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Saturday, June 02, 2018
Draft history is fascinating, and maybe the first thing you learn when looking through past drafts is not just how few players make the majors but also how few end up contributing much value beyond replacement level even if they do make it. Drafting a future star is rare—even in the first round. Drafting a solid contributor is rare—even in the first round. Drafting two solid contributors in one draft is rare. It’s a roll of the dice, yet the future success of your favorite team depends to a large degree on its ability to draft well.
Let’s take a snapshot of all 30 teams, looking at their best first-round pick since the draft began in 1965, a late-round gem (10th round or later) and one who got away (a player they drafted but failed to sign).
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1. Pat Rapper's Delight (as quoted on MLB Network) Posted: June 02, 2018 at 01:57 PM (#5684538)The A's one who got away is lame since they drafted Hudson again after college.
As #1 suggests, a 4th category of "D'oh!" for "they coulda drafted X" for missing first-rounders who made a fairly immediate impact ... of course we'd have to set aside Trout who would be the answer for most teams. But something like Frank Thomas for the Rangers. I suppose you still have to put some thought into that one to make it interesting and a different player for each team. Can't do it by just paging through b-r's team draft pages. :-)
I think the Mets classic is Reggie Jackson. They had the first pick in the draft in 1966. They went with Steve Chilcott, a catcher who never made the majors. Reggie went number 2.
EDIT: The SABR bio has a much better explanation of why Seaver's contract was voided.
It sounds like there was a basis for saying that Atlanta's signing was illegal, although there's an argument to be had about whether "exhibition games," as the wikipedia article says, really count as the season being "underway". One wonders why Atlanta jumped the gun, would he have gone back into the June draft pool if left unsigned? Seaver was taken in the January draft, which was not really meant for active college players. Since Seaver was a senior graduating the spring, one also wonders why he was in the January draft pool in the first place, instead of waiting until June. He was drafted in 1965 but didn't sign, so I guess they just dumped him into the next draft? Another though - it's not at all clear that he was intending on playing in the 1966 USC season, in fact it seems he wasn't since he tried to rejoin the team after his signing was voided and it's mentioned that he didn't participate in any of their games to that point - so why didn't the league take this into account? Was he considered on active player on the USC team just because he was enrolled?
#triggered
Indeed. The one and only.
They passed on a great athlete, not just great baseball player:
Link
The longest homer I've ever seen was a Thomas blast in college. Picture the Big Hurt using an aluminum bat ...
From that link:
"Not getting drafted out of high school was the worst moment of my life at that time because I knew that I was much better than pretty much half that draft," Thomas said. "It was a lot of guys I played with in high school. A lot of guys got drafted. I want to say seven, eight, nine guys got drafted, and I felt like I was the best player in the state. Most of the scouts played it off, 'Oh, you're just a football player playing baseball.' I took it serious because I knew what I had to give for baseball. They could have signed me out of high school for a dozen baseballs and a couple fungos. I was taking it hard because I wanted to play baseball. .
Frank Thomas was everyone's one that got away.
Not even close. In 1988, the Dodgers used their first round pick and 5th overall on Bill Bene. 10-7 with an ERA over 5 in 3 years at UCLA. His last year in college, he had a K/9 of 8.1 which was offset by his BB/9 of 9.2 (not a typo). His minor league career was the stuff of legend and played out pretty much like you'd expect.
I think that would be Mike Piazza.
Is Thomas the best player of the draft era to be passed on out of high school?
If teams believe that a player intends to go to college, that will really dissuade teams from picking you. Sure, it often happens that some team will draft you in the 20th round and give it a shot, but a lot of times they won't bother.
I knew a kid in the 1990s, left handed pitcher, threw in low 90s, who should have been drafted. But he told the scouts not to bother, he was going to college. He ended up not being drafted. I'm not an expert scout with the frame of reference to know where he should have been picked, but his teammate, who was nowhere near as good, did get drafted in the first 5 rounds. So I'm pretty sure the kid should have been drafted had he been interested.
The Braves passed on Todd Van Poppel with the first pick partly because he was definitely going to college. He ended up signing with the A's instead of going to college, and the Braves got stuck with Chipper Jones.
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