5th - David Banuelos, RH catcher. More of a Steve Baron than an Adam Moore. I’m allowed to hate drafting system catchers in the 5th who are trying to get their offense up to barely passable, right? David Banuelos is a Junior, too, so he doesn’t even come senior cheap. He's a very good defensive catcher with a strong arm, and apparently works with his pitching staff well (although if the was a good defensive catcher that did not work with them well it would be earth-shaking news that anyone admitted it). I'm gonna go with MLB.com's statement about him as a potential "high-OBP catcher with power" being a rather hyperbolic statement. He has a really good arm, built heavy. Swing is flat and fine, but... I dunno, I think Callis had a Rene Rivera comp and that sounds about right. Now Rivera has spent a lot of time as a pro, and Banuelos may too. Most of the system catchers are aging out, though, with some of them being positional conversions like Littlewood. Gotta get catchers who can help grow the young pitchers on the farm.
I just don't like doing it with 5th round picks that are probably priced higher than they're worth. Maybe he turns into Dan Wilson in a few years and we're crowing about this pick. With Seattle's catching luck, though, I'm having trouble seeing it even with teal-colored glasses.