For various reasons, I don't need this week to go forward just at the moment.
21 thoughts on “July 15, 2024: Chill On That”
Day 1 draft list from FG:
Pick
Rank
FV
Name
Position
Age
School
Strengths
21
36
40+
Kaelen Culpepper
SS
21.5
Kansas State
Power; Athleticism; Arm Strength
33
45
40+
Kyle DeBarge
SS
21.0
LA-Lafayette
Contact; Athleticism; SS Fit
60
84
35+
Billy Amick
3B
21.7
Tennessee
Power
69
24
45
Dasan Hill
SP
18.5
Grapevine (TX)
Frame; Feel for Spin
Summary from Eric Longenhagen:
I have mixed-positive feeling about the Twins first day because I’m lukewarm on Kaelen Culpepper due to his chase tendencies and am mostly out on Billy Amick, who I don’t think will hit. But I think Culpepper (the Twins now have two Culpeppers in their system, C.J. is the other) has such thunder in his hands and is such a grindy athlete that he’s going to find a way to be something, and I like Kyle DeBarge and Dasan Hill quite a bit. DeBarge is tiny, but he’s a great athlete who makes a lot of contact. Hill is one of the lankier, more projectable arms in the class.
Summary from MLB's Jonathan Mayo:
Culpepper moved from third to shortstop at Kansas State this year and handled that move well. He’s more hit over power right now, but there could be more pop to come, and he already uses all fields well with excellent bat speed. He could be given every opportunity to stick at short and has the potential to be a Gold Glover at third.
A high school catcher, DeBarge moved to shortstop at Louisiana-Lafayette and has the chance to stick there at the next level with a strong arm and quick hands. He’s a contact-first hitter with excellent pitch recognition and a quick right-handed swing, and while he hasn’t driven the ball that much, there’s some sneaky pull pop.
I had Amick going to the Twins in the first round in our mock draft (do I get partial credit?). It’s unclear why he lasted this long, but could this be the second straight year the Twins got a really good college bat in this round? (They picked 2024 Futures Game participant Luke Keaschall last year.)
After seeing who they drafted I tried to read a few different summaries. Especially with Culpepper, I felt like the takes couldn't been more divergent. I read that he doesn't stand a chance at short and that he will be great there. That he strikes out too much and that he makes great contact with 2 strikes. Everyone seemed just so-so on him, but for all sorts of different reasons.
I’m hopeful that the FO has learned some lessons after Cavaco & Sabato (and yes, not all picks work out), but any time I see a right-handed batter destined for first base, I see Dave McCarty’s baseball card in my mind. I hope Amick avoids the McCarty/Sabato experience.
In the card business, David McCarty is one of the names that give us night terrors. We’ll look at old collections that people are wanting to sell, and it’s clear they haven’t handled the boxes in years, as there are always sections for McCarty, Todd Van Poppel, Felix Jose and Don August. KiJana Carter is the football equivalent.
Kind of gets old hearing about “junk wax” in the era of NFTs and special editions out the wazoo that no actual kid could ever collect, particularly when the more visually pleasing cards are considered “junk wax” but the phoned-in, store brand-bland Topps designs of the decade immediately prior are superior because the hobby was less popular.
I get that they overproduced base sets, but there was real diversity in the card designs and some actual competition in the marketplace. I wonder if it’s easier for young fans to get into the game given the collector environment today. I’m certainly not encouraging mine to develop an interest in baseball cards, which pains me since that was my entry into the history & statistical side of the game.
But hey, I can always Remember Some Guys with the cheap “junk wax” still out there.
It's sad seeing people bring cards in to the LCS* owner asking if there's any value or if he's willing to buy any, and they're mid-80s or early 90s cards, for example. On the flip side though, they were affordable back then.
I would not turn young ones away from collecting baseball cards, but only if it was for collecting, not investing -- you can't win in that game. I had fun with my cards in my youth, and I only have a little regret that some had writing on the back or rubber band wear on the sides. I had fun with them, after all.
After I wrote that, I found myself wondering how today’s potential young fans get to know the players and their stats. I imagine for many of them the answer is whichever console game has the licensed likenesses of today’s players. I don’t really have a problem with that — I imagine those games are teach them more about splits and pitch types than I ever learned from a baseball card, even those mid- to late Eighties Fleer cards so the the splits & mini heat maps in the back. And that’s okay — I learned a lot about players & ballparks of the past from Earl Weaver Baseball. If I’d had access to OOTP at that age, I might not have ever switched away to play The Hunt for Red October.
Sometimes I wonder why I hang on to the cards in my basement. I think the answer has something to do with the computer I used to play EWB sitting in my mother’s attic, with the capacitors likely leaking and the game unrecoverable. Maybe there’s an emulator out there, but that’s not the same as staring into a 9” black & white CRT, trying to do Rod Carew justice against a Carl Hubbell screwball.
