{"id":951,"date":"2016-03-24T15:58:19","date_gmt":"2016-03-24T22:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/?p=951"},"modified":"2016-03-24T16:52:34","modified_gmt":"2016-03-24T23:52:34","slug":"elite-rookie-class-arrives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/?p=951","title":{"rendered":"Elite Rookie Class Arrives"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/488457000?et=tRT8ub8vQkZyE4fM79CYSg&amp;viewMoreLink=off&amp;sig=tyHNmLUbgxfn1ZsyId3P-nG--LN8-7WBo6t6tfP4UKg=&amp;caption=true\" width=\"445\" height=\"297\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nOne of the prevailing storylines of the 2015 baseball season was the infusion of highly touted prospects making their MLB debuts and immediately contributing for their big league clubs.\u00a0 So it was clear last summer that the 2016 DTBL draft class would be one of the most highly regarded groups we&#8217;ve ever seen.\u00a0 Not surprisingly, those superstars-in-the-making dominated the early part of the 24th Annual DTBL Draft.<\/p>\n<p>Of the first 14 players selected in the draft, 11 made their MLB debuts during the 2015 season.\u00a0 One other was classified as a rookie and another has just one full season under his belt.\u00a0 The one &#8220;veteran&#8221; of that group is Carlos Martinez, who happens to be just 24 years old .\u00a0 Martinez was the only first round selection who did not make his MLB debut last season.<\/p>\n<p>The draft kicked off with a pair of players who arrived in the big leagues with so much hype that it seemed impossible for them to immediately live up to it.\u00a0 But that they did, on their way to AL and NL Rookie of the Year honors.\u00a0 With the first pick, the Kings selected shortstop Carlos Correa, making him the third player to have been selected with the first pick of both the DTBL and MLB Drafts (joining Alex Rodriguez and Bryce Harper).\u00a0 Correa demonstrated all of his five tools for the Astros last season.\u00a0 He hit .279 with 22 home runs and 14 stolen bases in four months of action.\u00a0 He will be asked to anchor a position which suddenly became a weakness for the Kings after a disappointing season from Ian Desmond and off the field troubles for Jose Reyes.\u00a0 The second pick was no slouch either.\u00a0 The Cougars selected third baseman Kris Bryant who led all MLB rookies with 26 home runs and 99 runs batted in.\u00a0 He will give an immediate boost to a Cougars offense which was dead last in the league in batting points last year.<\/p>\n<p>Correa and Bryant were the presumptive top two picks all along.\u00a0 But they were hardly the only youngsters with huge upside in this draft.\u00a0 The Gators took shortstop Corey Seager with the third pick.\u00a0 Seager, the younger brother of Moonshiners third baseman Kyle, hit a robust .337 with four homers in just 27 games after a September call-up.\u00a0 He figures to be another key piece to a Gators offense which made great strides a year ago.\u00a0 The Moonshiners kept the run of potential superstar sluggers going by selecting third baseman Miguel Sano with pick four.\u00a0 Sano probably has the most raw power of any player in the draft not named Bryant.\u00a0 He hit 18 home runs in just 279 big league at bats.\u00a0 His eventual position is still TBD, but his power will play anywhere on the field.<\/p>\n<p>For the second straight year, no pitchers were selected in the top four picks.\u00a0 Last year, the Jackalope grabbed the first pitcher, Jake Arrieta, in the sixth slot.\u00a0 This year, the Naturals hope for a similar payout from the first picher off the board.\u00a0 They selected Noah Syndergaard at number five.\u00a0 Syndergaard was a key figure in the Mets pennant winning season.\u00a0 He struck out 166 in 150 innings along with nine wins, a 3.24 ERA and 1.05 WHIP.\u00a0 This is the second straight year the Naturals have gone with a pitcher in the first round (Carlos Carrasco).\u00a0 The Choppers followed by selecting outfielder Kyle Schwarber, another slugger with tons of raw power.\u00a0 Schwarber slugged 16 homers in just 232 at bats.\u00a0 If he is able to qualify as a catcher down the road, this could be an absolute steal for the Choppers.\u00a0 He will begin his DTBL career in the outfield though.<\/p>\n<p>With the eighth pick, the Darkhorses took the only non-rookie of the round.\u00a0 Pitcher Carlos Martinez still has immense upside though at the tender age of 24.