2010 Draft Retrospect - Looters Top 5 picks

2010 Draft Retrospect

The 2010 draft was the first in the history of the Looter franchise coming under the banner of the Somerton Spartans.  In this draft the Looters had 2 picks in both of the first two rounds which have proved useful to the Looter franchise in it's current incarnation.

The picks were rather varied with the first 5 picks taking 2 pitchers and 3 hitters.  Most of these picks are just now starting to see their end result value.  We'll take a one by one look at the top five picks and where they are now and where they could potentially be.

SP Rob King (1st, 12th Overall)
King was a highly prized starting pitching prospect, and was held in high regard within the Looter organization his whole time in the organization; however, during the transition to OOTP 12, his star seems to have fallen quite a bit.  He got to AAA this year and has struggled. In 2011 in his first full season at Single A, he was 17-8 with a 2.59 ERA and 205 innings pitched with a 1.07 WHIP and 116 ERA+.  He followed this up last year at AA following his promotion with a 19-4 run and 2.95 ERA in 216.1 innings with a 1.14 WHIP and 156 ERA+.  He seemed destined to make a huge impact on the BSA stage in short time, but this year in 2013 he made his debut in AAA and struggled.  While still not pitching badly, his record has been 5-10 with a 4.23 ERA in 123 innings.  His WHIP is still a manageable 1.32, however his BABIP has risen to .294 which could explain some of the out of the ordinary numbers.  He still had a 116 ERA+ at AAA.  Following this, the Looters decided to give him a tryout for the rest of the year at the BSA level and he's struggled to find his groove.  In 4 starts he is 0-3 with a 10.13 ERA and 2.09 WHIP.  He's been slapped around with a .358 Opponent average and .382 BABIP.  Both of those are extraordinarily high and must come down, but if they don't, he'll find himself starting in AAA again next year.

1B/3B/RF Luis Alou (1st, 19th Overall)
Luis Alou is another prospect from this draft that has made it to the big leagues this season and he looks poised to take the league by storm.  Alou barely spent any time in Single A just finishing out 2010 in A ball with 10 at bats.  In 2011, he started the eyar at AA and hit .237/.316/.341 in 642 at bats with a 88 OPS+.  With this numbers disappointing, he returned to AA for another go around in 2012.  This time he crushed like the organization thought he could and hit a .299/.403/.433 slash line with 11 homers and 68 RBI in 586 ABs.  With these, he started 2013 in AAA but didn't stay long.  After just 54 at bats he had a slash line of .296/.369/.426 with 1 homer before earning a promotion to the big leagues following some injuries.  So far in 384 at bats, he's held his own with a .263/.363/.339 slash with just 1 homer, but he's still getting acclimated to the level.  He'll likely settle in at 1B next year with Marin to DH once other wunderkid prospect Ramon Hernandez returns from his injury.

SP Angel Rodriguez (2nd)
Angel Rodriguez hasn't been considered a notable prospect the last couple years, but has quietly put together good minor league seasons.  In his first full season in 2011 at Single A, he had a 19-7 record with a 2.08 ERA and 229 Ks in 251.1 IP.  He followed that up with a 12-8 year in 2012 in AA with a 3.25 ERA and 164 Ks in 182.2 IP.  He continued that into 2013 in a return to AA where he had a 1.25 ERA and 63 K in 65 IP before getting called up to AAA.  Prior to an injury, he was 4-0 with a 3.89 ERA and 34 K in 34.2 IP.  Rodriguez has quietly put himself on the map, but will now need to return from his injury strong.

LF Jose Estrada (2nd)
Jose Estrada had a tough road when he joined the organization.  Not only did he have to live up to expectations, but he also had to replace another outfielder by the name of Jose Estrada eventually.  You can consider both of those as mission accomplished.  Estrada started his career at A ball, but didn't stay there but a third of the season before earning a promotion to AA.  Again at AA, he barely spent a full season there before earning an advancement to AAAand then a call up to the major league squad before the end of 2012.  Estrada played 49 games in 2012 with a slash line of .316/.379/.430 in 158 ABs.  In his sophomore season he hasn't disappointed with a similar slash of .299/.384/.423, but has added some pop with 9 homers this year vs 1 last year.  Estrada will definitely be counted on to continue to hold down the fort in the outfield and be a part of this transformation of the Looters to a contender.

1B Domingo Perez (3rd)
Domingo Perez is almost a victim of circumstance.  Perez has had an up and down time in the Looters system, but hasn't really been given much of a shot due to who has been ahead of him on the chain.  First he had Nathan Lammas to contend with, then he had Leonard Crowley, and now he has newly signed free agent Tony Marin and already talked about draftee Luis Alou manning the first base position.  He's a player that has slugged his whole time in the system with 30 homers this year at AAA and a .803 OPS, but with players like that ahead of you on the food chain, it's hard to break in without any versatility at another position, and most likely will be someone who will need to be traded.