79 thoughts on “2020 WGOM Draft: Round 10”

    1. Nine rounds completed in five weeks projects 26 rounds to take 3.5 months. Even if it takes four months, that places the end of the draft at the start of the season.

      1. Those last few rounds will fly. There won't be any waffling over picks or need for lengthy explanations why.

        My pick: Nick Punto
        Needed someone on the bench who could take a punch.

        1. For the last round we should all be obligated to take Twins players who have no business being on our rosters.

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    I needs me a center fielder. I'm not sure he was as appreciated during his career as maybe he should have been.

    1. Yea, hard to believe he is not in the top tier of CFers. 11th in JAWS, 9th in WAR7, 14th in rWAR. Great value pick.

  5. I've thought long and hard about King Felix with my last two picks because I wanted a starting pitcher a little more recent than my first three. I'm going to pass on him again because, as much as this guy is a complete trainwreck as a commentator, gaming developer, guy who constantly floats his name as a possible political candidate, and all around human being, he should have drafted a few rounds ago based on merit:

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        1. I was resisting taking him, too, but I didnt feel that way about Carlton who was just as horrible. Recency bias I guess.

    2. Schilling was 3-0 with a 1.37 ERA in five career elimination games, most famously sporting a bloody sock as he helped Boston force a Game 7 in the legendary 2004 ALCS. His 56 strikeouts during Arizona's 2001 run remains the most ever in a single postseason.

        1. Aye. It's blasphemous to say, but it is in a similar tier with Black Jack's famed 10-inning, Game 7 performance. Or, in a different way, Kirk Gibson's gimp-off shot off of Eckersley in Game 1 of the 1988 series.

  6. Going to move Musial to a corner spot to make room.

    This guy's career is almost identical to Andre Dawson, who I almost took. Brilliant young centerfielder in his 20's, plodding right fielder in his 30's. Fast. Some seasons with extraordinary power. Played in obscurity in a small market before becoming famous in a big market.

    I'll take the guy who has the best stolen base percentage of all time (and was healthier longer). Besides, I need someone to help A-Rod cheat more effectively.

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    Trivia: Who is the most efficient base stealer ever if you lower the minimum to 80 attempts?

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  7. I'm pleased my pick is still available. A Midwesterner, he reached baseball maturity playing in the islands. He lost a couple years in the Army during the world war, but eventually returned home and became the star of his hometown team, and one of his league's ten all-time greatest players.

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  8. So, I need a RFer. The ranks of HOF RFers have been thinned considerably. So I am going with a guy who is likely to jump into the top ten WAR7 for RFers this season. He currently ranks 15th even though he only has 5 full seasons under his belt, plus a cuppa at age 21. He's entering his age-27 season and about to move to Chavez Ravine one way or another.

    Four Fielding Grammies, three Silver Sluggers and an MVP.

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    1. Before this started, nibbish and I debated whether he'd be taken. We leaned yes, though now it seems obvious he would be

      1. Honestly, I very, very nearly took him last round and moved Frank Robinson to left.

        I probably would've taken him this round. So, uh, that sucks.

  9. I need a good bat out in left field (easy enough) whose glove isn't merely an ornament (sorry, Manny B Manny).

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    I really wish Betts was still available here, but this feels like a very solid consolation. A near unanimous MVP a couple years ago, and last season was even better right up until the injury. Think Miami is happy with the trade (**checks Lewis Brinson's bbref page....shudders**)

  10. I'm going to pick up a pitcher, and go against the grain a bit by going a ways back.

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    This guy first played during the deadball era, but couldn't really catch on anywhere and spent a lot of time in the minors, winning 133 games in the lower levels. A few years after the deadball era ended, at the ripe old age of 31, he became a surprisingly strikeout-dominant pitcher and proceeded to lead the NL multiple times in ERA and strikeouts, even winning an MVP in 1924. Though he topped out at a "meh" 7.6K/9 in his MVP year, I think he would approach the modern game a lot differently and would have the physical ability to still be successful.

    3. I think he would approach the modern game a lot differently and would have the physical ability to still be successful.

      For me, this is one of the most fun parts of the exercise. When you lump players of different eras together on a team, you’re making a ton of conjectures about how they would all fare if they suddenly were in the GOAT League. Modern players are going to have the benefit of medical, nutritional, and training advances as second-nature, and it’s interesting to think about how Old Timers would or would not adapt to take advantage of those gains. At the same time, Old Timers could potentially be liberated from things like rail travel, regular double-headers, twilight games, over(ab)use, and inferior (or damaged, or dirty) equipment, some of which might be masking their true talent level (negatively or positively, of course). Or, Modern players might have their wings clipped if those structures were imposed upon them, even if their physical condition was better at the outset.

