You kicked and cried like a bullied child
A grown man of twenty-five
Oh, he said he’d cure your ills
But he didn’t and he never will

Standings as of June 8th, 2005

TEAM               W     L     PCT   GB   2WK		
St. Louis         38    20    .655   --   (8-4)
Chicago           30    27    .526   7.5  (9-4)
Milwaukee         28    30    .483  10    (5-7)
Pittsburgh        27    30    .474  10.5  (8-5)
Cincinnati        22    35    .386  15.5  (4-7)
Houston           21    35    .375  16    (5-5)

There was a bit of movement in the standings, as a winning streak by the Cubs caused them to pass the Brewers to take sole possession of second. They only managed to gain a half-game on the Cardinals, who are chugging right along. Dumping Graves and Jiminez did little for the Reds, as they managed to play even worse over the last 2 weeks than they have all season. At the rate they're going, they should be in last by the time this next report comes out.

Batter's Box has been draft crazy this week,a nd who am I to stop a trend? Let's look at what the teams did during the draft.

The Draft order for the NL Central was as follows:

 5th Brewers
11th Pirates
12th Reds
20th Cubs
24th Astros
30th Cardinals

NL Central teams gained 6 additional picks to compensate them for losing free agents. Four of those six picks went to the Cardinals:

Picks Gained
STL 28th overall from BOS for Edgar Renteria
HOU 38th overall from NYM for Carlos Beltran (comp round)
STL 43rd overall from BOS for Edgar Renteria (comp round)
STL 46th overall from SFG for Mike Matheny
STL 70th overall from SFG for Mike Matheny (comp round)
HOU 89th overall from NYM for Carlos Beltran

Yes, the Cardinals gained two picks in the top 70 for losing Mike Matheny. What are the odds that at least one of these two players will have a single season that is more valuable than the rest of Matheny's career?

Milwaukee lost one of their picks in the draft:

Picks Lost
MIL 53rd overall to OAK for Damian Miller

We're the teams in the NL Central drafting for need, or drafting the best available player? Here are the first position players taken by each team:

MIL -   5th overall - Ryan Braun 3B - INCUMB: Russ Branyan
PIT -  11th overall - Andrew McCutchen CF - INCUMB: Tike Redman
CIN -  12th overall - Jay Bruce CF - INCUMB: Ken Griffey Jr.
STL -  28th overall - Colby Rasmus CF - INCUMB: Jim Edmonds
HOU -  50th overall - Eli Iorg LF - INCUMB: Craig Biggio (1st pick a LHS)
CHI - 130th overall - Dylan Johnston, SS - INCUMB: Nomar Garciaparra (1st three picks Ps)

It's hard to tell from this, particularly since some of those CFs may play other positions in the big leagues. Yes, Eli Iorg is the son of former Blue Jay Garth Iorg.

Here's how the first ten rounds break down for each team:

Picks by Position
    1B 2B 3B SS OF C RHP LHP TOT
MIL  0  0  3  1  1 0   2   2   9
PIT  1  1  0  1  3 0   4   0  10
CIN  0  0  1  1  2 0   5   1  10
CHC  0  0  0  3  0 1   3   3  10
HOU  0  0  2  2  4 1   2   1  12
STL  0  0  0  1  4 2   6   1  14

Picks by Level
   COLP JCP HSP COLPP JCPP HSPP TOT 
MIL   2   0   2     1    1    3   9
PIT   4   0   0     5    0    1  10 
CIN   4   0   2     2    0    2  10
CHC   3   1   2     3    0    1  10 
HOU   1   0   2     5    0    3  12 
STL   5   0   2     4    0    3  14

Notes:

1. In the second chart P stands for pitcher and PP stands for position player.
2. The breakdown between college and junior college is probably not accurate, as I'm not 100% sure which schools are full colleges and which are junior colleges.
3. The Pirates really like their college players. The only highschool pick they took was their 1st rounder.
4. The Astros drafted a kid named Koby Clemens out of highschool in the 8th round.
5. I know most major league 1Bs are drafted at other positions, but I was still surprised that only one of these teams took a 1B in the first ten rounds.
6. Do the Cubs really need pitching that badly?

What are your thoughts about these stats? What do they say about each team's drafting philosophy?