As expected, the 2009 draft offered a lot of surprises. For the most part, all of the players that went in the first round were all rumored to be considered as first-round picks, but a few went higher, and a few others went lower, than initially expected.

Tony Sanchez, the Pirates’ first-round pick, received the most initial criticism, and will continue to be under scrutiny by the Pirates’ fans. It’s hard to blame them, since the Pirates have made some costly bad decisions on draft day, from Bryan Bullington (over B.J. Upton) to Daniel Moskos (over Matt Wieters). After dealing with the negotiation headaches that Pedro Alvarez provided a year ago, it’s no surprise that Sanchez is already signed and ready to begin his professional career.

That isn’t to take anything away from Sanchez, a fine overall catcher who enjoyed a great junior year for Boston College. He was considered a legitimate first-round pick, one that was thought to go anywhere from the early teens to the end of the first frame. If he does pan out he’s going to help the Pirates re-gain some much needed credibility. If he doesn’t, it may signal that the team is back to their old ways, ways that have led to a series of bad decisions and losing seasons.

As I often argue, it’s alright if you pass on players that many consider to be the better pick, as long as you take the right player.

While the Sanchez pick was somewhat expected, having been rumored as a possibility for over a week, the next pick by the Orioles was a true surprise when they took the national high school Gatorade player of the year, Matt Hobgood. Again, I don’t mean to criticize the player, but the Orioles, like the Pirates, have been haunted by some pretty bad picks. They have turned things around in recent years, largely due to the fact that they haven’t been opposed to spending a lot of money on their early, premium picks. A little bit of luck doesn’t hurt, most notably having Matt Wieters fall to their pick two years ago.

They still have a lot of work to do, and while things appear to be headed in the right direction (on the farm at least, not at the big league level), picks like the ones used to take Hobgood need to prove the doubters wrong and not the other way around.

With that, here is a baker’s half-dozen of teams whose drafts stood out the most to me, while adding the usual disclaimer that no draft can be graded right after it happened, much less a year or two afterwards.

Arizona Diamondbacks
The D-Backs loaded up on impact bats, particularly to address their needs on the corners, highlighted by arguably the two best prep power bats available: Bobby Borchering and Matt Davidson. Marc Krauss and Ryan Wheeler add to the corner bat focus, with both having some experience at third base, but both whose tools are more likely to settle in at first base or in left field. A.J. Pollock offers more versatility and it will be interesting to see where and how Arizona has him progress.

Chris Owings gives the club a potentially solid offensive threat at a premium position (shortstop). Mike Belfiore was the one power arm of note the team took with their early picks, and it remains to be seen whether he can be groomed as a starter, although he does have the added value of being a potential two-way threat.

Late round value/sleeper: 13th rounder Patrick Schuster created headlines this spring by tossing four consecutive no-no’s. However, 12th rounder Charles Brewer from UCLA is the pitcher who has my eye. He didn’t live up to lofty expectations at college, and he doesn’t have great stuff, but he has a good enough overall repertoire that I could see him turning his fortunes around as a professional.

Cincinnati Reds
Many of the teams on this list showed an early preference either one way or the other, trying to address obvious needs on either the mound or at the plate, and while the Reds took two promising arms with their first two picks in Mike Leake (who many said as the draft approached was a legitimate top 10 pick if he were two inches taller) and Brad Boxberger, I enjoyed the fact that they mixed it up a little by the style of pitchers and the other hitters added in the early rounds.

Billy Hamilton is an exciting, potential five-tool prospect that will need some time and patience to develop. Mark Fleury and Josh Fellhauer offer more polish as a pair of left-handed hitters, one a slugging catcher, the other a gap hitting centerfielder.

Late round value/sleeper: If the team is able to steer either Deven Marrero (17th round) or Stephen Perez (18th) away from college (Arizona State and Miami respectively), they will add yet another exciting shortstop to their system, one that has had difficulties finding one since Barry Larkin retired. If not, 13th rounder Nick Christiani is my sleeper pick, a righty that offers solid value with good size and solid stuff.

Colorado Rockies
Much of the success of their draft hinges on whether or not they can sign prep lefty Tyler Matzek, who fell to the 11th overall selection since the teams in between the Rockies and Nationals didn’t feel comfortable signing him before the August 17th deadline. If they don’t get him signed, and for now I’m going to assume there is no reason why they won’t if they took the chance to begin with, you can quickly remove the Rockies from this list.

That isn’t to say they didn’t have other interesting draft picks. Rex Brothers, a player many, including myself, thought could be a legitimate choice for the 11th pick prior to draft day, fell to their sandwich pick. Sacramento State toolsy outfielder Tim Wheeler brings an exciting blend of power and speed to the system, while slugging third baseman Nolan Arenado was added in round two. A trio of proven college hitters, Ben Paulsen, Kent Matthes and Joe Sanders, were added in rounds three through five, and should add to the already impressive boost to the system.

