Pick 30.14 - 710th Overall

Todd Stottlemyre - ARZ SP
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/stottto01.shtml

And with their last pick in the 2000 Millennium League Initial Player Draft, the Baltimore Stouts select Todd Stottlemyre, starting pitcher, Arizona Diamondbacks.  Hard to believe it, but I'm adding to the rotation with the 710th overall pick.  Not sure what to make of that fact.  Is my rotation that bad?  Probably.  Are other owners asleep at the wheel?  I dunno.  Can Stottlemyre actually help out in 2000?  Absolutely.

Currently, I have three guys pretty well entrenched in the rotation in Appier, Rueter and Estes.  Those guys will go every 5th day barring injury.  I now have five other guys for the remaining two spots.  One will be Jaret Wright, but only for nine starts.  Stottlymyre will help out for sure.  How much depends on how well he's pitching.  While he's not the workhorse he was in the mid-90s, his numbers for 2000 play out better than both Mays and Bere, so he has the opportunity to log a full complement of starts.

And with that, the draft is complete.  Bring on the games.

Pick 26.14 - 627th Overall

Jaret Wright - CLE SP
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/w/wrighja02.shtml

Adding to the rotation with this pick.  Wright only started nine games in 2000, but his ERA is better than both Joe Mays and Jason Bere, and his WHIP of 1.39 is actually the best among the seven starting pitchers on the staff.   His nine starts are nine less I have to throw Mays out there, who is looking more and more like my long reliever this year (remember, he has a phenomenal 2001).

I actually mis-understood our restriction rules a little or my staff might look a little different.  I was under the assumption the starters, and all players for that matter, were restricted to the number of games they actually played in 2000.  Not the case.  Some players are limited if a restriction shows up on their card, as is the case with Wright.  Others are able to start an unlimited number of games, but injury plays a factor.  Their durability rating could come into play at some point during the season.  So a guy like Shawn Green, who played in all 162 games in 2000, will not likely be injured, but somebody like I-Rod, who only played in 91 games, could potentially miss a chunk of the season if he's involved in a bizarre play during a game in which an injury could occur.  I actually like the idea.  Injuries are a part of the game.  Just hope it doesn't bit me with Rodriguez since I don't have a backup catcher yet.

Pick 17.11 - 382nd Overall

Jason Bere - CLE SP
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/bereja01.shtml

As mentioned before, the Stouts are in need of rotation arms.  Having waited until the 9th round to address any pitching whatsoever, we're pretty much left with the scraps at the bottom of the barrel at this point.  In my estimation, the best available guy left was Jason Bere.  While his best years are way behind him, he does provide serviceable starts for the next couple years.  That's what we need at this point.

Bere burst onto the scene in 1993, finishing 2nd in the Rookie-of-the-Year voting that season (Tim Salmon won).  He went 12-5 with a 3.47 ERA that year.  He followed up his outstanding rookie campaign with an All-Star season in 1994, going 12-2 with a 3.81 ERA.  Then the wheels fell off.  Bere lost 15 games in 1995 with a whopping 7.19 ERA in 27 starts.  He came back to start only five games in 1996, compiling a 10.26 ERA.  Not good.  He continued to struggle for the remainder of the decade.

In 2000, Bere started 31 games, the most games up to that point in his career.  While his 5.47 ERA was nothing to write home about, the fact that he was able to take the ball for each turn was something of a victory considering he had just spent the past four season battling injury.  In 2001, he was shipped to the Cubs and had a solid season, starting 32 games with a 4.31 ERA, striking out 175 in 188 innings.  Unfortunately, just as he was seemingly getting his career back on track, injuries hit him again in 2002 and he was out of baseball by 2004.

For our purposes here, Bere fills out the five-man rotation.  I'll try to add a couple more pieces for spot starts in the next few rounds.  All five guys in the rotation come back in 2001 with better seasons, so all we'll be looking to do next year is look for upgrades if possible.