Moncton(CP) - Going into the draft, the Moose hade one thing in mind,
picking up a good young shortstop. After seeing the list of players
avaiable, GM Marc Gagnon had to change his battle plan. The only
obvious start shortstop in the draft was Alex Gonzalez, and it was
obvious he would not be around by the 11th pick.
The Moose stil wantd a young position player, but when it came ime for
their first round pick, the moose surprised everybody, including
themselves by taking starting picther RHP Bruce Timlin with their first
round pick. "We liked Timlin the first time he threw for us" said
Moncton field boss Brooks Robinson after he drafted he righty. Timlin
has decent arm strengh but has some work to do on his control. He does
have three quality pitches including a blistering fastball.
The Moose continued this trend in the second round taking a reliever
with Washington's second round pick. "Washington's pick was late in the
second round, so we missed a lot of players that could have helped us in
the near future, but I'm pleased with Joe, he should be able to make our
big league club in a year or two". GM Marc Gagnon was refering to LHP
Joe Blaylock. "We needed another lefty out of the pen, hopefully this
guy is the answer".
With their third round pick, the Moose finallt took a shortstop.
Royce Baker has decent speed but definitly has a lot of work to do
before getting called up. "We don't expect him to have a huge impact on
our team, but you never know".
Due to our inability to pick up a quality young shortstop, a position
where the Moose are very weak, we have decided to put Juan Gonzalez on
the block. Primarily we are looking for a young speedy shortstop, but
would also be interested in a young pitcher. The Moose have talked to a
few teams about dealing Gonzalez to fill some holes, but nothing
concrete as of yet.
A few other less notable players were also put on the block after the
draft, these include;
2B Brent Gates (50 CH, 73 PH)
SS Kevin Elster (has averaged over 30 home runs in every PVBL season)
LF Ken Cullop (48 CH, 60 PH)
rp Ron Villone (91 AS, 72 CO; 65 SI)
sp Paul Wagner (83AS, 52 CO; 75 SL, 69 FB)
And basically everyone in AAA would also be available
In other news, after an extensive search, the Moose have finally found
a city for their AAA franchise. We have stayed in Canada, we've just
moves further north to Elsmere Island. The team name, the Eskimos. So
the Elsmere Island Eskimos are born. It was been foreseen by are
numerous accountants and publucists that some people might be offended
by the name "Eskimos", if this is the case, by all means go ahed and
call them the "Inuit".
