With the 2015 season fast approaching the Miracle brain trust took a cruise to the Bahamas and had such a great time they completely missed the first week of the eMLB Winter Meetings. Be that as it may the Miracle GM forged ahead with his predraft plans and was fairly successful with what he wanted to accomplish. Being fairly happy with his current contracts Renner was hoping to add a contract or two, specifically IF's. This was accomplished by adding Brandon Phillips and Martin Prado into the fold. Our yearly flyer was on Yonder Alonso. Last years flyer of Rickie Weeks did not pan out but like this year we gave up nothing and if we get nothing no loss other than the contract spot. Time will tell. The Miracles were also looking to trade out of the 1.15 draft slot. That was easily done as well. Once the meetings came to a close the Miracles team and total draft picks were beginning to take shape.
At this point last year it was assumed that the Miracles would be rebuilding in 2014. As it turned out that was far from what happened as the Miracles ended the year with the best overall record and the #1 seed in the playoffs. A second championship just wasn't meant to be for this overachieving Miracle squad. We started out the year with hopes of "Shocking the World" and we did just that. 2015 again appears to be a semi-rebuilding year.......however.......with South Texas Heat owner Steve "The Great Gazoo" Berg openly punting the year (don't we have a rule against that) the Miracles main competition in the Texas Division will be the Biscuits and the Fire Ants. At any given point Reynolds could rape his buddy's Biscuits and Sankey will probably spend the summer in a WOB haze so the Miracle brain trust figures they might as well give 2015 a shot. Our motto this year is...Everything is Awesome!!!
By the time the draft started the Miracles had 9 picks in the first six rounds and then do not pick again until the 11th. That will be quite a dry spell but the plan is to have most of the starters in place by the end of the sixth. Did we accomplish our goal? Only time will tell. What follows is a recap of our first nine picks.....
Round 1--
Traded out--no pick.
Round 2--
2.10--A minor trade allowed us to move up a couple of spots to take JONATHAN LUCROY-C. This former Miracle returns and will certainly be given a 3 year contract. He will also solidify an overall weak position. We couldn't be happier to have drafted LuCroy....Welcome home.
2.15--By the time the draft started the Miracle pitching staff was thin, at best. Yordano Ventura is a very good SP but young and to a point still unproven. The only other starter on staff is Masahiro Tanaka. We all know how much has been written about this guy. He could be great for us this year and grab an extension or his elbow could totally blow out and be lost to us for much or all of the season. This being said the Miracles happily drafted a young man who will front not only the Atlanta Braves starting rotation but also the Miracles. JULIO TEHERAN is officially a Michigan Miracle.
Round 3--
3.11--Watching many good players get drafted before us we were hoping our man would last...and he did. TYSON ROSS is the newest member of the Miracle starting staff. Solid ERA and WHIP along with lots of K's made this pitcher on a vastly improved Padre team very enticing.
3.15--The last two picks in round three belong to the Miracles and we wanted to go hitting here. We considered going closer/closer. If the Fire Ants had not taken Holland we might have done just that. But instead we closed out our OF by selecting a WW pickup of ours last year. Welcome back CHARLIE BLACKMON. Solid number across the board will benefit the Miracle team again in 2015 and beyond.
3.16--We would be remiss if we didn't bring back his teammate from Colorado, JUSTIN MORNEAU. 2014 was a very good year for Morneau. His splits were similar away from Coors so we feel confident that 2015 will be another solid year for Justin. At this point in the draft our starting hitters are pretty much in place. Like all teams we have some spots that are weaker than others but that can be addressed with the remainder of the draft and through the WW during the season.
Round 4--
4.14--At the end of the 4th round we were willing to look at additional hitter depth if the names we wanted dropped or we were looking at additional SP along with possibly taking back to back closers. The way the draft fell be chose to go with closers back to back. At 4.14 we selected HUSTON STREET. Not flashy but still seems to get the job done. On an Angel team that will contend we liked this pick here.
4.15--To bookend Street we selected another closer from a team that keeps getting better in a tough division. At 4.16 we selected MARK MELANCON. Great numbers before taking over as closer and after and 2015 should be more of the same. With closers seeming to turn over more and more often we were comfortable taking these two at the end of round 4.
Round 5--
No Picks
Round 6--
6.7--Never expecting him to still be around at this point we gladly selected starting pitcher IAN KENNEDY of the San Diego Padres. This is the second Padre starter we took in this draft and we will see how this turns out. The Padres once again should be very much improved in 2015 and these two Padre starters we selected will be large reasons why.
6.14--At this point in the draft we needed to decide who to take considering we didn't have another pick until round 11 and then not until 13. We felt that a solid holds guy might make the most sense since most of the established ones would be gone by 11. We chose a guy who may start out as the closer but we hope will slide back into the setup roll once Doolittle is healthy again. At pick 6.14 the Miracles select TYLER CLIPPARD.
The next recap will be after the draft is completed. Stay tuned.
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
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