Draft Coverage 2008: How do you pick your team?

With our Draft about 1 week away, a little bit more and recruiting and scouting season now complete, I will gladly explain how I select a team.

It is very simple, I look for a couple of qualities:
1. Character- I would rather have kids with high character than big ego's on the team, and it is hard to tell just by a couple of hours, but believe it or not, some times those teams win big.
2. Parents- The parents can make or break the team, if you have a team of great, supportive parents who get their kids to games and practices on time, it makes a big difference.
3. Skill of the Players- That is right, skill is number 3, I see a lot of coaches who draft on skill first, and then get the hot dawgs on the team, they usually flame out.
4. Emotion- Then I draft on emotion, I know if a kid is good or not, but some choices come right down to whether you like the kid and the kid likes you as a coach, that can make a HUGE impact on their playing and your coaching.

Another question that is asked is how do you build a team? Well this is how I like to build my team:
1st round: Pitcher or Catcher- can hit and field well, rep player
2nd round: Pitcher or Catcher- can hit and field, rep player
The first two picks are going to be the leaders of the team, both on and off the field. Practice is very important, so I want kids that will encourage others to come and will be there themselves.
3rd round: Defensive player- needs to be strong and can play 4 to 5 positions in a game.
4th round: If there are any rep players left, grab them here, if not then you want a decent hitter, one with power but may be rough around the edges.
5th round: A strong offensive player, can bat anywhere from 3rd to 8th in the line-up, and as a bonus can run well.

Repeat in the second half of the draft if needed.

Some teams build their winning on 2 pitchers and hitting, the problem is that pitchers are not always effective and hitters flame out. Defense is usually strong and realisitcally you need 1 Ace pitcher and 5 pitchers that can rotate in and out. On offense, the key is to get base hitters, home runs are nice, but they can not be the basis for an offense, as well small ball is awesome because catcher's make mistakes and runners can easily take advantage of them.

The Mass practice is tomorrow, should be fun. The draft is planned for the following weekend. Talk to you Monday.