Sooooo... We're still on pace to finish with the 4th worst record in baseball (behind the Nationals, Mariners, and Padres respectively.) Hooray for that.  But as we from experience know, with shitty records come some small amount of consolation in the form of a good draft pick.  The draft has been especially kind to us the past 2 years.  With our top picks, we got Buster Posey and our beloved Timmy. This year we have a higher pick than we did in either of those drafts.  Our team has a bit of a problem.  Our major league team and farm system lacks truly good hitting prospects, besides AnVil.  Posey and Sandoval could be good hitters, but not 30-40 homer guys.  But besides AnVil, we have nobody that has a strong chance of becoming a huge impact hitter.  We lack somebody on the Evan Longoria, Ryan Braun, or Matt LaPorta level.  We kind of need one of those to anchor our shitty offense.  And those types of prospects are pretty hard to find, but they're much easier to find when we have a really high draft pick.  But next year's draft class doesn't have too many big hitting 1st/3rd basemen.  BruteSentiment posted this a while back with a list of prospects likely to go high in the draft: http://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2008/8/4/586586/looking-ahead-to-the-2009#comments  On that list I see only one first baseman, a good SS, and a bunch of pitchers.  The first baseman's power potential is limited, the SS will probably get picked before we can get him, and more pitching is always nice but I don't think more pitching will make us successful again.  I think we'll be great on the pitching front if we just wait for one of Tim Alderson or MadBum.  I don't think we can make the playoffs with our joke of an offense, so I think that needs the most attention.

Now to the point of this post.  Could we get our draft pick from one of the 1st rounders this year that don't sign?  There are several 1st rounders this year that could potentially not sign; Pedro Alvarez if he doesn't get the money and major league contract he wants, Eric Hosmer who seems pretty interested in staying in college, and Justin Smoak if he also doesn't get the money and contract he wants.  Should we use our pick on one of them if they don't sign?  They'd all be pretty expensive, as I'm pretty sure they're all Boras clients.  I'd guess the Nats would take Strasburg if they had the 1st pick.  I'm not sure who the M's or Pads would draft, but I'm reasonably sure the Pads are set with Adrian Gonzalez at 1st and Kouzmanoff at 3rd.  They also have Chase Headley for 3B if that doesn't work.  So if Hosmer or Smoak, or perhaps Alvarez are available in the next draft, should we shell out major money and pick one of them?