This was a tough draft to prepare for and an even tougher one to assess. If you listened carefully during the draft, very rarely did anyone say “Nice pick” and usually you can hear that almost every round. With that being said, the best draft of 2021 belongs to (drumroll please)........

COLORADO SPRINGS. B+
Picked up some superb young talent starting with Austin Martin (my guy) and Asa Lacey but then following that with Hancock, Rocker and Marsh. I expect Kim and Tapia to have great years. My only complaint was the lack of attention given to a weak bullpen.
BEST PICK. Tapia (48). WORST. Ginkel (85)

HARLEM. B
Solid draft for a team with few needs. Shored up SS with Abrams and Galvis. Sims pretty much guarantees all Cincy saves. Got some nice young SPs with power arms.
BEST. Mazara (114). WORST. Desclafani (102)

LOUISIANA. B-
Decent draft here. William statistically was the best player available at 3 although I question the wisdom of taking a pitcher in round one. Crochet and Cespedes were good follow-up picks in round two. Stephenson in seven fills a big hole at backup C. Not much was done though to strengthen SP or OF.
BEST. Stephenson (73). WORST. Minter (76)

CALIFORNIA. C+
How does the defending champion end up with the number one overall pick???? THERE OUTTA BE A LAW!!!!! Team has no needs. Made a couple nice additions to rotation. Solid draft but, fortunately for the rest of us, not as good as the CAL GM usually does.
BEST. McGee (49). WORST. France (35)

CHICAGO. C
Set the tone for the “weirdness” of the 2021 draft with the picks of Staumont (10) and Rainey (13). I’m not implying that they are bad players but similar players were going in rounds 6 and 7. Got needed C help but did little to improve the rotation. Decent draft but nothing spectacular.
BEST. Nola (70). WORST. Staumont (10)

MATAWAN C
Did well in finding back-ups at C and SS. Grabbing the two Tigers co-closers was ( pick one - a tremendous move OR a huge mistake). This is the only team that did not draft a SP and he only has 11 on his roster.
BEST Heliot Ramos(79). WORST. Bryan Garcia (55)

BEDSTUY. C
Rookie did OK in his first CJIBL draft considering he was running a restaurant at the same time. Dom Smith was the right choice at two. Next two picks were head-scratchers. Britton (26) was the first cut drafted this year and Gimenez is basically just a body in this league. I might have taken a chance on SD 2B Kim to try and strengthen that position. Bullpen should be better and made a couple nice adds to the rotation.
BEST. Peterson (60). WORST. Britton

INDIANA. C
Seemed to alternate good picks with “not-so-good” ones. Walsh (8) fills a big hole at backup 1B. Wendleken (20) was a big reach. Brujan was followed by Victor Gonzalez (who?) who was followed by Dunning. Attempts to upgrade the bullpen failed.
BEST. Dunning (56). WORST. Wendelken (20)

CONNECTICUT. C-
Pick of Tellez ( a man without a position ) was unexpected especially with all the other team needs. Made good efforts at improving the bullpen but did little to improve weaknesses at 2B, CF and OF.
BEST. Chris Martin (52). WORST. Tellez (4)

MORRIS COUNTY. D+
As I said earlier, I don’t like taking pitchers in round one. Come July, Richard Rodriguez might be pitching the sixth inning in NY. Hopefully the bullpen will be better with Crichton and RRod. Only attempt at improving the rotation (Bassett) was traded away. Not a fan of Dylan Moore or Cronenworth.
BEST. Crichton (47). WORST Rodriguez (11)

FLORIDA. D
SHOULD HAVE PAID MORE ATTENTION TO THE DRAFT AND LESS TO THAT BAG OF CHIPS. MADE FIVE PICKS OF PLAYERS THAT WEREN’T EVEN ON MY 100 PLAYER DRAFTBOARD. MAIKEL FRANCO SERIOUSLY? MIGHT BE TOO FIXATED ON LA DODGERS PROSPECTS BECAUSE BUSCH BARELY MAKES ANY TOP 100 LISTS (BRUJAN AND GONZALEZ ARE BOTH RATED MUCH HIGHER)
BEST. CRON (77). WORST. BUSCH (19)

TOPEKA. F
Every year, I think I have a decent draft but then 12 months or 18 months down the road I realize that it sucked. This year, let’s stop with the BULLXXXX.