Jack Zduriencik was the Director of Scouting and or the Special Assistant to the GM from 1999-2008. During that time he orchestrated some amazing draft picks such as Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder. He also believed that college level pitching had the scabies.
He was really into drafting prep' pitchers. Let's examine two of the most notable high school picks, Mike Jones and Mark Rogers:
Mike Jones had multiple shoulder injuries right after the draft and a Tommy Johns not long after. He was dropped from the organization, then resigned in 2007 and invited to spring training. Obviously, that didn't pan out.
Mark Rogers has also had shoulder injuries requiring surgery causing him to miss both the '07 and '08 seasons. He is just now getting back into the swing of things, but was limited in his pitch count this year.
The ship has sailed for Mike jones and I'm not going to hold my breath for Rogers. These are two very good reasons to draft college level pitching instead. Pitching in high school you're not throwing nearly as much as in college. If you're injury prone you will most likely show signs of that in college. It also helps with maturity. (See our friend Jeremy Jeffress who enjoys the ganja a bit too much)
We did draft Yovani Gallard and Manny Parra under his watch, so obviously he knew talent; however, I think that if he would have made more college level picks we would be much deeper in system for pitching. It's interesting that in the post Jack Z. draft of 2009 the Brewers selected 5 pitchers in their first 10 picks and only one of those was a high school player. Several of these college level players are already making an impact in A ball.
Hopefully, some of these new pitching prospects can make it through the ranks while we still have some of the hitting talent that Jack Z. brought in. Jack is now in Seattle making waves right away bringing in several players including Russell Branyan. Looking at Seattles '09 draft selections it appears that everyone was college level, but that may be his head of scouting making the calls.
Hey Jack, how about Weeks for Bedard straight up?
He was really into drafting prep' pitchers. Let's examine two of the most notable high school picks, Mike Jones and Mark Rogers:
Mike Jones had multiple shoulder injuries right after the draft and a Tommy Johns not long after. He was dropped from the organization, then resigned in 2007 and invited to spring training. Obviously, that didn't pan out.
Mark Rogers has also had shoulder injuries requiring surgery causing him to miss both the '07 and '08 seasons. He is just now getting back into the swing of things, but was limited in his pitch count this year.
The ship has sailed for Mike jones and I'm not going to hold my breath for Rogers. These are two very good reasons to draft college level pitching instead. Pitching in high school you're not throwing nearly as much as in college. If you're injury prone you will most likely show signs of that in college. It also helps with maturity. (See our friend Jeremy Jeffress who enjoys the ganja a bit too much)
We did draft Yovani Gallard and Manny Parra under his watch, so obviously he knew talent; however, I think that if he would have made more college level picks we would be much deeper in system for pitching. It's interesting that in the post Jack Z. draft of 2009 the Brewers selected 5 pitchers in their first 10 picks and only one of those was a high school player. Several of these college level players are already making an impact in A ball.
Hopefully, some of these new pitching prospects can make it through the ranks while we still have some of the hitting talent that Jack Z. brought in. Jack is now in Seattle making waves right away bringing in several players including Russell Branyan. Looking at Seattles '09 draft selections it appears that everyone was college level, but that may be his head of scouting making the calls.
Hey Jack, how about Weeks for Bedard straight up?
3 comments:
I'm keeping tabs on Jones and Rodgers and they both look pretty decent right now... I'm not ready to give up cause they're too young and we have nothing else to look forward to when it comes to pitching...
Is Jones still in our system? I thought he was out of baseball.
He surely is in the system and pitching in Huntsville. Rodgers is pitching better but is only at Brevard.
Why hasn't cory patterson replaced Bill HoF yet?
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