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Forum nameOkay Sports
Topic subjectThis year was famously short on them
Topic URLhttp://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=8&topic_id=2155715&mesg_id=2193119
2193119, This year was famously short on them
Posted by Walleye, Fri Jun-07-13 03:37 PM
Keith Law joked that after the White Sox 1st round pick, the analysts might as well just pack it in because the draft was out of shortstops.

Secondbasemen are a less drafted than created. Shortstops (and centerfielders, in the case of our man Rosario - as you point out) move there and maybe NCAA talents like Pedroia and Kinsler were already there.

But yeah, that's emerging as another system weakness. Jorge Polanco went from slick fielding shortstop prospect who might not hit to a guy who can rather hit but wont stick at shortstop. I'm not sure how that happened, but whatever. Niko Goodrum is toolsy as hell, can draw a walk, and can definitely play short, but his father is like seven feet tall and a solid 300 pounds so nobody's really holding their breath. And Daniel Santana is yet another try at the "can hit almost everything, swings at literally everything" approach. So we'll see.

This is turning out to be a weird start to the decade. It'd be kind of odd if the Twins clawed their way back to respectability while drafting high in two of the weakest drafts in recent memory. Buxton was delightfully lucky, but think of the Nats adding Strasburg and Harper in consecutive years. That's ... kind of nuts.