Late round value/sleeper: Luck hasn’t been on the side of ninth-rounder, LHP Wes Musick, but I still like the way he is capable of pitching. 12th rounder Jared Clark has been one of the more reliable run producers in college baseball in recent years, including his tear for Team USA after joining the club mid-summer.

Minnesota Twins
Similar to the Rockies taking Matzek, picking up Kyle Gibson with the 22nd overall selection was an impressive step for the seemingly cost-conscious Twins. They will have the benefit of following him this summer, although probably not until late July and into August, to determine if they want to invest the money necessary to get him in the fold as a player that just a couple of weeks before the draft was considered a legitimate top five to 10 overall pick.

Like Matzek, that is a risky proposition for the Twins, but they complemented the selection with a few other polished college arms such as lefty Matt Bashore and righties Billy Bullock, Ben Tootle and Brad Stillings.

While they focused on pitching early, and didn’t take a clear-cut impact bat, they did take a pair of polished, pure hitters in the form of hometown talent Derek McCallum and Miami’s Chris Herrmann, two of my favorite hitting sleepers in the entire draft. They also took LSU’s Blake Dean in the 10th round, a pick that I’m sure will continue to confound statheads.

Late round value/sleeper: 19th rounder John Stilson and 24th rounder Mario Hollands may be the team’s backup plan(s) if they are unable to sign Kyle Gibson.

Seattle Mariners
Dustin Ackley seemed to be a no-brainer to most at the number two spot, although Mariners fans will have to be patient as it likely will take until August 17 for him to sign. Nick Franklin, the second of the team’s first-round picks, offered more of a surprise, but even he was a player that was gaining more and more momentum towards the first-round as the spring progressed. With Ackley and Franklin alone, the team added two very well-rounded players that can hit, play the game with ease and have good heads on their shoulders.

They added Ackley’s teammate, Kyle Seager in the third round, and one of the college game’s most feared sluggers, Rich Poythress, with their second round pick. A rock behind the plate, Steve Baron, was the team’s sandwich rounder pick. The Ms took a positional player with their first five picks, and a two-way talent with their next, Long Island’s James Jones.

Late round value/sleeper: The eighth and ninth rounds aren’t exactly considered the later rounds, but I really like Jimmy Gilheeney and Trevor Coleman here. Both may not have the highest upsides, but both are stronger bets to at least contribute at the big-league level some day, even in complementary roles.

Texas Rangers
Matthew Purke and Tanner Scheppers offer more upside than the Nationals one-two pick punch of Stephen Strasburg and Drew Storen. Scheppers does have more risk associated with him. While he was given a clean bill of health, there is no way he fell to the 44th overall pick if team’s weren’t still concerned about his future health. Regardless, both he and Purke at their best are tough to beat. They added a few more power arms in the early rounds in Robbie Erlin, Andrew Doyle and Nicholas McBride.

The team took a short break drafting pitchers when they selected Tommy Mendonca in the second round, who could be the organization’s best defensive third baseman in a long, long time, at least since Steve Buechele from the early 90s, and Mendonca offers a lot more power potential. Speaking of former Rangers, Ruben Sierra’s son, Ruben Jr., is a nice addition as a sixth rounder.

Late round value/sleeper: If the team can sign 14th rounder Chad Bell to the system, they could see him move fairly quickly to the big-leagues. The crafty lefty commands the zone well with a solid three-pitch arsenal.

Toronto Blue Jays
The Blue Jays got good value with several of their early picks, and added a taste north of the border in the process. First rounder Chad Jenkins was rumored to go as high as 10th overall to the Nats, but when he slid past them he lasted to the Jays at 20. James Paxton and Jake Eliopoulos are are both lefties from Canada, Paxton via the University of Kentucky. Paxton enjoyed a big bump in draft status this spring by touching 98 early in the year. They both have live arms and we all know how much the Blue Jays love left-handed pitching. Bulldog prep righty Jason Barrett has power stuff and approach and gives the team four promising arms from the first three rounds.

Toolsy outfielder Jake Marisnick is a nice score in the third round for a team that focused on pitching early.

Late round value/sleeper: If the team can find a way to sign 18th rounder Daniel Webb, who entered the spring as a potential first-round pick, they will have a really nice pitching haul on paper.

The thoughts and opinions listed here do not necessarily reflect those of Perfect Game USA. Patrick Ebert is affiliated with both Perfect Game USA and Brewerfan.net, and can be contacted via email at pebert@brewerfan.net.