We are introducing a new segment to the Blog site today called "Who They Should Have Taken." We will look at a spicific ammy draft and redo the top 10 picks looking at how the players turned out. This segment is a lot of fun for draft junkies like us. We have all taken a chance on a player and had them turn out as a bust. We have also all had a guy turn out better than expected and got lucky. If only we could see into the future, right? Well, today we will re-draft for the top 10 teams with 10 years of forsight while we offer commentary the whole way. We also have a few awards to give out for each draft at the end. Here we go.
Here is the link to the Draft file.
The First Overall Pick
Team: San Francisco Giants
Who they picked: P Josh Beckett
Beckett was the hands down favorite for the top pick. We don't fault the Giants at all. Who doesn't like a hard throwing young pitcher with a 90 FB and 2 other pitches in the 70's? If the giants new on Draft day that Beckett would end up with a career high of 12 wins after playing 8 seasons, things might have gone different.
Who they should have picked: P Zach Grienke
Grienke was picked 2nd by the Phillies and has been to the World Series 4 times. Granted, Philly has a great supporting cast, but he is certainly a big part of the success. Grienke has had 3 seasons with an ERA under 3.00. We feel that the Giants would have been much happier making Grienke their first round pick.
The Second Overall Pick
Team: Philadelphia Phillies
Who They picked: P Zach Grienke
As we just stated priviously, we think Grienke was the best player in this draft as we look back. That is why Philly did great by selecting him 2nd overall and building their rotation with him on board.
Who they should have picked: C Joe Mauer
Since Grienke was taken first overall, the Phillies are left to take C Joe Mauer. If I was to tell you that you could draft a great young catcher with a good bad and great defense, like mauer, and then was to tell you that their would not be a catcher nearly as good as him in a draft for the next decade, you would probably jump all over him. We think that is wise.
The Third Overall Pick
Team: Kansan City Royals
Who they Picked: C Joe Mauer
As we just mentioned, Mauer is great and was a great pick. A certain AL West GM was praying Mauer would fall to #8, and was a bit heated when he did not. In the end, the Royals made a great pick nabbing Mauer so high.
Who they should have taken: P Josh Beckett
Mauer was a great pick, but in our little game he has already been taken. That is why the Royals will settle for Beckett. Beckett would have been a disappointment at #1, where you need to get an ace, but at #3, he is not a horrible find. A career ERA of 3.61 is nothing to gripe at.
The Fourth Overall Pick
Team: Cincinatti Reds
Who they picked: 2B BJ Upton
Upton was a solid pick at 4. He had all of the necessities of a top tier middle infielder. We feel, though, that there are better players on the board. He was a bit of a late bloomer and had a rough first few years.
Who they should have picked: P Brandon Webb
Webb would have been a very solid pick right here. A consistently solid 3 or 4 starter with a career ERA of 4.06 and a winning percentage of .684 and a Cy Young Candidate 2 seasons ago, Webb would have been a great rotation guy for the Reds.
The Fifth Overall Pick
Team: New York Yankees
Who they picked: P Roy Oswalt
It is time for our first award to be handed out...the bust of the draft. When you pick a pitcher 5th overall, you don't expect him to have a career ERA of 4.68 and a losing record. Again, we don't fault the team, we fault the player. Everyone expected Oswalt to be great. Unfortunatley, expectations are sometimes never met.
Who they should have picked: 1B Hank Greenberg
Greenburg tuned out to be a good first basemen who regularly hits 25 or 30 homers a year. That is hard to pass up at this point of the draft. Greenburg would have been a good middle of the lineup guy for the Yankees.
The Sixth Overall Pick
Team: Oakland A's
Who they picked: 1B Hank Greenberg
As we just mentioned, Greenberg has been steady eddie for the A's. They made a great pick nabbing him 6th.
Who they should have picked: 2B BJ Upton
Since Greenberg is gone, the A's take BJ Upton. though he started off slow, Upton has hit .300 or better the last 2 seasons and stole 46 bases last year. He has turned into a very good everyday second baseman now for the Red Sox.
The Seventh Overall Pick
Team: Milwakee Brewers
Who they picked: P Brandon Webb
Webb was a great pick at 7. At the time, Webb was seen as the last of the top tier pitchers in this draft. The Brew Crew did a good thing by nabbing him. the only unfortunate part was that they traded him before he was able to pitch for them.
Who they should have picked: P Scott Shields
Since Webb is gone, Shields is the next best. Shields is almost worth taking just for his stellar rookie season in 2026. Nonetheless, he has been a bit up and down since then, but he has had several good years and now has a career 3.82 ERA.
The Eighth Overall Pick
Team: Texas Rangers
Who they picked: P Scott Shields
Again, Shields turned out pretty good and was a pretty good pick. They too traded him before they new what they had.