      That calculus is compounded when you try to account for how pre-Integration players would be affected by desegregating the game — replacement level would be bound to change, but how is hard to tell for certain. All-time greats from white or black baseball seem relatively likely to still be good players if suddenly in competition with their contemporaries from the other side of the color barrier, but exactly which mid-level talents would rise or fall according to the adjustment in the level of play is hard to say. Add in to that the fact that the circumstances that shaped the Negro Leagues’ viability stressed the value of substantially different player characteristics from the contemporaneous AL & NL player pool (the whole question of rewarding elite positional flexibility vs. emphasizing increasing specialization), and you can’t even say for certain that contemporaries are good comparative matches for one another.

      I love that this exercise opens the doors to consider stuff like that, and to think about the kind of baseball team you’d most like to watch, or to attempt to assemble a team that would be most capable of meeting all comers from all eras in a competitive series or season.

      2. I swear I looked, but I was looking under First Basemen, not 3rd Basement Dammit!!!

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        He's not a masher like modern day SS, but he'll do.

        2. He was going to be my pick this round, in part for the way he stood up for Jackie Robinson during his first season.

  13. Robinson Cano, 2B

    Need a second baseman and I'd rather not have to watch him continue to tear up my teams, so I'll ignore his Yankee years and remember him as a Mariner. His peak was better than a lot of Hall of Fame players, including just above Rod Carew. And he definitely is one of the all-time smoothest looking players.

  14. Looks like I'm the last one to pick a shortstop. I'm guessing this will give me the old timey-est middle infield:

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    4th all-time WAR for shortstops at 84.7, 9th in WAR7 at 44.4, career OPS+ of 121.

  15. Time for a catcher.

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    Based on his decline, probably won't get a lot of the counting stats of other catchers but his WAR7 is right up there. Plus, in an era without nicknames, he has a pretty good one. (Or is that his actual name?)

    2. Great pick. I had him on my radar for a backup catcher. Which is funny to say for a guy on a HoF path.

      He has had two injury-riddled seasons in a row. This season will be really important to whether he can get back on that Hall path or move into the middle-class ranks.

      1. The best thing for Mauer is to be a contemporary with this guy and Yadier. I think a lot of BBWAA members really want to vote one or both of them in but couldn't logically do that without voting for Mauer as well.

        1. I agree. I've seen some say Posey is definitely in and Mauer's on the fence. I don't see it. Both or neither.

          3. Mauer's case is better than both Yadier's and (so far) Buster's. WAR7 should be a much bigger deal for catchers and pitchers.

            Mauer is above the HoF average for catchers on rWAR, WAR7 and (necessarily) JAWS. Buster is right there on WAR7. Yadier is...not. He is basically Jim Sundberg.

            Sundberg belongs in the Hall of Very Good For a Long Time.

            1. Yadier has the better longevity, fielding, and his "Hall of Fame Monitor" score is much higher than Mauer's or Posey's. But that's really it.

              1. Like I said, line him up with Sundberg.

                Basically the same WAR, WAR7, oWAR and dWAR. 16 seasons each (so far). Yadier has better press.

        2. I think you're being optimistic by thinking that logic plays a major role in Hall of Fame voting.

  16. I am also finally going to grab my catcher. I've had my eye on him for a while, and was shocked when Algonad went with his catcher instead. Though, admittedly, I probably would have picked Posey instead of this guy, if it had gone the other way. But I'm super excited for this pick, and that he's still around.

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    5th all time for Catchers at WAR. And that's losing most of his age-28 Season to injury. An excellent defensive catcher, his career CS rate is second only to Campanella, who played half as many years and likely would have dropped a bit. Plus he could hit a little bit, and finished in the top 20 MVP vote-getters 9 separate times. He was also know for handling a pitching staff, and served as a player-manager for several seasons. So, you know, another smart baseball guy. Exactly the person you want backstopping your team.

    1. I judge more on WAR7 than career WAR. I want top players not just guys that hung around for a long time. (Not saying Hartnett is in this group.)

      Plus, Posey is still playing. We don't know his career WAR yet.

      1. I try to weigh them both, and take on some individual factors. Like, in losing in age-28 season, that probably hurt Hartnett's WAR7 more, relative to his career WAR. Sometimes for me that peak is going to be high enough to offset, sometimes not.

    2. Part of the reason Campanella played half as many years is that he wasn't allowed to play more. He was 35 when he couldn't play anymore. If the seasons added were age 21-25, not sure you'd see much of a drop.

      1. I was not thinking about that. Campanella would probably still be the champ. Hartnett is still a close second.

      2. You kid, but LeCroy has been the frontrunner for my final pick since this draft began.

  18. My day at work is hectic as usual. Someone else can start a new post; otherwise I'll get to it tonight.

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