Sharp: Detroit Tigers must make 9th pick count in MLB draft – Detroit Free Press
The Detroit Tigers must balance today with tomorrow. General manager Al Avila knows that too well.
This team has become a cat granted multiple lives. Dominant one minute. Disgusting the next. Such is the definitive example of a .500 team. Not good enough to create distance between themselves and the competition. Not bad enough to be completely dismissed.
That’s why having the ninth pick in Thursday’s Major League Baseball draft is a huge deal for the organization.
The Tigers can’t waste the opportunity.
They must gain something for finishing last in the American League Central last year. Even if it’s an asset not realized for at least another three years as the prospect slowly develops through the minor leagues. This is the first time since they drafted Cameron Maybin with the 10th overall selection 11 years ago that the Tigers have had a first-round pick this high.
The names are unfamiliar because there isn’t the mainstream recognition like the NFL and NBA. Nobody watches college baseball as much as college football and basketball. Anybody who can recite verbatim the top 10 of a baseball mock draft can be considered a baseball geek.
But while the names are foreign, the importance of this draft has grown.
Look at the Chicago Cubs, Houston Astros, New York Mets and defending World Series champion Kansas City Royals.
They’ve selfishly gorged themselves at the draft trough, filling up on top-15 picks — through drafting them because they stunk for so long or plucking those highly selected prospects from other organizations through moving veterans at the trade deadline. It took time. Many grew impatient because it took plenty of laughable last-place finishes. But those teams have become the envy of baseball with the vast depth of their minor league talent.
There have been eight All-Stars selected from the top 15 in the drafts of 2010-13.
The Mets drafted Michael Conforto 10th overall in 2014. Cubs shortstop Addison Russell was drafted 11th overall by the A’s in 2013, Cleveland drafted shortstop Francisco Lindor with the eighth overall pick in 2011. Florida took pitcher Jose Fernandez with the 14th overall pick in 2011. Houston took slugging outfielder George Springer at No. 11 in 2011.
Last year’s draft might — again the operative word is MIGHT — prove to be the best Tigers’ draft in quite some time considering the early results — again the operative word is EARLY — from three selections from last year. Pitchers Beau Burrows and Matt Hall have stood out this season in Class A West Michigan, and outfielder Christin Stewart continually tears it up offensively at Class A Lakeland.
Burrows was the Tigers’ first-round pick last summer. Stewart was the compensatory pick they received for losing Max Scherzer to the Nationals in free agency.
Hall was a sixth-round selection.
These three prospects should be untouchable at the trading deadline.
The Tigers are reloading. They’re getting younger while also getting hungrier. Anyone who criticized Dave Dombrowski for surrendering last season earlier than perhaps some thought he should have owe him a debt of gratitude considering the talent haul he brought in at the trading deadline last summer — one day before owner Mike Ilitch fired him.
Pitcher Michael Fulmer looks scary good. Matt Boyd pitched well Tuesday night against Toronto, tossing no-hit ball through the first four innings. He looks like he deserves to stick with the parent club for a while longer, but Daniel Norris looks like he’s ready to return to the big leagues.
Dombrowski acquired those three for David Price and Yoenis Cespedes.
It’s always risky gambling on kids in baseball. It’s worse than football and basketball. But it’s a bigger gamble thinking you can exist without striking gold with your young prospects.
Contact Drew Sharp: [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @drewsharp. To read his recent columns, go to freep.com/sports/drew-sharp/.
Download our Tigers Xtra app for free on Apple and Android devices!
