Shadow Padres 2023 Draft Diary

After years of doing the diary (and picks) in real time, I've elected to switch things up and make picks after the draft is complete. I think the approach is to only draft players who were actually drafted (the idea being that if a team grabbed a player, they believe it is possible that the player will sign). Will this make it so I stop accruing extra picks (for not signing players)? I'm not sure, but it will make things a little smoother.

Year after year, I picked up guys who didn't sign. It's tough as a casual fan because of the obvious information asymmetry (teams clearly know more about whether a player will sign and how much he'll require than I do, since I'm nothing more than a random fan).

Anyway, here's the order of players I had coming into the draft, along with the detail of how things went:

My top targets

• Rhett Lowder- Went 7th to Cin
• Kyle Teel- Went 14 to Bos
• Enrique Bradfield- Went 17 to Bal
• Charlee Soto- ***Drafted with the 25th pick (in the real, he went 34th to Min)
• Jacob Wilson- Went 6 to Oak
• Tanner Witt Drafted with the 96th pick. In reality he went in the 18th round to Baltimore, and I'm guessing he won't sign... but Soto and Witt as a top 2, especially when I don't have a 2nd round pick to work with... is pretty great.
• Matt Shaw- Went 16 to ChN
• Alex Clemmey- Went 58th to Cle (This one hurt... the idea of a Soto/Clemmey combo to start the draft would have been amazing).
• Sean Sullivan- Went 46th to Col
• Travis Homeyman- Went 90 to Stl.
• Cal Fisher- Skipping because he wasn't drafted
• Luke Shliger- Drafted with the 128th pick in the draft (in reality he went 180 to SF)
• William Privette- Draft with the 191st pick (in reality he went 381 to Tex)

Pitcher Interruption

• Juaron Brown-Watts- Went 89 to Tor
• Kiefer Lord- Went 86 to Bal
• Kade Morris- Went 101 to NYM
• Jason Savacool- Went 185 to Stl.

Back to the draft

• Justin Riemer- Went 133 to Boston
• MJ Seo- Skipped because he wasn't drafted
• Cam Clayton- Skipped because he wasn't drafted
• Andrew Walters- Went 62 to Cle
• Cam Minacci- Went 174 to LAA
• Jeron Williams- Picked with the 221st pick (in reality he went to HOU at 284)
• Connor Burns- Went 141 to Cin
• Christian Kapcyk- Went 161 to Cle
• Jordan Smith- Picked with the 251st pick (in reality he wasn't drafted, but he's a GMU guy, so I'm OK with it)
• Hiro Wyatt- Went 75th overall (I was SUPER low on him)

In the 11th round, I'm taking Grant Gray. I doubt he will sign, but it lets me get to know him (and puts him high on my list for 2026)

And here is the list of seniors I was keeping an eye on

• David Smith- Picked with the 311th pick (in reality he went 410th to Detroit... I'm like having he and Compton both as a way to save a few bucks for Witt and/or Grant Gray
• Drew ComptonPicked with the 281st pick (in reality he signed with Braves as an undrafted FA)
• Jake Gustin- Picked with the 431st pick (in reality he went undrafted)