angels' minors are full of "projects" (see also, virtually every top pitching prospect in the system). Arizona's system is a mite mediocre at the moment, but they have a reputation for getting their starters through in decent shape, if not exactly hurriedly. Brandon Webb had a less-than-perfect 2004 (which got worse as the season progressed), but how much of that was due to the (a) it being his sophomore year, and (b) the stress of having to be Curt Schilling? Well, I wish Sisco luck, and hope he turns into something good, just so I can keep saying I saw it early.To me, Sisco should be the top choice in the draft, no question. Arizona has the first overall selection, and I think the staff there knows how to handle tall southpaws. I mean, Sisco would be the second-tallest left-hander ever in the Majors, behind one Randy Johnson. Forget the poor year in high-A, and the rumored loss of stuff, spend 50k trying to turn Sisco into a power reliever and in the right direction.
Comments:
Maybe it was just his final game (which was really good), but Webb didn't really get worse as the season went on. He started out well, went into a tailspin in May, June, even July, but I think he started putting things back together after that. At the very least, he didn't get worse. No doubt, though, that his sophomore campaign was a poorer one than we were expecting.
Well, it *was* Arizona, and they put out a very good minor league team last year. I suspect on a better team Webb would have had not only a better W-L record, but a better ERA, too.
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