Well, that happened. Welcome, Joe Panik! Paraphrased from MLB Network:
Where is Joe Panik on our interactive board? Well, we had to go allllll the way to the second or third screen on our doohickey to find him, and ...
That's kind of a bad sign. Thought I do like that his name is Panik -- almost makes up not taking Mike Stanton with the pick received for letting Mike Stanton leave. And as a guy who has to write a lot of headlines, I'm all for this pick.
But what of the other nabobs?
29. SF – Joe Panik, ss, St. John's – Short, compact swing; hard-nosed player profiles at bat-first second baseman; evokes Jed Lowrie comps.
— Baseball America (@BaseballAmerica) June 7, 2011
Hard-nosed is draft code for "no tools." And "toolsy" means "we found this guy catching fish with his bare hands in the Yukon; he's a project." So you really can't win. Everyone in the draft stinks. That's why they aren't playing in the majors right now! It's good to be cynical about scout-speak because everyone is likely to fail.
Yes. Utility infielder. RT @Ciscoskid: @keithlaw Panik was it a reach?
— keithlaw (@keithlaw) June 7, 2011
Well, Mike Fontenot isn't going to play forever, you know. If you can think of a better way to get a utility infielder than be giving up a first-round pick and a million dollars, I'd like to hear it, Mr. Smartypants.
Okay, so it's a little discouraging that Panik was a bit of a reach according to a lot of the pre-draft rankings. But I'm not backing down from my previous writing: I trust the Giants. When the name came up, and I didn't immediately recognize it, I chuckled. It's like it was made to freak out amateur draftniks. Don't care about that. The one first-round bust that the Giants have taken since Lincecum was traded for a championship-winning second baseman. They know more than me.
Man, it's so not fun to write that. Needs more "dummies!" sprinkled in. Maybe some more f-bombs.
If there's one thing that I love about the pick is that we don't have to wait a while to see him. He'll go to the Northwest League, and he'll hit. Or he won't. Much more interesting in the short-term than a high-school kid who goes to instructional league
Welcome, Joe Panik. Love the over-.500 on-base percentage! Love the history of St. John's shortstops on the Giants. Wish you the best.
Also, welcome Kyle Crick!