If I grew up playing Strat-O-Matic Baseball instead, I guess I’d still be able to play that now. But I grew up in the era before video games got annual releases and baseball cards were printed by the million. So I guess I’ll keep the cards and play OOTP occasionally when the nostalgia for EWB gets acute.
I loved Kaelen Culpepper’s swing, and he’s worked hard on his defense to make him a no-doubt shortstop. He came out strong to start the year and definitely helped himself at the end, with some great swing and hard-hit balls in the super regional at UVA, but some teams were scared off by the plate discipline, with higher chase and whiff rates than you’d like, and the good-not-great exit velocity numbers. If you’re into drafting athletes with good swings who play up the middle, though, this is your guy.
Day 1 draft list from FG:
Summary from Eric Longenhagen:
Summary from MLB's Jonathan Mayo:
After seeing who they drafted I tried to read a few different summaries. Especially with Culpepper, I felt like the takes couldn't been more divergent. I read that he doesn't stand a chance at short and that he will be great there. That he strikes out too much and that he makes great contact with 2 strikes. Everyone seemed just so-so on him, but for all sorts of different reasons.
I’m hopeful that the FO has learned some lessons after Cavaco & Sabato (and yes, not all picks work out), but any time I see a right-handed batter destined for first base, I see Dave McCarty’s baseball card in my mind. I hope Amick avoids the McCarty/Sabato experience.
In the card business, David McCarty is one of the names that give us night terrors. We’ll look at old collections that people are wanting to sell, and it’s clear they haven’t handled the boxes in years, as there are always sections for McCarty, Todd Van Poppel, Felix Jose and Don August. KiJana Carter is the football equivalent.
I’m guessing I have a couple Bryan Oelkers & Lenny Faedo cards tucked away in a binder I haven’t updated since 1995.
I think I had about 400 Keith Athertons
All the names from my prime collecting years!
The Junk Wax Years
Kind of gets old hearing about “junk wax” in the era of NFTs and special editions out the wazoo that no actual kid could ever collect, particularly when the more visually pleasing cards are considered “junk wax” but the phoned-in, store brand-bland Topps designs of the decade immediately prior are superior because the hobby was less popular.
I get that they overproduced base sets, but there was real diversity in the card designs and some actual competition in the marketplace. I wonder if it’s easier for young fans to get into the game given the collector environment today. I’m certainly not encouraging mine to develop an interest in baseball cards, which pains me since that was my entry into the history & statistical side of the game.
But hey, I can always Remember Some Guys with the cheap “junk wax” still out there.
Preaching to the choir.
It's sad seeing people bring cards in to the LCS* owner asking if there's any value or if he's willing to buy any, and they're mid-80s or early 90s cards, for example. On the flip side though, they were affordable back then.
I would not turn young ones away from collecting baseball cards, but only if it was for collecting, not investing -- you can't win in that game. I had fun with my cards in my youth, and I only have a little regret that some had writing on the back or rubber band wear on the sides. I had fun with them, after all.
*local card shop
After I wrote that, I found myself wondering how today’s potential young fans get to know the players and their stats. I imagine for many of them the answer is whichever console game has the licensed likenesses of today’s players. I don’t really have a problem with that — I imagine those games are teach them more about splits and pitch types than I ever learned from a baseball card, even those mid- to late Eighties Fleer cards so the the splits & mini heat maps in the back. And that’s okay — I learned a lot about players & ballparks of the past from Earl Weaver Baseball. If I’d had access to OOTP at that age, I might not have ever switched away to play The Hunt for Red October.
Sometimes I wonder why I hang on to the cards in my basement. I think the answer has something to do with the computer I used to play EWB sitting in my mother’s attic, with the capacitors likely leaking and the game unrecoverable. Maybe there’s an emulator out there, but that’s not the same as staring into a 9” black & white CRT, trying to do Rod Carew justice against a Carl Hubbell screwball.
If I grew up playing Strat-O-Matic Baseball instead, I guess I’d still be able to play that now. But I grew up in the era before video games got annual releases and baseball cards were printed by the million. So I guess I’ll keep the cards and play OOTP occasionally when the nostalgia for EWB gets acute.
Btw, I collect Twins Strat-O-Matic cards, too
Keith Law's analysis:
Isn’t Keith Law supposed to reflexively hate Twins prospects & draft picks?
Time Will Reveal whether DeBarge has top-40 talent.
I Like It
This draft pick needs to make the majors.
Dr. Zeke? Dr. Psych?
I think he might be an optometrist.
Karl Ravich tossing out that Pete Alonso watched the HR Derby that was in Yankee Stadium.... "The Josh Hamilton Show!"
But it was Jason "Justin" Morneau that won that derby
All in all a good Home Run Derby