Comments on: Redbird Recollection: Shaun Boyd

By: localchum

localchum — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 21:49:53 +0000

Boyd has been in and out of an injured state for sometime now, but as of now he is playing ball in the independant league, with 0 errors mind you. Maybe a final shot at the bigs has pushed his desire to improve on what many think is his biggest weakness, defense. Side note: His bat is waking up too, check his stats! Camden Riversharks. The road to a comeback has to start somewhere.

By: Lou Schuler

Lou Schuler — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 14:20:54 +0000

Bill, thanks — a terrific and entertaining summary.

Funny how we always talk about “slot” as if it prevents us from drafting and signing the best players. In 2000, adhering to the slots made a lot of teams overpay massively for the best guys in a very weak draft class.

By: Eugene

Eugene — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 13:26:39 +0000

I believe Boyd is in the Atlantic League this year.

By: Bill

Bill — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 00:21:57 +0000

There is one big difference between this year’s 13th-round slot and the one in 2000 that was wasted on Boyd: talent pool. By all accounts, this year’s draft class is quite deep in guys that should be productive at the major-league level, if perhaps lacking in potential superstars. By contrast, 2000 had a LOUSY draft class. Only 15 of the 30 first-round, non-sandwich choices that year ever made it to the bigs, and most have had the proverbial cup of coffee and that’s it. Only two can really be described as stars: Chase Utley and … Adam Wainwright. Adrian Gonzalez and Boof Bonser are useful enough without being stars, and Rocco Baldelli could still be a star if he can get his weird health problems resolved. But that’s all. By comparison, 19, 21 and 19 first-round draftees from 2001, 2002 and 2003, respectively, have made it to the Show, including some actual gems (Mauer, Prior — he was great while he lasted — Teixeira and Bonderman from ‘01, Fielder and Hamel in ‘02, Chad Cordero in ‘03). The situation doesn’t look that much better if you include sandwich picks (6 out of 10, Kelly Johnson and Aaron Heilman being decent and not much more).

Draft choices are not made in a vacuum, and they shouldn’t be analyzed in one either. Yes, Boyd was a dud. So were most other 2000 first rounders, and I don’t think Boyd was any more “wrong” than most of the plausible alternatives would have been. It wasn’t like we should have seen Utley coming, either; as recently as 2005, he wasn’t considered all that promising. Even 13th-round corner infielders pan out … occasionally. It just wasn’t a good year.

That said, I agree that this is not a year for LuMozWitt to be penny pinching and make a signability choice. However, precisely because 2008 looks to be quite a bit better than 2000 in talent, I’m not too worried that they’re going to. Unless an unusually large number of the first-rate prospects developed hypertrophy of the ego, there should be plenty of satisfactory alternatives for them to choose among.

By: poorcollegeguy

poorcollegeguy — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 00:05:13 +0000

I there a list of 13’s from past drafts somewhere?

By: Tim

Tim — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 22:37:44 +0000

I really don’t have any faith that the Cards will make the right choice. Their willingness to fall in line with the MLB on slot bonuses is what keeps them from making that choice. Rasmus signed for under slot and they got lucky with that pick. But its hard to have a top notch farm system when you try to find bargains in the draft and try to rely on luck to bail you out.

By: fewgoodcards

fewgoodcards — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 21:26:25 +0000

well the cardinals have the 13th pick again this year. i really hope it isn’t as unlucky as last time.

By: erik

erik — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 21:03:06 +0000

Lou-I probably should have noted I was quoting Kevin Goldstein. Now that it’s his error, I’ll be sure to assign the credit…er, uh blame on him. looking at some of the other picks that year, doesn’t seem he was too high. I guess he was no Joe Borcard. I think that it was a good year for busts all around.

By: Lou Schuler

Lou Schuler — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 20:35:05 +0000

I don’t think signability was the reason. He signed for $1,750,000. Utley signed for just $30,000 more. I think Boyd was at or near slot.

The Cards had another first-rounder that year, Blake Williams, who also signed for slot money, $1,375,000.

IIRC, they went over slot to sign Chris Narveson, their third pick in 2000. Unlike the first two guys, he was awesome before he got hurt.

They weren’t being cheap. They just made terrible choices — a fairly consistent problem with all our drafts from 2000 to 2004.

By: 1st&3rd2death

1st&3rd2death — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 20:14:32 +0000

I’m going to quibble a bit with your depiction of his time in Peoria. Given his slow start at age 19 in low A, his final numbers look pretty darn good. The defense was obviously disastrous, but that batting line isn’t bad at all for a teenager in the midwest league.