2009 Player Draft Position Watch: 5 games to go

First, sorry guys and gals, but I've been busy with work. Still got the August PQS to do and September (and season's) almost over...

One thing I've been watching is where the Giants will get to draft in 2009. For a while there in July, it looked like the Giants would get another Top 5 pick. For a while in the past week or so, it looked like we could fall out of the Top 10.

Currently, the Giants have the 7th pick of 2009. Atlanta is just ahead of them in 6th, half a game "ahead". That's likely the best they can do, as #5 Baltimore is a cushy 3 games "ahead" with 5 left to play. It would take their resurgence and the Giants collapse to do that. I would rather not see that, I want a nice 3 game sweep of the D-gers, I want to humiliate them, I want them to see their playoff chances die on the field in front of us (however, they have a cushy 3 game lead with 5 left too, over the D-backs, which requires the D-backs to grow a pair suddenly).

The Giants can still fall further back in the draft. They are slightly ahead of the Tigers and the Royals, 1.5 games for both of them. That would push the Giants to 9th in the draft. And Colorado is only 2.0 games back, which would push the Giants to 10th, but with the 11th pick of the draft because the Nats gets pick 9A to replace their 2008 pick since Aaron Crow did not sign. There is a very outside chance that the Giants could fall behind the Reds, who is 4 games back - each would have to win and lose, respectively, all the rest of their games. The magic number for guaranteeing at least the 12th pick overall is one game, either a loss by the Giants or a win by the Reds.

Overall, the Giants look like they are most likely going to get a pick from 6th to 9th overall. Not great position, but there is a chance that a well regarded player with signability (or other) issues will fall to the Giants again. That's how we got Lincecum and Posey, and was slated by draft experts to have a chance for Wieters in 2007 except that the Orioles dashed those plans (I'll forgive them for now since they draft Matusz in 2008 and allowed us to get Posey; if he develops into a good MLB starter, then I'll forgive them fully, but no need for Posey to outdo Wieters, though I wouldn't mind that at all). And I wonder how many teams today wouldn't mind having Bumgarner instead of the guy they selected ahead of us.