{"id":1474,"date":"2023-03-28T18:10:30","date_gmt":"2023-03-29T01:10:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/?p=1474"},"modified":"2023-03-28T18:10:30","modified_gmt":"2023-03-29T01:10:30","slug":"back-to-basics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/?p=1474","title":{"rendered":"Back To Basics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a id=\"0KKzzhqBQ6lCmOTKv98tOQ\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1411302682\" target=\"_blank\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>\/\/ <![CDATA[\nwindow.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'0KKzzhqBQ6lCmOTKv98tOQ',sig:'364zp_skfQrSI74yeLDgP5h-BbJ49gV1yPFbZMaflRU=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1411302682',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});\n\/\/ ]]><\/script><script src=\"\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\nAfter\u00a0having written a grand total of just four blog posts in the past eight months, I am aiming to do four or five this week alone.\u00a0 Most of them will make up our annual DTBL season preview series.\u00a0 However, before I get to that, I want to do a quick review of the recently completed draft.\u00a0 The 2022 draft was rather unusual with a majority of the first round picks being pitchers.\u00a0 This year, things were back to normal.\u00a0 The first round was comprised of mostly young hitters.\u00a0 While the beginning of the 2023 DTBL draft was rather predictable, it was also quite interesting.<\/p>\n<p>The draft kicked off with the Diamond Dogs making the first\u00a0 pick for the second consecutive season.\u00a0 Last year, they went a bit off the board in selecting pitcher Shane Baz, a move which backfired quickly as he hurt his elbow soon after the draft and eventually had Tommy John surgery.\u00a0 This year, the Dogs played it more conventionally, selecting the clear best available player in the draft in outfielder Julio Rodriguez.\u00a0 Not only was Rodriguez the consensus best available player in this draft, I&#8217;ve seen dynasty rankings that have him #1 among *all* MLB players heading into this season.\u00a0 He broke into the big leagues with a 28 home run and 25 stolen base season, earning him AL Rookie of the Year honors.\u00a0 It has been quite some time since a player had such a dominant rookie season in both of those categories.\u00a0 He has true five category star potential and should be a cornerstone for the Diamond Dogs franchise for years to come.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking of guys with elite power and speed talent, the Mavericks selected shortstop Bobby Witt Jr with the second pick.\u00a0 Witt also joined the rookie 20\/20 fraternity with 20 home runs and 30 steals.\u00a0 The stolen base aspect of his game will give the Mavericks the only thing they were missing from their extremely potent offense.\u00a0 Witt is of course the son of former MLB pitcher Bobby Witt, who had a one season stint in the DTBL with the Metros in 1997.<\/p>\n<p>The first pitcher selected was Spencer Strider by the Darkhorses at #3.\u00a0 Strider was an under the radar prospect who made his presence felt immediately at the big league level.\u00a0 He struck out 202 hitters in just 131 innings pitched, while posting a 2.67 ERA and a sub 1.0 WHIP.\u00a0 Like Rodriguez being the first hitter taken, there was little doubt that Strider would be the first pitcher off the board.<\/p>\n<p>Strider&#8217;s Braves teammate, outfielder Michael Harris II was the fourth pick, taken by the Jackalope.\u00a0 Harris is yet another huge power and speed contributor.\u00a0 He hit 19 home runs with 20 steals while posting a .297 average.\u00a0 In almost any other year, he would have been the best five category player available.\u00a0 Perhaps playing in a loaded Braves lineup does give him the best immediate outlook among these top hitters though.<\/p>\n<p>The first non-DTBL rookie selected was outfielder Bryan Reynolds.\u00a0 The Cougars picked him up in the fifth slot.\u00a0 Reynolds was a surprising drop by the Komodos this winter, but the Cougars were happy to add him to their roster.\u00a0 He could be an especially nice addition if the Pirates were to trade him to a team that would offer more lineup protection.<\/p>\n<p>It is almost hard to believe, but prior to this year there had not been a catcher selected in the first round of the draft since 2017 (Gary Sanchez and Willson Contreras).\u00a0 The Choppers ended that drought by choosing Adley Rutschman at #6.\u00a0 Rutschman had been the #1 prospect in baseball heading into last season according to many publications, and one of the most highly touted catching prospects in modern history.\u00a0 He had a very good rookie campaign and should give the Choppers a leg up on most of the league at an extremely shallow position.<\/p>\n<p>The second and final pitcher of the first round was Cristian Javier, selected by the Komodos with the seventh pick.\u00a0 Javier had a decent stint with the Jackalope back in 2021, but fell off the league roster last year as the Astros kept shuffling him between the rotation and bullpen.\u00a0 He established himself as an extremely valuable starter last season though, highlighted by his dominant performance in the Astros combined no-hitter in Game 4 of the World Series.<\/p>\n<p>The next two picks are the consensus top two prospects in baseball heading into this season, as the others drafted ahead of them have already exhausted their MLB rookie eligibility.\u00a0 The Demigods took speedy outfielder Corbin Carroll with the eighth pick.\u00a0 Carroll stole 33 bases across three levels last season.\u00a0 Oh, he also has pop.\u00a0 He hit 28 home runs in his &#8217;22 minor and major league season.<\/p>\n<p>Third baseman Gunnar Henderson went to the Kings in the ninth slot.\u00a0 Corner infield wasn&#8217;t exactly a position of need for the Kings going into the draft, but they are certainly happy to have Henderson now with Rhys Hoskins out for the year.\u00a0 Henderson doesn&#8217;t have quite the same speed as the other hitters picked ahead of him, but he can run a bit and certainly has big league raw power.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, the defending champion Moonshiners selected catcher MJ Melendez with the last pick of the first round.\u00a0 Melendez filled in admirably behind the plate for the Royals when Salvador Perez got hurt last summer.\u00a0 This year, he will likely spend most of his time in the outfield, but should catch often enough to maintain catcher eligibility.\u00a0 His bat should make him an extremely valuable commodity as long as that remains the case.<\/p>\n<p>To pull back the curtain a bit on my own draft process, this wound up being as predictable of a first round as I can recall.\u00a0 Since I had the ninth pick, I had exactly nine guys who I had settled on as potential selections.\u00a0 As it turns out, only Henderson remained from that list when my pick came up, which made my decision pretty easy.\u00a0 While I didn&#8217;t map out exactly which team I expected to take which player, not one of the first round selections was even remotely surprising to me.<\/p>\n<p>Now it is time to dive into the season preview.\u00a0 I&#8217;m actually hoping to get the first part out later tonight, or tomorrow at the latest.\u00a0 So be on the lookout for that!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images After\u00a0having written a grand total of just four blog posts in the past eight months, I am aiming to do four or five this week alone.\u00a0 Most of them will make up our annual DTBL season preview series.\u00a0 However, before I get to that, I want to do a quick review [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,11,12,34,13,6,9,31,3,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-choppers","category-cougars","category-darkhorses","category-demigods","category-diamond-dogs","category-draft","category-jackalope","category-kings","category-komodos","category-mavericks","category-moonshiners"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1474"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1478,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1474\/revisions\/1478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}