Dawson thought his time was sufficient, considering he was still wearing a protective knee brace. But he was not invited back by the Royals and decided to enroll at Florida A&M, from which he was taken by the Montreal Expos in the 11th round of the 1975 draft.

And his knees never bothered him again.

and do not forget UL Washington!

UL always gets overlooked but he's probably the most successful story from the Royals Academy. Frank White and Ron Washington at least played ball in high school. UL Washington AFAIK was a football player who was fast and joined the Royals Academy because his brother urged him to and learned to play a competent shortstop. That was kind of the point of the Academy - to turn non-baseball players into baseball players.

Hall of Famer Andre Dawson was almost a Royal

I know Francoeur is struggling to get his OBP to .300 again but this would have been rather extreme.

11th round of the 1975 draft.

Pretty good pick there. :-)

He was the 250th pick. Needless to say, he has the most WAR of any #250 ever. #2 is Kevin Kobel with 2.2 WAR. That's it for positive WAR. Only 4 have ever made the majors.

#402 has Pujols and John Lowenstein and 2 other positive WAR players.

Tim Lincecum is, by far, the greatest 1408th pick in the history of the MLB draft. Justin Atchley (0.0 WAR) is the only other big leaguer taken 1408th.