The Next Step for Delvin Rooks

The Inaugural SBLM season is over, Season 0 if you will, was a chance for all the new players to get acclimated to a new league and a have a chance to step up on one of baseball's biggest stages. The draft declarations are starting to roll in and we see a lot of different players and positions about to enter the draft and currently sit on 19 available draftees that will be entering the first official season of the newly formed SBL with user players. One of those players involved is second baseman Delvin Rooks who played his SBLM ball for the Chicago Storm this past season.

On the year, Delvin Rooks had an interesting season statistically as coming in, he was a defensive first player that also had some speed on the base paths. Those appeared to hold true as Rooks led the league in Zone Rating which is one of the more important defensive statistics for fielders and did it at one of the harder positions to play in second base which may be considered the 3rd hardest position in the SBL to play after shortstop and center field. Rooks held his own with stolen bases as well as he led Chicago in the category with 29 stolen bases and was only caught 8 times which was good for a 78.4 rate in his stolen base percentage. Usually, you look at about 75-80% being an acceptable rate for the risk of stealing a base so Rooks was right in there meaning him stealing provided value to his team. What was interesting to see however is that Rooks was not known as a power threat but held his own and ended up hitting 16 home runs on the season and was actually 3rd on the team in home runs after power hitters Prezzy Jr. and Delgado. The thought however is that against more established pitching, the power numbers will come down and we will see Rooks become more of a contact hitters again while also having some ability to draw walks as well.

Where does Rooks go in the draft? That is a good question. I assume as the commissioner of the league, that will increase my value by a lot because you are getting a known entity and since I am the one managing Rooks, he could go high in the draft. Maybe even higher than he probably should. Looking at the eligible draftees, I see a lot of different ways that teams can go but there are some shortstops, center fielders and starting pitchers that will be making the jump to the next level. I believe a premium position such as one of the ones mentioned would be ideal to be first rounders or even second rounders. It could also come down to what fillers exist already on someone's SBL team and maybe if they are content with their shortstop or center fielder, maybe Rooks gets the call on a team with a not so good filler or BOT second baseman. I would think SBL teams however will prioritize getting pitchers or elite players at the toughest positions so I would say Rooks' actual value probably lies somewhere in the 3rd-4th round range. I think pairing Rooks with an elite shortstop would be the ideal scenario and most of the SBL teams currently could use a great second baseman except for maybe newly rebranded Toronto who have an MVP candidate already headed their way in Pingu Flipperson.

I can't wait to see how the draft goes!