Over at THT, the “Chad Bradford wannabe” Carlos Gomez continues his series on breaking down the draft and has a favorable review regarding Jess Todd.
“Slowish at first, Todd really picks up his pace pretty significantly…
Similar to Tim Alderson, the 22nd overall pick, Todd has an aggressive “stepover” that kickstarts his explosive hip rotation into footplant. Todd is a pitcher who just “comes at you.” As I said with Alderson, guys with aggressive lower body action tend to be more effective with offspeed pitches because hitters will try to “hit the motion” instead of letting the ball travel. You’ll probably see Todd strike out many hitters who will jump at his filthy slider. I like his aggressiveness and expect him to move pretty quickly. Stick him in the bullpen, let him go all out, and watch him be a better version of the “slider happy” Turk Wendell.
Give me this guy over his teammate, Nick Schmidt, any day.”‘
So far, so good with the strikeouts, as Todd has struck out 26 in 21 innings pitched for Batavia, or 31.7% of the batters he’s faced. He also has a 60% ground ball rate. I’d have to think he’s about ready for A ball and it doesn’t seem unimaginable to see him in AA by 2008, either starting or relieving. I wonder if at that arm slot if he’ll have issues with lefties. His college splits doesn’t show that he has, but in what little action he’s faced as a pro, he’s been much tougher on righties then southpaws.
He also reviews SS/2B Nick Noonan, supplemental first round pick of the Giants and says he’d take Noonan over Kozma in a heartbeat. *Sigh*. With negotiations dragging at an absurdly long pace, here’s hoping they let the kid go to Wichita State, and settle for a do-over in 2008 with the new rules intact.
Filed under: 2007 Draft, Jess Todd, Pete Kozma
erik
azruavatar
fewgoodcards
roarke49
theredbaaron
I’m more than willing to giving Luhnow and Kozma the benefit of the doubt. I’m betting they’ve got a plan for getting his swing together and every scouting report I’ve seen are that he’s a legit shortstop.
Luhnow looks to have picked a good pitcher in Mortensen, in spite of the prickly walk rate early in his first pro season.
I just want to see him (and Russell) signed and on the field, pronto. Nice to be able to follow Russell in the Cal Collegiate league, though.
Maybe give russell kozma’s money and run with the extra pick in 08?
it’s amazing how the campaign for letting pk go to wichita st is picking up steam, as we approach one month until the deadline. i really don’t understand what pk and the hendricks bros are thinking. the best way for pk to win over cards’ fans was to sign quickly and start destroying the ball at jc. now it seems more and more simply want, as erik said, a do-over.
count me in, i just don’t get the holdup on pk, and i think even the scouts/management are having serious 2nd thoughts.
i like noonan’s bat a bit better than kozma’s, but the reason he wasn’t the pick is b/c he has already been moved to 2nd base and never had a hope of playing short. kozma is a legit shortstop and those are hard to find.
as far as the hold out, its as much the cardinals fault as it is PK’s. jocketty told derrick goold recently that they haven’t talked to his agents since the original contract offer. what ever happened to negotiations? for all we know the cardinals offered him way under slot like they paid mortensen and he said no. if that is the case, i can hardly blame pete.
Gotta admit, my heart skipped a beat when I read this:
“RHP Chris Carpenter, Yankees”
Not something I EVER want to see in print, unless it’s like 12 years from now.
Anyway it’s really annoying me that Kozma isn’t signed and playing in a rookie league. And with Noonan hitting the way he is in rookie league (1.050 OPS), it’s tough to argue that kozma was a {good, better, decent} choice.
Just sign already, kid… take your million, buy a humvee or whatever, and then go play ball.
I’m not sure I’m ready for a do-over but I would like to see Kozma sign and start playing pro-ball. If he wants an organization where he can excel than STL is the right one — who is blocking him at SS??? I don’t know anything about the negotiations and haven’t seen anything in a while regarding them but this does seem to be dragging out longer than is necessary.