Social Hour Extra: Draft Day Decisions

By Friar Wire

By Mike Janela

Through all the ups and downs the Padres have endured at the big league level this season, everyone from fans to the media to the front office themselves pointed to Thursday as a day to circle on the calendar.

As the first day of the MLB Draft, Thursday offered San Diego a chance to alter the long-term course of the franchise, with six of the first 85 picks in the draft tabbed for the Padres.

Before Day 1 of the 3-day affair — a day in which five of those first six picks would be made — I sat down with co-hosts Randy Jones and Chris Ello to talk draft memories and strategies, sample some of Chris’ famous homemade guacamole, and talk a little Snoop Dogg and Wil Myers. Here’s a deeper look at Thursday’s Social Hour.

http://m.mlb.com/video/v794201483 PRETTY MUCH SUMS IT UP For all the draft preview talk, nobody really knows what to expect. And analysis can only take you so far when you’re talking about teenagers and recent college students who still have a years-long journey ahead of them to make it to the Majors. We didn’t have a chance to work in my favorite quote of this draft process so far. When asked about his involvement with the Padres draft, San Diego skipper Andy Green said it “has none of my attention but all of my intrigue.”

Intrigue certainly sums it up. Get the lowdown on the Padres’ Day 1 picks by reading more about each of them right here.

POOL MONEY PRIMER

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We highlighted the great deal of pool money the Padres had to play with this year: more than $12.8 million in fact, the third-highest among all MLB teams. In case you’re not quite familiar with how the system works, here it is: MLB assigns a “value” to each draft pick slot, basically a suggestion on how much a team should offer a player if it picks one in that spot. If a team goes over the sum of those suggestions, penalties await. The №1 overall pick has a higher suggested value, of course, than the №10 pick. The more picks you have higher in the draft, the more money you get assigned to your pool. The Padres were allowed to spend that nearly $13 million because of having six of the first 85 picks. Now, how they choose to spend it (for example, splitting it evenly among all their picks, frontloading more cash to their top guys, backloading it to later picks) is all up to A.J. Preller and Co.

WIL AT HEAD OF THE CLASS

In trying to make the case for Wil Myers, 2016 MLB All-Star, on the show, I mentioned how he ranks in the top 5 of seven important statistical categories among N.L. first basemen, the only such player who can say that. Here are the seven categories and where, exactly, Myers ranked among his peers entering Thursday: R and SB, 1st; HR, AVG, OPS, and WAR, 4th; RBI, 5th. The only others ranked among the top 5 in even four of the categories are Paul Goldschmidt and Anthony Rizzo.

THE DOGGFATHER AND LA FLECHA

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Oh and we somehow forgot to include this amazing tweet from after Wednesday’s game, when Fernando Rodney got to meet Snoop Dogg and give the Doggfather an archery lesson.

ON THE NEXT SOCIAL HOUR

Co-hosts Bill Center and Bob Scanlan join me at 4:00 PT to discuss Day 1 of the draft and preview San Diego’s quick, three-game road trip to Colorado. We also have an exclusive interview with the Padres №1 pick, Cal Quantrill, and Padres scouting director Mark Conner is planning to stop by live. You can catch the show at Padres.com/SocialHour, FOX Sports San Diego, or ESPN 1700.