Figuring Out the Mitts' Outfield, 1B, and DH situations

Going into the draft there was only one given regarding the Mitts' 2025 outfield and that was Bryan Reynolds in LF. He's a solid switch hitter who can play full time out in that corner spot.

The rest of the OF was a mess. Mickey Moniak didn't hit a lick while Canha and Robbie Grossman hit a bit vs lefties and both are projected by Lamanna to be 4s defensively.

Jake Meyers, the Astro CF, did hit lefties (a recurring theme with the '25 Mitts) and probably will again be a cf-1.

During the draft we took Washington CFer Jacob Young - also a likely 1 - who has enough ABs to be unlimited. If we give him the entire gig this frees Meyers to man RF along with the late draftee Jake Cave.

We'll likely keep Canha as the team's 5th outfielder while being ready to possibly trade Grossman to someone who might want a corner OFer just to face lefties. Canha might squeeze a few games in at DH since his high on-base card could set the table at the top of the lineup.

At 1B gold glover Carlos Santana can be depended on to face all the lefty starters. Draftee Jose Miranda will face most of the righties. If he runs into AB problems we can go with Santana against hard righties or Justin Turner vs backward righties.

The DH slot is not particularly strong. Turner gets the nod vs lefties and might also have to DH vs some or all righties. Unlike last year there will be no Mike Ford in the waiver draft for us. Ford was surprisingly effective in the role of DH against righties but his nothingish 2024 campaign puts him on a long list of upcoming Mitts cuts.

MY FIRST THOUGHTS ON THE MITTS' DRAFT

Drafting 16th in round 1 and having a boatload of needs in a draft that looked to me quite paltry overall I had no expectations that things could work out "great". At best things might work out "good". And I think we reached that bar.

So let's take it one pick at a time to see why I thought things worked out satisfactorily.

Rd 1- Like almost everyone else I was hungry for position players and the draft was weakest there. So at 16 I fully expected to end up with a starting pitcher. For some reason I pictured our taking Erik Fedde so was pleasantly surprised to find Ronel Blanco available then. He was my #2 RH'd SP on my list just a tiny bit ahead of Yammamoto who I might have tabbed had both been there.

Rd 2- I rate players 0 to 8 in my draft lists. First rounders are always 8s or 7s. There was a possibility all the 7s and 8s would be gone by pick 16 in which case I would have gone for catcher Ivan Herrera (whom I had  rated a 6). Yes, he's just a backup catcher but his offense against righties is better than anyone else's on my roster. Francisco Alvarez our "catcher" of the future just hit lefties this past season so the platoon should work well.

Rd 3- Jake Meyers, a likely CF-1 again, also is a hit-lefties-only guy. In taking Jacob Young of Washington, who doesn't hit anyone particularly well, we' went full out defense in center. If he has the 32 onbase that Lamanna projects vs righties we'll be ok with his great glove. He can bat 9th.

Rd 4- Our notation on Jose Miranda was "consider for 1B or DH vs RHP". His 3B rating likely won't get used with Bregman around. So Jose likely will team with Justin Turner at 1B. Bad gloves all around.

Rd 5-If Lamanna is correct Ernie Clement will be a 3b-1 and ss-2. For us we'll use him at SS to pair with JP Crawford who did next to nothing vs RHP.

Rd 6- Among our many needs were about 100 relief innings. Jorge Alcala fills somewhat more than half of those. He's a generic RH RP with some HR isssues to navigate.

Rd 7- With Bryan Reynolds in LF, Jacob Young and Jake Meyers manning CF, and Canha ok to face lefties and play RF we needed a RF option vs righties. We took Jake Cave whose comment on the spreadsheet "acceptable for a corner OF vs RHP". It's come to that.....

We also had a later 7th rounder which we spent on more RP'ing with lefty Erik Miller. He really beats up lefty batters but has some problems with the righties. But not bad for a 7th rounder.

Rd 8 - We traded that pick + next years #8 for the Ungulates #6 next year.

What we did not get done was acquiring a 2Bman. We'll likely be on the lookout for that in the next few months. The fact that Ronel Blanco is close to unlimited (167 mjr league innings + 33 for his 20% bonus) may free us to trade some pitching. Maybe we can find 2B help there.