June 7, 2004

Out of the Loop

My family is having a fairly serious emergency, so I have been at the hospital for essentially all of the past two days. About nine hours on Sunday, about 10 hours yesterday, and I'm almost certainly there as you read this today.

It is amazing just how quickly you can get out of the sports loop. I missed most of the Lakers/Pistons Game 1, I missed Joe Mauer's first home run as a major leaguer, and I missed the entire first day of the MLB draft.

Anyway, I'm writing this in the short period of time between coming home from the hospital and going to sleep (and then heading back again), so I apologize for the lack of length and substance. However, I do have a new article up over at The Hardball Times (written slightly before this emergency), so you can definitely still get your daily dose of Gleeman.

I have barely had two minutes to glance at the Twins' draft, but I think it looks good, or at least "not bad." I like that they grabbed Glen Perkins from the Gophers, and their first pick (the high school shortstop/pitcher) sounds like he's universally regarded as a top player. I am a little "intrigued" by the fact that the Twins started their draft with a shortstop and then took pitchers with 14 of the next 16 picks.

It does make some sense, in that they do seem to be fairly stacked with young position players (Mauer, Morneau, Kubel, Cuddyer, Span, Bartlett, Ford, Restovich) throughout the system, and they have older guys like Torii Hunter and Shannon Stewart locked up for the next several years.

And really, aside from the middle infield, what position are they desperately lacking at in regard to young, potential future starters? So they took this shortstop Trevor Plouffe with their first pick, loaded up on pitchers, and snatched a few other position players later in the draft.

Regarding the rest of the draft ... I am hoping to have some more time to look at it in some depth and formulate some informed opinions, but my first reaction to all the proceedings is that it sucks that guys like Jered Weaver and Stephen Drew drop to the middle of the first round because teams can't afford to sign them, and it sucks even more that the rich teams (or at least the not poor teams) who can afford to sign them are able to get them as a result.

The point of the draft is, at least in part, to give the best players to the worst teams. That's just not happening, and it hasn't been happening for a while now.

I'll be back with something tomorrow. Or not. Gotta drop everything for family, that's one of my rules.

New article at The Hardball Times: The Magic Twenty (Center Field)

Today's picks:

St. Louis (Williams) +135 over Chicago (Clement)

Toronto (Lilly) -110 over Los Angeles (Nomo)

San Diego (Wells) +190 over Boston (Martinez)

Colorado (Fassero) +250 over New York (Vazquez)

Arizona (Johnson) -140 over Baltimore (Ponson)

Houston (Clemens) -140 over Seattle (Pineiro)

Total to date: -$1,735

W/L record: 81-108 (1-1 yesterday for -10. At some point, I would assume I'll just luck into a some wins or something.)

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