It was kind of frightening to see the MLB draft turn into an off-Broadway version of the NFL draft. Don’t get me wrong; I think MLB needed to do a better job of drawing interest in this process. Once upon a time,  teams announced their No. 1 pick, and then you had to wait several days to find out the names of other draftees. It was a  genuine  Mom & Pop operation. MLB was wasting a chance to market its sport, and create more awareness of young talent, and by extension, the minor leagues.

That said, I don’t know that I wanted to see ESPN barking out instant-analysis verdicts on every pick. I don’t know if I ever want to see the day when Mel Kiper Jr. is screeching about how the  Colorado Rockies reached for  a guy on the 27th pick (or whatever) who was rated No. 45 on his master board. And a lot of the pre-draft coverage bordered on overkill if not hysteria; so many precious words wasted on obscure players that won’t get out of rookie-league ball. I don’t think Patton had advance scouting reports as  comprehensive as this before he led the North African campaign.

There’s a downside to  this  MLB cultural experiment of  hyping of the draft. A punditry is forming.  Draft-day jurists are  lining up to serve as instant experts, and while that is fine, it is imperfect for at least two reasons:

1. No one in the world has any idea if an 18-year-old high school shortstop, taken in the first round, will become the next Barry Larkin, or the next Bien Figueroa. (The reference to the obscure Figueroa  comes to you courtesy of my late-night madness).

2. The fans start believing what the insta pundits say.

 That’s why on Thursday, Cardinals-related boards on STLtoday.com and all over the Internet were popping with anger and frustration and condemnation of the Cardinals’ first-round choice, Pete Kozma, a high-school SS from Oklahoma.

I don’t know how this kid projects. I haven’t the faintest idea of whether this was a good choice or not. While browsing through various opinions on Kid Kozma, I saw him compared to Mark Loretta, Michael Young, Nomar Garciaparra, and David Eckstein. I asked Kozma about himself, and he mentioned something about playing like Omar Vizquel.

Well, that just about narrows it down.  

 I’m sorry for lampooning this, but you have to admit that it’s rather ludicrous to declare instantaneous, emphatic rulings on the quality of a MLB team’s draft. It’s difficult enough  to judge an NFL team’s draft, and players tapped to join the  NFL are, at least in theory, ready to play in the big stadiums  immediately. (And then there is Jimmy Kennedy). The evaluation of baseball players isn’t nearly as clear. It can take years for some of these prospects to wind through the system and into the majors. And a great number of them never come close to reaching The Show. So let’s just relax and see if a guy can play before we conclude that he’s  Albert Pujols or Wilfrido Pujols.  

 I do, however, have a few observations.

First of all, Cardinals VP Jeff Luhnow seemed rather pleased with himself, that he’d gone against conventional wisdom (or at least against conventional opinion) with the Kozma selection. At times Thursday he seemed to be delighting in the fact that none of the pundits made an accurate forecast of the Cardinals’ No. 1 choice. That’s fine, of course. But let’s just hope Luhnow wasn’t being too cute for his own good, trying to prove that he’s the smartest guy in the (draft) room. And this pick  seemingly contradicted Luhnow’s pre-draft claim, made on our 1380-AM radio show, that the Cardinals would go for the “home run” rather than make the “safe” choice at No. 18. Kozma falls into the safe category. At least until he becomes the next Cal Ripken Jr.

Next, it’s interesting that Luhnow and the Cardinals relied on “intangibles” to bolster their confidence  in going with Kozma.  This was an old-school pick, straight out of a scout’s notebook and heart. One of the Cardinals’ scouts (Steve Gossett) got to know Kozma,  and said he liked the look in the player’s eye, and the way the player  carried himself, and his attitude about playing the game.  Luhnow obviously put a lot of faith in Gossett’s instincts. That’s fascinating. Luhnow’s critics, inside and outside  the organization, have ridiculed him as a “Moneyball” clone who can’t see beyond sabermetric calculations. Well, hold off on the stereotyping.  This was closer to a scouting mission from the  pages of “Dollar Sign on the Muscle,” the classic  book on traditional scouting methods written by Kevin Kerrane. I’m not saying that Luhnow is Hugh Alexander or Tom Greenwade, but this was his nod  to  old-school bird-dogging.

Finally: it does appear that the Cardinals took the cheaper route here, despite their claims to the contrary. Kozma was affordable and easily slotted into a price range, unlike, say, any of the highly-regarded prospects being “advised” by uber agent Scott Boras. The Cardinals could have picked the top HS  pitcher in the draft, the heralded and feared Rick Porcello, but  took the Boras bypass and skipped him. Porcello/Boras are said to be seeking $8 million to $10 million  to sign. And that scared teams off, Cardinals included. But why should the money matter? Luhnow said Porcello is a “rare” talent and perhaps the best HS pitcher to be in a draft in two, three years. OK, so if your baseball people make a baseball determination that this kid is truly special, don’t you come up with the money to make him yours?

As I have said many times before, this ownership group has been tremendous for baseball in St. Louis. And before the season, they gave a lot of money to Chris Carpenter in the form of a contract extension in advance of Carp becoming a free agent. That’s good, but; what else does team chairman Bill DeWitt plan to spend money on? Big-time free agents from the outside? Uh, no - but in fairness they did throw a lot of dollars at pitcher Jason Schmidt last offseason, but he opted to sign with the Dodgers. How about re-signing his own free agents? Uh, no. The top players  from Latin America? Not yet, anyway. What about paying Boras dollars for one of the supreme talents in the draft? Uh, no. For all the organization’s talk about putting the emphasis on player development, you’d think the Cardinals would at least be willing to put up the cash money to secure the best potential major-league pitcher in this draft.Maybe the jack will go to Texas outfielder Kyle Russell, who led the NCAA in homers this season. He was drafted later than expected because of his anticipated contract price. Pay the man.

The best we can do, I suppose, is  hope young Pete Kozma is good enough to one day walk from the Cardinals and get a huge  free-agent contract because the Cardinals are too cheap to re-sign him.

-B