Who they should have taken: RP Mike Timlin
Some think taking a reliever this high would be crazy, but timlin turned out to be one of the best. He has won several Fireman awards and is always a candidate. He was drafted by the Rangers later in this draft, and had a lot of good years in the pen before going to Florida, where he continues to pitch well. In a time where good relief help is rare, Timlin would have been a good pick.
The Ninth Overall Pick
Team: Colorado Rockies
Who they picked: P Jason Marquis
Another Candidate for bust of the draft, Marquis has never been confused for a top tier pitcher. A career 4.49 ERA and only 1 season with an ERA under 4.00 is not what you want out of your 9th pick.
Who they should have picked: 1B Justin Morneau
Morneau is a candidate for steal of the draft, having been drafted 19th and has put up very solid numbers as a first baseman. The Rangers may have taken him at 8, but they already had a good first baseman. This allows Morneau to fall to 9th.
The Tenth Overall Pick
Team: Boston Red Sox
Who they picked: P Tomo Okha
Okha has been decent in 2 seasons in the bigs, and was not a bad pick here, but there was someone who turned out to be better.
Who they should have picked: 2B Scott Hairston
Hairston has been a bit streaky in his career, but hitting .330 last season shows what he can do. A great contact style second baseman, Hairston puts a lot of balls in play and has been valuable for his team. The Red Sox would have benefitted from his bat in their lineup.
Draft Awards
Steal of the Draft: RP Michael Tejera
Drafted in the 5th round, he was a very strong Rookie of the Year Candidate and Fireman of the Year Candidate last year (2028). Who would have thought that the A's could get so much for $2?
Bust of the Draft: P Roy Oswalt
As mentioned above, for a guy with such great expectations and the 5th pick, you expect more than an ERA near 5 and a losing record. Oh well, there is one in every draft.
Best Name: Chin Feng Chen
The Brewers picked him in the 3rd...I'm guessing just for his name. Chen still plays for the Brewers AAA affiliate.
Player highlight: 2B Danny Garcia
Selected 21st overall by the White Sox, Garcia only played in the bigs from 2022-2025 hitting .201 in 179 career abs. Garcia, currently out of baseball, has squandered the money received from his first and only big league contract. He is currently an assistant manager at a Chicago Burger King.
Draft Score
This is something I made up to see how well the league did drafting the top 10. Each spot a player was away from our rankings is 1 point. If they draft a guy that we feel is just outside the top 10 we add 5 points, way outside the top 10 we add 10 points. If the bust of the draft was in the top 10, we add 15 points. The lower the score, the better the draft was.
This drafts score was 41. It will be interesting to see as we go on what a good score is.
Fun Facts
Only 7 of 28 1st round picks remain on the team that drafted them.
From the best we can tell, this draft produced 3 firemen of the Year (Timlin, Wheeler, and Williamson), 1 Batting Title (Mauer), and 1 Rookie of the Year (Shields).
3 Championship rings are Represented in the first round (Webb, Timlin, and Mauer)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
I sorta have to disagree that the Reds should have taken Webb. The team had a building rotation already with players like Perry, Nichols, and Joss maturing to join Charlie Hough.
Meanwhile, 2B was an area of need for the team, and Upton has the tools to be a strong infielder. He plays defense, will steal bases, and now - at, what, 25, is looking to become a perennial .300 hitter with constant near-gold glove defense?
To me, a top 5 pitcher is an unqualified ace-type pitcher. I didn't think Webb fit that - and his stats prove that right so far, at least to me a 4.09 ERA isn't ace-level, especially on a high-end team like Texas.
I mean, he's no Jake Peavy or Doug Rau after all..
Our pick was Derek Lowe, and he's doing well now that we traded him off.
Don't really know why he's flourishing in Milwaukee when he floundered in NY.
His numbers for me.
P Derek Lowe
29 - 34 IP 620 ERA 5.12 Exp 9
Jeff
I agree KL. We were not so much looking at need, b/c I am going by memory and dont have rosters from back then, and mainly just ranking the top 10. Upton certainly wasnt a bad pick.
A lot of fun to look at and think about though.
Ok, guys, who is the one guy that you drafted with high hopes but turned into a jobber or never became what you thought he would?
For me its P Doc gooden. I got him in a draft day trade thinking he was going to be my franchise ace. He had 1 or 3 flash in the pan years, and has been an above 4.00 guy the rest of the time.
Who is your bust?
BILL LEE
Worst. Pick. I. EVER. Made.
Period. Full Stop. End of story.
He's so bad that he never flourished anywhere else. What a waste of a draft that was.
Henry Wiggen is up there too (can't remember if I drafted him though).
Danny Almonte didn't get it going either it seemed - at least not for Cincy. Though, I still liked drafting him because of who he was :)
How high did you draft Bill Lee KL?
I believe he was my 1st overall pick.
2008 draft I believe.
FAR cry from Chief Bender to say the least...
If Only I could go back in time and change some of my picks from 2010 and around there. lol Great topic
Post a Comment