Early Look At Some S2 Draftees

Gustav is one of the premium batters in the SBLM for a reason and he had proven once again, at least so far, that he's a legit threat and one of the most versatile 1B in the league - and I am including SBL too - right now. While most 1B is your typical big men on campus, Gustav prefers to defy that at all costs. He has accepted that he's not a power batter and went on his own path. Despite being in the worst park for hitter down here in the DL, the man had accumulated a .300 AVG and looked like himself in the previous year. What has changed drastically was his stolen base number. Seriously, at this point, we really need to question the coaching staff of Storm, who decided to not let arguably the most threatening figure on the first base path to not do anything.

The problem with Gustav in the upcoming draft though, is that most teams already have a 1B. As we are in a non-DH league, Gustav is bound for the only team without a 1B or he will need to learn another position, like 3B for example. I mean, the smart move will be to ask Storm if he can train, but hey, they already don't want him to steal, they surely don't care to put him elsewhere.

In essence, Gustav is a great early pick but positional need might pull him down.



Like Chien-Ming Wang, Cole had a crazy year that defied all the predictions on paper with his performance so far. After a mediocre 4.69 ERA year in Sherbrooke, the man found himself at home in Chicago as he pitched lights out throughout the year. It's either Wang or Cole in a vast majority of the statistical leaderboard. Cole led the league in shutouts and complete games so far, great proofs of his dominance that made him dubbed him the "Bridges" of this year. One of the Storm's pitchers is bound to be absolutely wonderful per year.

I can totally expect him to go high in the draft, as with other top pitchers out there. This will be an interesting draft for the pitchers, as Wang and Cole are great this year while Bridges was great last year and had a down year now. All of the talents are too raw to really tell their potential by now, so it's pretty much who you like between them. Luckily, all three of them have very different pitching styles. If you would like a flamethrower, Cole is the pick and he is definitely looking fiery hot at the moment.


Now, for someone who had the same WAR as Cole, Hook's number elsewhere didn't look so good. PIT was a winning team and an offensive-oriented team, so Hook keeping a decent 3.61 ERA is nice. His WHIP though, not so much. What he did well to limit runs though, was his ball movement. The batters could hit his ball well to the gap or whatever, but it's rare for them to really pinpoint the center of it and smash it out of the park. Hook gave up only 9 homers so far, still beneath the double-digit mark. One thing that might worry the scout though, was his lack of improvement stat-wise after a year of SBDL. Despite his clear improvement in ball movement and home run control and limiting walks, he was unable to find any CG or SHO this year. He had certainly made some improvement and adjustment but it seemed that he would need more time to adjust to the new batters out there.

In terms of draft position, I think he's slightly below the Cole group up there. As this is a draft where most teams are probably drafting the pitchers hard or risk losing out their aces a few seasons later, he will be picked for sure, but maybe half a round later than those above him.


Speaking of a crazy God of WAR for this season, Wade Landry is that guy! The man has been extremely dominant this year, and a true two-way terror on the field. The man was a very well-rounded talent and as I have said again and again, it's this kind of talent that's very useful in a variety of situations. This didn't matter at all though for this season, as the man was just straight up cleaning everything besides home runs -- he had 12, sure, but not a power batter's number. This man played above-average defense at the RF position, he batted nearly automatic at the moment, he stole a base with near-perfect efficiency and he was the worst nightmare for any right-handed pitcher. Wade Landry had .330/.374/.483 vs LHP, which to be fair, was as scary as one could be. Against RHP though, he was at an insane .383/.453/.569. At this moment, I think he's the leading runner in the MVP race and I don't see a lot of people having a chance to reach his stature unless he bats like .100 in the upcoming 30 games.

This man has shown that he's improved and he's willing to work extra hard. The outfield is still pretty open in the majors and I can expect this man to be drafted pretty high. Whether the GM put a lot of value to his MVP season is another story though. Winning in DL doesn't always translate to big league greats. It's a thing in every sport and particularly true in baseball. I am sure he had made his best impression for the season, only time will tell if he's truly one of the greats and depending on where he is drafted, be great value or a disappointment.