\u00a0 The former Maverick struck out over a batter per inning and won ten games in his first full season as a member of the starting rotation.\u00a0 The Darkhorses were really just a pitcher or two away from being a contender last season, so Martinez should play a big role if they are to close that gap.\u00a0 Next, the Mavericks picked the third Cubs rookie of the first round, second baseman Addison Russell.\u00a0 Russell will move over to shortstop a year from now, but provides huge upside at either middle infield position.\u00a0 Finally, the Jackalope finished the first round by selecting third baseman Maikel Franco.\u00a0 I&#8217;m going to go on the record and call Franco the steal of the first round.\u00a0 It is not normal for a defending champion to have the opportunity to draft a player of Franco&#8217;s caliber with the tenth pick.\u00a0 He is having a huge spring, which could mean that the 14 home runs and 50 RBI he put up in his partial season in 2015 was just the start of him tapping into his potential.\u00a0 I was badly hoping Franco would slip to me with the next pick.<\/p>\n<p>We have not seen the same flurry of in-draft trades as last year, but the Mavericks did complete a pair of deals early on.\u00a0 First, they were finally able to unload Cody Allen after putting him on the block last summer.\u00a0 The Cougars acquired Allen in exchange for their second round pick (12th overall).\u00a0 It is a very interesting trade in that a second round pick seems like quite a haul for a guy who didn&#8217;t even have a certain roster spot on his old team.\u00a0 But if you look at just how weak relief pitching was in this draft class, it absolutely makes sense for the Cougars.\u00a0 If Allen had been part of this draft, he almost certainly would have been the first reliever selected.\u00a0 And since there was such a large gap between him and the best available closer, a second round pick sounds about right.\u00a0 But for the Mavericks, this is obviously a win.\u00a0 They had little use for Allen with their bullpen full of some of the best relievers in baseball (mostly Yankees).\u00a0 They used the acquired pick to add another young phenom, outfielder Byron Buxton.<\/p>\n<p>The second trade involved some huge names who have recently changed MLB teams as well.\u00a0 The Mavericks shipped outfielder Jayson Heyward to the Naturals for shortstop Troy Tulowitzki.\u00a0 At times, Tulo has been one of the most valuable players in baseball.\u00a0 But his stock has fallen a bit recently due to a long string of injuries and his depature from Colorado.\u00a0 Toronto is a pretty good place to hit too though, and he is part of the best lineup in baseball.\u00a0 So he still has huge upside.\u00a0 As for Heyward, the Cubs made him the biggest offensive free agent acquisition of the winter.\u00a0 The Naturals expect him to play a key role in their revamped offense.\u00a0 Both Heyward and Tulowitzki had spent their entire DTBL careers with their previous team.\u00a0 Heyward was a first round selection of the Mavericks in 2011.\u00a0 Tulowitzki spent eight great years with the Naturals after they selected him in the first round of the 2008 draft.<\/p>\n<p>We have reached the two week mark of the draft and have completed eight rounds.\u00a0 That is a slower pace than recent years, but recent improvement seems to have us on track to complete the draft with plenty of time to spare.\u00a0 Good luck with the remainder of the draft.\u00a0 Just 10 days until Opening Day!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the prevailing storylines of the 2015 baseball season was the infusion of highly touted prospects making their MLB debuts and immediately contributing for their big league clubs.\u00a0 So it was clear last summer that the 2016 DTBL draft class would be one of the most highly regarded groups we&#8217;ve ever seen.\u00a0 Not surprisingly, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,11,12,13,5,6,9,3,10,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-choppers","category-cougars","category-darkhorses","category-demigods","category-draft","category-gators","category-jackalope","category-kings","category-mavericks","category-moonshiners","category-naturals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951","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=951"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":956,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/951\/revisions\/956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}