The Reds picked Alonso at #7 and Beckham went to the Sox at #8. Here’s Goldstein:
Like the Beckham comment, this isn’t necessarily a bad pick, as Alonso had a solid but unspectacular full-season debut, this is more about what could have been: in the hours leading up to the draft, the Reds were torn between Alonso and University of Georgia shortstop Gordon Beckham. Alonso looks like he might be a power/on-base first baseman with problems hitting against left-handers, while Beckham looks like a future star with a chance to be a “face of the franchise”-type of player. So there are no big complaints about what they have, as long as you don’t think about what could have been.
