2012 Draft

Well, its another year in BARB, and probably the most exciting moment has already past (that being the draft).  Its easy to see that the Horned Toads are excited for another year to try and bring a 2nd Central Championship home.  And what isn't to be excited about, just look at the 25 man roster compared to last season:

C Geovanney Soto C/1B Mike Napoli 1B/DH Jim Thome 1B/DH Travis Hafner 3B/2B Casey McGehee SS Derek Jeter SS/3B Miguel Tejada 2B/3B Jose Lopez OF Jay Bruce OF Justin Upton OF Carlos Gonzalez RHP Carlos Zambrano RHP RA Dickey RHP Shaun Marcum RHP Chris Young RHP Joe Nathan RHP Ramon Ramirez RHP Mike Adams RHP Sergio Romo RHP Brad Ziegler RHP Darren O'Day RHP Ernesto Frieri RHP Alexi Ogando LHP John Danks LHP JA Happ

C Geovanney Soto C/1B Mike Napoli 2B Brandon Phillips SS Asdrubal Cabrera 3B Edwin Encarnacion 3B/2B Casey McGehee UTL Jed Lowrie OF Jay Bruce OF Justin Upton OF Carlos Gonzalez OF Garrett Jones RHP Josh Beckett RHP Danny Haren RHP Doug Fister RHP Brandon McCarthy RHP RA Dickey RHP Heath Bell RHP Francisco Rodriguez RHP David Robertson RHP Sergio Romo Brad Zeigler RHP Darren O'Day Johan Santana LHP John Danks LHP Glen Perkins

The rotation is probably the easiest thing to point out.  Big Z- Gone.  Marcum- Gone.  JA Happ-Gone.  Danks is reserved for limited duty/depth.  But, Beckett, Haren, Fister, McCarthy, Dickey, and a healthy season from Santana?  Oddly enough, Santana has the highest ERA of the entire bunch, while being historically the most dominant. 

Then there is the middle in-field.  Jeter, Tejada, Lopez all gone.  Hello all-stars Brandon Phillips and Asdrubal Cabrera. 

But what should also be noted isn't the 25-man roster, but the 40-man.  Sure, Mike Moustakas had to depart this offseason, but we truely believe we stacked our minor leagues.  Mike Zunino is tearing up SEC pitching in college ball, Vitters, LaHair, Green, and Adams all have big power.  Lucas Duda demonstrated exceptional skill in the batters box in the 2nd half of last season for the Mets, and Joe Wieland, Nathan Eovaldi, and Drew Hutchinson were probably some of the most impressive players in the minor leagues last season, and yet, they were still available late in this year's draft. 

All in all, we did exactly what we needed to do this offseason/draft.  We retooled our pitching.  We added some bigger bats with defense in mind.  And, we were able to build our future core players.  Its called building a dynasty.