The Draft

With their first pick the M's took Brandon Morrow, RHP from Cal. By all the local media accounts this was the guy the M's wanted. All the various scouting reports seemed to have him as the third best pitcher in the draft, a notch below Andrew Miller of UNC and Luke Hochevar, who was back in the draft after failing to sign last year.

On the one hand I am slightly disappointed. Miller was available when the M's drafted and if they didn't take him because they were afraid of how much money he wanted (supposedly he asked for 8 million from the Royals, Morrow will probably get 1/2 to 1/3 of that) that is a little bit frustrating. We know the M's have a ton of revenue, they were certainly the highest revenue team picking in the top 10, they should be the team that swoops in and steals the guys that have signability issues. They have the dough to make those kinds of picks. Whether you liked the Tuiasosopo pick or not, that's what they did there.

On the other hand, this is not the NFL or NBA draft. Its not like they just took Sam Bowie over Jordan. Even in the top 5, these guys have to catch some breaks to turn into to stars and I can certainly buy the argument that Morrow is 80% of Miller for half or less of the cost. And having never seen either one of them pitch, I am inclined to trust the organization's judgment on that.

And the outlook on Morrow? Its pretty good. He's a college pitcher with a good fastball. If things go well he could be in rotation by 2008.

We might even be good again by then.